"We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter their color." -Maya Angelou.
Art reflects our culture. In supporting arts and cultural organizations in South Hampton Roads, Arts Alliance seeks to promote policies of equity, diversity, and inclusion of all people within our community. We welcome artists and audiences from diverse races, ethnicities, ages, genders, religions, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic statuses, regardless of disabilities or special needs.
• The expression of cultural heritage is elemental to the well-being of our community.
• Inclusion is critical to the viability of the arts sector.
• Acknowledging our inequities is how we will make change happen.
• Everyone deserves equal access to a vibrant, creative life.
• Artists and cultural creators have a role in imagining new and more just realities.
As an organization, we strive to ...
• Pursue cultural consciousness through substantive learning and formal, transparent policies, and commit to frequent, agency-wide, honest conversations about inequity.
• Acknowledge and dismantle inequities within our policies, systems, programs, and services, and report organization progress and challenges.
• Commit time and resources to expand more diverse leadership within our board, staff, and advisory bodies.
• Strive to be intentional in our engagement and support of a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive arts community.
On behalf of our members and the arts organizations we support, we strive to...
• Encourage substantive learning to build cultural consciousness and increase pro equity policies and practices by all 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 our society.
• Generate and aggregate quantitative and qualitative research related to equity to make incremental, measurable progress toward cultural equity more visible.
• Encourage public and private-sector policy that promotes cultural fairness.