Who Owns Culture? Questions and Answers From a Kelly Strayhorn Symposium
Panelists from “Transformative Operational Practices” discuss innovative working and programmatic models within BIPOC-led cultural institutions at “Owning Our Future: A Symposium on BIPOC Institutional Ownership,” presented by Kelly Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburgh in May. (Photo by Mark Simpson)
As theatres across the country face financial uncertainty due to shifts in cultural attitudes and legal challenges to arts funding, last spring the team at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburgh hosted a symposium called “Owning Our Future: A Symposium on BIPOC Institutional Ownership.” BIPOC arts administrators from across the country were invited to raise (and hopefully answer) timely questions about cultural ownership and the future. Mingsi Ma, marketing specialist at the Kelly Strayhorn, shares her perspective on the symposium and imagines a future when community ownership of the arts goes beyond physical space.
By Mingsi Ma
In May 2025, Kelly Strayhorn Theater (KST) presented “Owning Our Future: A Symposium on BIPOC Institutional Ownership,” bringing together visionary leaders from across the country in art, activism, urban planning, philanthropy, and government to envision a future for BIPOC-led cultural spaces. We built the symposium around a few central questions: What does it mean to own a BIPOC institution financially, operationally, and physically? And how can we think beyond brick-and-mortar spaces to the point where our communities own their culture, ideas, and bodies? In other words, what does cultural ownership mean to us?
“Owning Our Future” was the culmination of so much that KST has been working toward, especially in connecting cultural institutions to national movements, including Black institutional ownership and the Land Back movement. It explores more deeply how ownership enables BIPOC-led organizations to operate more equitably and impactfully with their communities. The themes at the heart of the symposium are as urgent now as they were during the pandemic, when the country was reckoning with racial injustice—a reckoning that remains unresolved.
Keynote speaker and cultural strategist Lisa Yancey opened the symposium with a powerful address underlining the interconnectedness of cultural and economic strategies as well as the economic value of investing in culture. Panel discussions such as “Transformative Operational Practices: Building Collaborative and Adaptive Organizational Structures,” “Envisioning The Future: Designing Community-Centric Spaces for Cultural Empowerment,” and more were designed to open our minds to diverse forms of artistic programs, community engagement, and civic empowerment.
Keynote speaker Lisa Yancey encouraged the audience to break into groups and imagine together what Pittsburgh will look like in 2040 at “Owning Our Future: A Symposium on BIPOC Institutional Ownership,” presented by Kelly Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburgh in May. (Photo by Beth Barbis)
It was uplifting to see people across the country coming together in our beloved theatre to share their experiences and to look beyond traditional artistic programming strategies, within and outside of the physical confines of a cultural space. Lara M. Evans from First Peoples Fund at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation showed how they support Indigenous communities by consulting the people they serve to determine their programming. Representatives from Pittsburgh’s 1Hood Media discussed how they chose to launch a 501(c)(4) arm of the organization in order to add civic and political engagement to their already strong suite of community and media programs.
Other highlights included a specific focus on successful financial models. We heard from experts like Darren Isom from The Bridgespan Group, which provides management consulting to nonprofits and philanthropists. In his remarks, Isom shared how endowments can be used as tools to achieve bold goals, address new social challenges and advance racial equity. Architect Allan Co from Crescere Collaborative was also on hand, inspiring the audience with ideas on how to evolve beyond physical space with community-based approaches to property ownership and redevelopment. In a true cross-sector conversation, the symposium culminated with a compelling keynote from Busboys and Poets founder Andy Shallal, who talked about the alchemy of restaurants, bookstores and community gathering places.
Panelists from “Radical Financial Innovation” answering questions at “Owning Our Future: A Symposium on BIPOC Institutional Ownership,” presented by Kelly Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburgh in May. (Photo by Mark Simpson)
While the symposium is over, we take it as the starting point as we look ahead to the future, recognizing an impending shift in the cultural landscape. Specifically for KST, the lease on our century-old neighborhood home at 5941 Penn Ave. will come to an end in 2029, with no option to renew or purchase. While we grieve the loss of this beloved community anchor, we also celebrate the profound opportunity it presents: the chance to create a 21st century theatre that enables BIPOC communities’ cultural ownership. We are keen on finding another home in the East End of Pittsburgh, continuing our mission to provide a home for creative experimentation, community dialogue, and collective action rooted in the liberation of Black and queer people.
When we created our strategic direction, “Owning Our Future, Thriving Where We Live” in 2021, we boldly pictured what a day at the future KST will look like:
Community members rooted in East Liberty for generations find a place to sit and chat in the harvest-abundant KST community garden, pedestrians stopping for a drink at the beloved theatre’s coffee shop and gallery. Dancers are leaving KST rehearsal studios with towels in hand. Their residence with saunas, gym, acupuncture and massage studios—all open to local communities as well—is just around the corner at a KST-owned building.
For the symposium, the Kelly Strrayhorn lobby was transformed into a performance and communal space, echoing our vision of cultivating a sense of belonging and creating a “home” for the community. (Photo by Beth Barbis)
One of the keywords that appeared many times throughout the symposium is “reimagine.” It often stems from contexts where historically underserved communities, particularly communities of color, experience cultural displacement and disinvestment. Still, now is the opportunity to reimagine a more just future where everyone has the opportunity to bring their perspectives to the table and embrace our body, mind and soul, which define our culture. We write our culture with the arts, and it is now time to reimagine institutional and cultural ownership.
To continue the impact on KST’s “Owning Our Future” symposium, keynote speeches and panel discussions available for rewatch on YouTube. The Livestream Recording Pass is Pay What Moves You from $15-$75.