St. Louis Symphony Orchestra receives grant to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts

(July 12, 2021, St. Louis, MO) – The League of American Orchestras has awarded a $19,500 grant to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to strengthen its institutional understanding of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and to help transform organizational culture. Given to 25 orchestras nationwide, the one-year grant comprises the final round of The Catalyst Fund, the League’s three-year, $2.1 million grant-making program, made possible by a generous grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with additional support from the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation.

“American orchestras have made a strong commitment to embrace equity, diversity, and inclusion and reverse decades of inequity on-stage and off–an imperative made even more urgent by the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on communities of color,” said Simon Woods, the League’s President and CEO. “This is a long-term journey, but it starts with taking immediate action and creating organizational momentum. We’re grateful for The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s long-standing support for the orchestral field, and for the strategic vision that has allowed this group of orchestras to model what change looks like for our entire field through their Catalyst Fund grants.”

The grant will support the SLSO’s ongoing EDI work. In 2015, SLSO President and CEO Marie-Hélène Bernard led work to create an EDI roadmap for the SLSO, including it as a key component in the SLSO’s 2016-2021 strategic plan. Recently, the SLSO created an internal EDI task force and provided training for musicians, staff, and board members.

The Catalyst Fund has made a strong impact on the field, with several orchestras receiving multiple grants over three years to sustain their work, including the SLSO. Since its launch in 2019, 76 Catalyst Fund grants were awarded to 49 orchestras of all sizes and types, each demonstrating a strong commitment and dedication to EDI work and an increased awareness that systemic change requires a sustained effort over time. More than 80 percent of first-year grantees reported making either policy or programming changes as a result of their funded work, with most engaging musicians and board members alongside staff.

EDI practitioners are central to The Catalyst Fund grant program, helping orchestras implement a range of organizational development activities involving musicians, staff, board, and, in some cases, volunteers and community leaders. These include anti-bias trainings, institutional audits, the creation of formal EDI plans, and work to build consensus and integrate EDI into mission statements and culture. Community building is also a key component of the program; The Catalyst Fund Learning Cohort, made possible by the generous support of the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, enables past and present grantees to interact with colleagues through remote and (pre-pandemic) in-person convenings, peer learning, and a dedicated web-based forum.

League member orchestras were eligible to apply for Catalyst Fund grants; applications were reviewed by an independent panel of EDI experts and practitioners in the arts and orchestral fields.