ARTS & DEMOCRACY roots its work in the liberating power of the arts and culture that help us reimagine and remake society. This requires shifting power, dismantling structural racism and other forms of oppression, and seeking a fair and equitable distribution of resources. We engage a spectrum of creative approaches to support individual, community, and systemic change. We see our work as part of a diverse ecology of art and social justice practice, where a small, decentralized, and nimble network such as ours can be a vital resource.
We actively commit to:
- Cultural equity and cultural rights
- The self determination, vision, and agency of our communities
- Collaboration, interdependence, and sustained relationships
- The power of place, importance of context, and abundance of community cultural assets
- A vision of arts and culture as an integral part of our communities
We believe that:
- The people most impacted by policy need to play a significant role in shaping that policy
- Change happens when we link grassroots action, analysis, imagination, and policy
- We need to work actively against racism and other forms of oppression, and for social justice
- We need to bring our full selves to our organizing and take care of ourselves and our communities as we do this work over time.