The Dialogue Arts Project (DAP) is an innovative arts-based consulting group that is reimagining the current "diversity training" experience. DAP partners with communities to create energizing training experiences in order to help participants collaborate & communicate more effectively across lines of social identity and difference.  

By combining performance, participant art creation, interactive exercises and facilitated dialogue, DAP curates workshops that increase awareness of self and social diversity for a wide array of clients ranging from university faculty, teachers-in-training, student leadership groups, and employees of Fortune 500 companies and non-profit organizations. 

MADE ME FEEL VALUED
AND RESPECTED AT SCHOOL

93% of 400 young adults over a 4-year period.

HELPED ME DEVELOP MORE
EMPATHY FOR MY PEERS

92% of 400 young adults over a 4-year period.

IMPROVED MY SELF-CONFIDENCE

89% of 400 young adults over a 4-year period.

Philosophy

In an increasingly pluralistic society, the need for self-awareness, tolerance and open communication has never been more critical. Despite this, the field of diversity education has struggled to meaningfully respond to that challenge and educators & organizers have grown weary of professional development sessions that seem to merely “fill a quota” in addressing critical issues of race & social identity in the classroom. Utilizing the arts to create a shared entry point into dialogue, DAP prioritizes the diverse range of identities contained within individuals and explores how personal experience can be shaped by the interplay between those identities.

Model

DAP workshops are multi-day or week-long engagements, containing 4 unique stages that are designed to be incorporated into conferences, trainings, or festivals. Specific engagements can be as long as eight weeks and as brief a single day, depending on the needs and scheduling restrictions of partnering organizations. Shorter engagements of 1-2 days provide an introductory experience to the DAP philosophy and model, whereas longer commitments of several weeks or more are designed to produce more targeted and sustainable impact within the culture of a partnering organization.