Frantz Fanon
“In the World through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself.”
ABOUT US
Cuyler Consulting, LLC
Antonio Cuyler
Cuyler Counsulting Roundtable
Culyer Consulting Workshop
PURPOSE
WE partner with cultural organizations to support them in maximizing their performance and community relevance through access, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI).
Vision
WE envision a world where anti-oppressive and people-centered cultural organizations play an active role in the creative justice of the culturally, continuously, and historically marginalized and oppressed. We define creative justice as the manifestation of all historically and continuously discriminated against, marginalized, oppressed, and subjugated peoples living creative and expressive lives on their own terms.
Theory of Change
WE believe that discrimination, marginalization, oppression, and subjugation have negatively impacted cultural organizations’ performance and community relevance costing them millions if not billions in annual revenue. With rigorous evidence-based coaching and education, cultural organizations can transform into anti-oppressive and people-centered cultural organizations committed to creative justice.
access, diversity, equity, inclusion
WHY ADEI?
why
ACCESS
DIVERSITY
EQUITY
INCLUSION
In your exploration of these practices, you may have found a variety of ways in which people understand ADEI including diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); diversity, inclusion, and cultural equity (DICE); diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB); diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA); equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI); inclusion, diversity, equity, access, success (IDEAS); and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI). We use ADEI to frame creative justice issues that historically and continuously marginalized and oppressed communities experience when seeking to engage in the creative sector. Secondly, we use ADEI because we believe that the process of achieving creative justice begins with access, systematically and thoughtfully followed by diversity, equity, and then inclusion.
Dr. Antonio C. Cuyler’s (Kyler) (He) journey into access, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) began at Stambaugh Middle School in Auburndale, FL when a teacher invited him to join a program called, Cultural Cousins. The program tasked students with bridging cultural divides across a diverse and multicultural student population. Since that time, he has established an international reputation as a thought leader in the creative sector on ADEI and creative justice issues by presenting research around the globe in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. However, the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd compelled him to found Cuyler Consulting, LLC, a Black-owned arts consultancy that partners with cultural organizations to maximize their performance and community relevance through ADEI. Through his consulting practice, he leads ADEI climate surveys, education, research & evaluation, and strategic planning for cultural organizations. Among his clients includes the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), Chorus America, Giving Voice Initiative, Hewlett Foundation, League of American Orchestras, Youth Orchestras of San Antonio (YOSA), and Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestra, among others. In 2021, Routledge published his first book, Access, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Cultural Organizations: Insights from the Careers of Executive Opera Managers of Color in the U. S. Palgrave Macmillan published his first edited volume, Arts Management, Cultural Policy, & the African Diaspora in 2022. He has also authored several peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. As a well-regarded educator with a diverse teaching portfolio, he has taught students pursuing minors, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in arts leadership and management at Florida State University (FSU), Colorado State University, SUNY Purchase College, American University, and the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Currently, he serves as Professor of Music in Entrepreneurship & Leadership at the University of Michigan.
Cuyler Consulting, LLC is located in Tallahassee, Florida where the Apalachee and Muscogee (Creek) Nations, & Miccosukee and the Seminole Tribes of Florida stewarded the land. We pay respect to their Elders, past and present, their descendants, to the generations yet unborn, and to all Indigenous people. We cede that this land remains scarred by the histories and ongoing legacies of settler colonial violence, dispossession, and removal. In spite of this, and with tremendous resilience, these Indigenous nations have remained deeply connected to their territories, families, communities, and cultural ways of life (Dowell, 2020).