More Chicago arts orgs agree to share diversity data following WBEZ/Sun-Times survey

New data provided by three major arts groups show some progress diversifying staff, boards and programs, though leaders say more needs to be done.

The Joffrey Ballet, Chicago Architecture Center and Goodman Theatre agreed to share diversity data with WBEZ and the Sun-Times after initially declining or not responding to requests.

Last year, WBEZ/Sun-Times surveyed the largest arts, culture and humanities nonprofits about the diversity of their boards and full-time staff in 2021 and 2025. We wanted to measure progress five years after the murder of George Floyd, which prompted many of Chicago’s prominent institutions to pledge to challenge racial discrimination, diversify their programming and add more people of color to staff and leadership roles. Participants were asked to provide examples about programming that represents audiences of color.

The 20 organizations surveyed were selected based on revenue listed on ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer database as of August 2025. Chicago Public Media, the owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ, was also asked to participate in the survey.

People of color make up more than two-thirds of the city’s population, with Black and Latino people representing 26% and 30% of residents, respectively, according to the 2024 American Community Survey. Yet our findings last year showed that many of the city’s largest arts groups don’t have boards or staff that reflect city demographics.

The same is true for Joffrey Ballet and Goodman Theatre, which reported majority white boards and full-time staff. A standout is the Chicago Architecture Center, which has the most diverse board among all survey respondents so far. People of color account for more than half its members. The organization also nearly doubled the number of people of color on its full-time staff.

And there was other progress to report. These groups also showed impact through programming that reflects the diversity of Chicago.

In November, for example, the Joffrey Ballet presented “Matters of the Heart,” which featured works by female choreographers of color. When hundreds of Chicago Public School students were invited to attend a show for free, they were enthralled by the diverse group of dancers, said Greg Cameron, Joffrey’s president and chief executive officer. “You could have heard a pin drop.”

All three institutions say they plan to forge ahead with their diversity, equity and inclusion plans and programming, even as the Trump administration criticizes and cuts arts funding for such efforts. Both the Chicago Architecture Center and the Joffrey Ballet lost grants from the National Endowment for the Arts last year. The Joffrey also said it declined a $60,000 grant from the federal agency that required it to forgo its DEI commitments. And each organization has kept its DEI language on its website.

“There is no world in which we would ever retreat from those values or commitments,” said John Collins, executive director of the Goodman Theatre. “We'll just have to be prepared to weather the storm. Frankly, if all of the people who have invested in us, who have trusted us, who have spent their money to come here, if they saw us start to retreat from those values, that's where the real risk of damage to the Goodman would have been.”

Organizations report some progress

When WBEZ/Sun-Times conducted the survey last year, the Chicago Architecture Center said it was unable to meet the four-week deadline. The Goodman Theatre said it did not immediately see the requests to complete the survey, and the Joffrey Ballet declined without reason.

“It wasn't because there was anything that anybody was trying to hide,” Cameron said. “There are so many surveys that we are bombarded with from funders, national organizations and students doing research projects. And I think there was just a feeling that, ‘We'll take a breather on this one.’”

Each organization has made a public diversity commitment. As part of its “Joffrey for All” initiative, the Joffrey Ballet promises to create a “welcoming and accessible” environment. The Chicago Architecture Center pledges to remove recruitment, retention and advancement “barriers” for staff from underrepresented groups. And the Goodman Theatre has set specific goals to increase diverse representation on its board and creative teams.

Between 2021 and 2025, The Goodman Theatre and the Joffrey Ballet each increased the share of people of color on its boards. While the Chicago Architecture Center did not track board diversity in 2021, it reported a leading rate of 51% for board members of color in 2025.

Reporting by WBEZ/Chicago-Sun-Times in 2025 found that Latino representation is overwhelmingly low on the boards of Chicago's top culture groups. The Joffrey was an outlier, more than doubling the number of its Latino board members between 2021 and 2025.

All of the organizations say they are strengthening board recruitment efforts by empowering governance committees or probing community networks.

But finding the right fit takes time, Cameron said.

“It’s a priority for the Joffrey to see its board change,” he said. “There are lots of people that love the Joffrey, but they’re not interested in putting in the hard work and the commitment to being a board member.”

When it comes to diversifying staff, the Goodman and Chicago Architecture Center said that the share of people of color in full-time positions increased. (The Goodman was not able to provide demographic data specifically for full-time employees in 2021, but did share 2020 data.) The Chicago Architecture Center doubled the number of Black employees and added multiple Latino employees.

The Joffrey Ballet reported a minor decrease in its share of people of color on its full-time staff. Cameron said the pace of diversifying staff has slowed in part because many employees have remained in their roles for years. The group looks to a fellowship program to help identify and develop diverse candidates for future positions in arts management.

The Goodman Theatre said it is also taking steps to ensure its organization can be a place where employees of color can thrive.That means providing implicit bias training, teaching about microaggressions, and constantly soliciting feedback, Collins said. Many of these efforts were put into place following the murder of George Floyd and subsequent demand for more equity from theater artists of color across the country.

“To receive that feedback, we needed to take a moment and make sure that we did not immediately become defensive,” Collins said. “That was how we met that moment: trying to be open and honest with ourselves and really hold up that mirror, and bring some artists into a conversation about what their experiences here had been, and letting them be part of a solution. We're much more aware of who's around the table when decisions are being made.”

Programs support youth, empower residents

Leaders of all three groups said they are doing more to reflect and engage audiences of color, from panels hosted by the Chicago Architecture Center that teach residents how to repurpose buildings in their neighborhoods to Joffrey’s “Matters of the Heart” program last fall featuring works by female choreographers of color.

The architecture center’s new Chicago Community Planning Academy educates participants on city planning, real estate finance and housing development, and instructs them on how to improve the quality of life in their communities. The pilot cohort was 60% African American and 20% Latino.

“I always want people to think of the Chicago Architecture Center as a resource for anything that they need in their community as it relates to architecture, but also [to show] the impact design has on their community,” said Simone Edwards, who is the organization’s chief financial officer.

The Joffrey forged ahead with its annual “Winning Works” program again last year, despite losing a $20,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant that supported it. For more than 15 years, the Joffrey Ballet has presented the program highlighting choreography from African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, and Native American artists who have been “historically excluded” from ballet. The program – returning in March – is evolving to also reflect and represent diversity of gender and age, the LGBTQ+ community and those who are disabled.

“We really want to show the broadest sense of what diversity, equity and inclusion looks like,” Cameron said.

The Goodman is also working to expand its diversity programming, offering everything from stage productions like "Fat Ham" ("Hamlet" reimagined in the Deep South) and "Lucha Teotl" (co-produced with the Chicago Latin Theater Alliance) to free workshops for teens that are now offered year-round.

In January, a diverse group of young people gathered at the theater for a playwriting workshop taught by playwright-in-residence Lachrisa Grandberry. They were instructed to stand by the theater’s floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking North Dearborn Street and watch as people walked by. They also studied artists eating in the building’s busy dining hall. They used their observations to sketch out scenes, monologues and dialogue.

“It inspired me a lot,” said Sanya Agarwal, 13, who is in the 8th grade at Scullen Middle School in Naperville. “I was kind of nervous at first, but I had a really fun time. It’s good to get out of your comfort zone.”

Justice Smith, 11, of West Town, attended the class with his mother.

“I would recommend it because, on each occasion that I come here, it's a fun class and there are different things that you can learn,” said Smith, a 7th-grader who is homeschooled.

Though she is the instructor, Grandberry said she also learns from the students.

“Coming to the Goodman – this beautiful building in Downtown Chicago – and knowing that what's in there is also available to me, and I get to go in there and learn, I think they need that.” After all, she said, as a teen, “I needed that.”