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Our
Commitment
to Equity

We center our grantmaking around intersectional racial equity, committing to eliminating disparities and improving access and outcomes to ensure the longterm viability of artists, culture bearers and arts organizations in Minnesota and New York City, focusing on those whose cultural narratives and practices have been historically and presently are excluded.

To achieve and sustain equity, we commit to:

  • understanding and acknowledging the root causes of inequities
  • equitably distributing funds and closing access gaps and inequities in our grantmaking

In service to artists, culture bearers and arts organizations across all identities, we are committed to:

  • dismantling barriers and providing equitable access to resources, connection and economic strength
  • developing systems and practices of accountability and responsiveness
  • engaging in relationship-building, community discourse and participatory practices for our grant programs
  • embracing intentional self-reflection and continual practice around changing policies, practices, systems and structures toward equitable grantmaking

With inequity being at the root of every injustice, we recognize the historical and structural barriers and the existing systems of power that create experiences of racism, bias and other forms of oppression at the individual, interpersonal, institutional and systemic levels in our grantmaking and our society as a whole.

Racial inequities are deep-rooted and persist in grantmaking. Racism creates barriers to accessing resources and often intersects with other dimensions of artists’ identity, including but not limited to ability, age, citizenship, discipline, economic status, tribal status, caste, education, gender, geography, and sexuality. Our work towards racial equity informs the way we address other inequities and helps us take a more intersectional approach.

We commit to ongoing learning and work. As such, these are living and lived terms and definitions which may evolve, iterate, and change over time as we deepen and expand this lens.