Nate Wallace Published 10:00 a.m. ET Aug. 1, 2020 | Updated 1:13 p.m. ET Aug. 1, 2020

Patrons stop to look at and take a picture with the "Officer of the Hussars" painting by Kehinde Wiley a part of the Contemporary Art after 1950 collection a at the Detroit Institute of Arts photographed on Wednesday, March 5, 2014. Kimberly P. Mitchell/Detroit Free Press (Photo: Kimberly P. Mitchell, Kimberly P. Mitchell/DFP)

I remember vividly walking through the Detroit Institute of Arts six years ago and finding myself face to face with Kehinde Wileys inimitable work, "Officer of the Hussars."It is an enormous, masterful painting, in which Wiley swapped the stereotypical white Napoleonic European cavalry officer for a Black man mounted on the same horse. He sits in a white athletic tank top, jeans and Timberland boots, wielding a sabre, looking back confidently at the viewer from the rearing horse. I stood for a few minutes, taking in the painting, when a young Black boy, maybe 10 or 12 years old, and his mother walked up to the painting. I watched him as he scanned the huge piece, and looked up at his mother to ask, Why is he on the horse?

Wileys painting centers a Black man in a place hes not traditionally been depicted or included. Its a fitting metaphor for where we find ourselves now, in the middle of a historic racial reckoning following the killing of Minneapolis resident George Floyd, which has forced many people to consider what kind of Detroit they want to live in, and how to re-imagine it.

Nate Wallace(Photo: Noah Stephens)

A new report from Knight Foundation and the Urban Institute has shown that access to the arts is a critical component in creating lasting and deep attachments to our communities. Access to the arts boosts civic engagement, raises resident satisfaction, and even encourages personal investment of money and time back into the community, which is true for Detroit. But the data also shows racial and economic disparities when it comes to who feels they have easy access to arts in their community, suggesting significant barriers to equal, shared benefits of such amenities. We see these barriers right now in our city.

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From boardrooms, to leadership, to programming, arts and culture institutions cannot seem to hire, appoint, retain or reach Blacks, who are 80% of Detroits residents. If there is an unwillingness to do the intentional work around equity, both in and outside institutional walls, it stifles the possibilities of our community. Our city has talented Black artists, curators, programmers and leaders. But soft statements of solidarity or quotable platitudes deflect from the systemic issues we must wrestle with in order to move towards real change. In order to create a more inclusive local arts community, Detroit's arts and cultural institutions must first examine their own hiring practices, boards of directors and organizational cultures.

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This Knight-Urban report, Community Ties: Understanding what attaches people to the place where they live, reminds us of what an equitable arts and culture ecosystem could look like in Detroit, and more importantly, what we deny ourselves when its not. Addressing inequity is work that has to be intentional with no room for ambiguous language and broad-stroke terminology. Hiring more executives and leaders of color, diversifying the donor base, investing in spaces that are closer and more accessible to Black communities and other communities of color, and implementing programs that integrate arts and cultural institutions with the community, is the best path forward.

Findings from the report provide opportunities for Detroits arts and cultural institutions to create a more inclusive and equitable arts community. I believe we can work towards re-imagining a city where a little Black boy is used to seeing himself not only in artwork, but as a program director, curator or museum leader.

In front of Wileys painting, the boys mother answered her sons question about why a Black man was riding a horse like that, in a painting like this. His mom looked down at him, smiled, and said, "Because hes supposed to be.

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Equity means including Black Detroiters in the arts, too | Opinion - Detroit Free Press