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ACCELERATING CULTURAL EQUITY THROUGHOUT MARIN'S CREATIVE SECTOR
In Marin’s 2019 Cultural Plan, our community made cultural equity—arts by and for everyone—one of three top-priority goals and tasked the Marin Cultural Association (MCA) with spearheading its achievement.
In 2021 and 2023, MCA gathered over forty Marin County arts organizations and leaders for a series of comprehensive Cultural Community Benefits Trainings provided by ArtChangeUS. Working within an anti-racist context, these community trainings offered organizations creative, practical, and meaningful strategies for building commitments to greater diversity, equitable stakeholder relationships, and structural change within our work.
As part of this effort, MCA drafted a new equity statement and memorandum of understanding, further increasing our accountability to our community, and serving as a map for ongoing, collaborative, institutional change. We continue to commit to this necessary work, both in our organization and in partnership with the whole creative sector, to build a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment.
Our Vision for Cultural Equity at MCA and Throughout Marin
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Equitable representation of systemically excluded groups on the staffs, boards, audiences, artists and in artistic programming;
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Equitable access to capital for BIPOC and other underrepresented groups through individual donors and institutional mechanisms to support diverse artists and cultural expression;
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Welcoming pathways to arts leadership for all with education, training, mentorships and other support for systemically excluded groups;
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Equitable access to high-quality arts for every student in Marin County’s public schools.
In 2023, as an evolution of this work, MCA formed the Marin Cultural Equity Network comprising of dozens of arts leaders interested in harnessing the collective power and creative capacity of Marin’s creative sector in the fight for cultural equity. Through quarterly meetings, Marin’s arts and culture leaders explore complex equity issues, highlighting best practices that evolve beyond representation to create participatory equity and community benefit.
If you are interested in participating in these learning sessions, please contact us at MCA@marincounty.gov
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Land and Labor Acknowledgement
Marin Cultural Association acknowledges that Marin County is situated on the traditional homelands of the Coast Miwok Peoples and the Indigenous caretakers of these lands and waters, the elders who live here before, the Indigenous today, and the generations to come. It is our collective responsibility to critically interrogate our histories, to repair harm, and to honor, protect, and sustain this land.
We recognize and acknowledge the labor upon which our country, state, and institutions are built. We remember that our country was built on the labor of enslaved people who were kidnapped and brought to the United States from the African continent and recognize the continued contribution of their survivors.
We acknowledge all immigrant and Indigenous labor, including voluntary, involuntary, trafficked, forced, and undocumented peoples who contributed to the building of the country and continue to serve within our labor force.
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