Racial and Cultural Equity Statement

To support a full creative life for all, Arts Orange County commits to championing policies and practices of racial and cultural equity.

DEFINITION OF RACIAL AND CULTURAL EQUITY
Racial and cultural equity embodies the values, policies, and practices that ensure that all people—including but not limited to those who have been historically underrepresented 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 policy; the support of artists; the nurturing of accessible, thriving venues for expression; and the fair distribution of programmatic, financial, and informational resources.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & AFFIRMATIONS
• In the United States, 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.
• Racial and cultural equity is critical to the long-term viability of the arts sector.
• By acknowledging and challenging social inequities and committing to collective action, we will make transformative changes.
• Everyone deserves equal access to a full, vibrant creative life, which is essential to a healthy and democratic
society.
• The arts can be a productive space for our communities to imagine alternative realities; we must support artists’ work in challenging inequities and encourage their visions of a just and equitable future.

MODELING THROUGH ACTION
To provide informed, authentic leadership for cultural equity, we strive to…
• Pursue racial and cultural consciousness throughout our organization through substantive learning and formal, transparent policies.
• Acknowledge and dismantle any inequities within our policies, systems, programs, and services, and report organization progress.
• Commit time and resources to expand more diverse leadership within our board and staff.

FUELING FIELD PROGRESS
To pursue needed systemic change related to equity, we strive to…
• Encourage substantive learning to build cultural consciousness and to proliferate pro-equity policies and
practices by all of our constituencies and audiences.
• Improve the cultural leadership pipeline by creating and supporting programs and policies that foster
leadership that reflects the full breadth of American society.
• Generate and aggregate quantitative and qualitative research related to equity to make incremental,
measurable progress towards cultural equity more visible.
• Advocate for public and private-sector policy that promotes cultural equity.

Approved by the Board of Directors, December 16, 2020

A Learning Journey to Achieve Racial Equity

Arts Orange County refers you to this excellent resource on the California Arts Council website, a resource page providing different methods, commitments, and points of entry  that local, state, and national arts organizations use to address racial equity:

https://arts.ca.gov/learning-center/racial-equity-learning-resources/