At MCC Theater, our mission is to provoke conversations that have never happened and otherwise never would. We do this through new work at the intersection of social consciousness and profound artistry. Our Public Engagement & Education team has been central to that mission — offering free programs that require no transaction to participate.

Over the past year, we’ve been asking: How can this work go deeper? How can we optimally align our internal practices with the values we share publicly?  We’ve piloted several new initiatives to help us answer these questions: paid stipends for Youth Company members, a public-facing workshop series, opening our Ambassadors cohort to emerging young adult artists, establishing a Culture Team and Employee Work Group to examine policies and codify best practices, and establishing an 1863 membership with The Harriet Tubman Effect to provide leadership training with equity-focused professional development opportunities for staff members.

These new efforts have led to higher program retention and increased satisfaction from students, stronger audience engagement and a more intersectional audience and group of participants at all events, and the return of alumni we hadn’t seen in years. Internally, we’ve made meaningful policy changes — improving paid time off, familial leave, and healthcare contributions, while clarifying evaluation processes and building regular opportunities to test new ways of working.

Lately we’ve been asking: Would a new name for the Public Engagement & Education department more accurately describe what we are doing and help us accomplish more? We’ve decided it will. So today we announce that Public Engagement & Education will now be known as Learning & Culture. This new name reflects our commitment to deepening both learning and culture — going beyond curriculum, beyond events, beyond any single production — to emphasize that every conversation we provoke is in the ongoing pursuit of growth and connection, and to prove that change is not only possible but actionable.