The Arts Area is a diverse, inclusive, and equitable organization where all staff, volunteers, interns, artists, and community members, regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation or identity, education or disability, feels valued and respected. We are committed to a nondiscriminatory approach in all of our programs, partnerships, and worksites. We respect and value diverse life experiences and heritages and ensure that all voices are valued and heard. We are committed to modeling diversity and inclusion and to maintaining an inclusive environment with equitable treatment for all.

We engage in equitable representation and access in the arts across the inland region of Southern California. We acknowledge our presence on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of Indigenous people and recognize our responsibilities to the people of that land. We strive to address the history of BIPOC, immigrant, and LGBTQIA+ communities to guide our work in the present and future.

The Arts Area confronts the structural inequalities, inadequate education preparation, and challenging economic conditions of the region, having among the lowest income and education completion rates and the highest economic inequality in California. We recognize the educational and professional outcomes of individuals pursuing careers in the creative industries calls attention to the broader issues of economic and social injustice placing increasing pressure on local artists. The demographics of our local creative population, runs counter to the national arts graduates and professionals which is eighty percent white. The Arts Area vision of “Making Art Work For Everyone” focuses on the importance of opening access to academic and economic resources that would not otherwise be available to traditionally underserved communities.

The Arts Area Board of Directors, staff, project directors, and interns are reflective of the diversity of the region with the majority of members being women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+, which come from diverse academic and economic backgrounds. This includes the majority of leadership positions in the organization. In addition to their community service through The Arts Area, each member supports equity in the arts in their communities through a variety of programs and personal actions.

The Arts Area abides by the following action items to help promote equity:

• Challenge systems and policies that create inequity, oppression, and disparity.

• Pursue cultural competency throughout our organization by creating substantive learning opportunities and formal, transparent policies.

• Creating and supporting programs and policies that reflects the diversity of the inland region of Southern California.

• Pool resources and expand offerings for underrepresented constituents by connecting with other arts organizations committed to diversity and inclusion.

• Advocate for public and private-sector policy that promotes diversity, inclusion, and equity.

The Arts Area is committed to ensuring equal access and participation for people with disabilities.

We are committed to treating people with disabilities in a way that allows them to maintain their dignity and independence.

We believe in integration, and we are committed to meeting the needs of people with disabilities in a timely manner.

We will do so by removing and preventing barriers to accessibility and by meeting our accessibility requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act and California’s accessibility laws.

We recognize that The Arts Area is headquartered on the unceded land of the Tongva people. We ask you to join us in acknowledging the Tongva community, their elders both past and present, as well as future generations. We also acknowledge that our educational and cultural institutions were founded upon exclusions and erasures of many Indigenous peoples, including those on whose land we learn, work, and live today. This acknowledgment demonstrates a commitment to beginning the process of working to dismantle the ongoing legacies of settler colonialism.

The Arts Area commits to:

Acting honestly, truthfully and with integrity in all our transactions and dealings;

Avoiding conflicts of interest and appropriately handling actual or apparent conflicts of interest in our relationships;

Treating our donors and grantees fairly;

Treating every individual with dignity and respect;

Treating our staff and volunteers with respect, fairness and good faith and providing conditions of employment that safeguard their rights and welfare;

Acting responsibly toward the communities in which we work and for the benefit of the communities that we serve;

Being responsible, transparent and accountable for all of our actions; and

Improving the accountability, transparency, ethical conduct and effectiveness of the nonprofit field.