Since our last One to One with Afa Dworkin in July 2020, she has seen some progress in performing arts organizations’ efforts to diversify, but, as she now puts it, "not enough." As president and artistic director of the Sphinx Organization, this month honoring its 25th year of "transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts," Dworkin should know.

Dworkin maintains that the only way to overcome "centuries of systemic, intentional, and implicit exclusion" in the performing arts is for every member of an organization, be it one devoted to opera, theater, ballet, or classical music, to get on board. It’s not just a "top-down" issue, she says, calling on conservatories to join the crusade, but perhaps more importantly, a "bottom-up" one.