Cultural equity embodies the values, policies, and practices that ensure that all people—including but not limited to those who have been historically marginalized based on race/ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, citizenship status, or religion—are represented in the development of arts and arts education policy; the support of artists; the nurturing of accessible opportunities for creative engagement; thriving community spaces and venues for expression; and the fair distribution of programmatic, financial, and informational resources.

• We acknowledge that inequities and disparities are prevalent between those who have power and privilege and those who do not, including in terms of poverty, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, and race/ethnicity.
  

• There are systems of power that grant privilege and access unequally such that inequity and injustice result, and that must be continuously addressed and changed.
  

• We must all hold ourselves accountable, because acknowledging and challenging our inequities and working in partnership is how we will make change happen.
  

• Everyone deserves equitable access to a full, vibrant creative life, which is essential to a healthy and democratic society.

To support a full creative life for all, Community Engagement Lab commits to championing policies and practices of racial and cultural equity that build more just, inclusive, equitable and thriving communities.

Acknowledging and challenging our inequities and working in partnership is how we will make change happen.

We have identified individual and organizational opportunities for growth, improvement, and ongoing learning to strengthen the following commitments we hold for building more fair, joyful and thriving communities.

Our learning is reflected in changes to our work culture, our communications practices, and on-the-ground actions we are implementing, as noted below.

Our staff and Board are committed to ongoing substantive learning to assess our work through the lens of equity, power, and privilege, and to proliferate pro-equity policies and practices by our partners and program participants.

We will pursue cultural consciousness throughout our organization through substantive ongoing learning and formal policies shaped by these commitments.

We will acknowledge and dismantle any inequities within our policies, systems, programs, and services, and regularly report on our progress.

ACTIONS

• We have engaged experts in equity-centered learning to co-design and facilitate programming, and provide training for staff in planning and facilitating programs with equity-based goals.

• The staff and Board have unanimously adopted the Statement on Cultural Equity and accompanying commitments, and we have invited partners to review and exchange about it.

• These commitments are posted on our website, with an invitation for community feedback, and will be updated as we report on our progress.

• We are modeling equity-centered ongoing learning, planning and programming.

We will offer diverse ways to communicate ideas and feedback so that all of our constituencies can feel a sense of belonging in our work by having their voices consistently and reliably heard, honored, and responded to.

We will move slowly and with communication “at the speed of trust,” which we can expect to increase as we strengthen our relationships.

ACTIONS

• We have expanded our evaluation and feedback mechanisms to include regular in-process reflection and evaluation, in addition to our current anonymized evaluations that are implemented pre- and post-programs.

• We have committed significantly more financial resources to extend planning time with partners and staff.

• We now include explicit consideration of belonging issues in all program planning, facilitation and evaluation.

We will strengthen our systems of partnering to ensure clarity of roles and responsibilities, and support transparent participation in decision making.

We seek alliances with groups and organizations working towards our goal of more equitable, joyful and thriving communities.

We seek to share resources with organizations led by underserved or marginalized communities whenever possible.

ACTIONS

• We have established systems for ongoing review of partner memorandums of understanding to ensure that statements of roles and responsibilities are living documents, mutually agreed upon, that reflect ongoing learning and any changes to the programs’ process or goals.

• We now approach all our partnerships afresh, examining assumptions about power dynamics as a regular practice and organizational habit of mind.

We will commit time and resources to expand more diverse leadership and participation within our board, staff, advisory bodies and programs that reflects the full breadth of American society.

ACTIONS

• We have increased the diversity of our staff.

• We have created a diverse and remunerated planning team to shape a growth plan for our teaching artist-based activities.

• We have expanded the geographic range of our services in order to tap regional diversity that can enrich our programs.

We invite you to hold us accountable to these commitments. We will likely fall short at times and ask that you forgive us when we do, but still hold us accountable and encourage our learning. We will lean into that learning with humility to continually strengthen our actions that support more equitable and thriving communities.

We want to listen and learn with and from you, and feel honored to be on this journey together toward more just and thriving communities.

We are stronger together.

This is a living document that we will update to reflect our ongoing learning and growth. We invite community feedback through the form below.