Anti-racist training begins with studying implicit bias. Implicit bias training facilitates the practice of becoming aware of privilege and oppression and putting into practice strategies for changing or eliminating biased behaviors.

Understanding the invention of race is about coming to terms with the fact that race is a social and political construction, with economic drivers. The racialized society that we live in is a social construct where Whiteness has been created by White people to privilege themselves. At the same time, there is no biological basis for race.

We believe civic practice to be a critical component in our quest to foster new collaborative relationships, deepen our existing ones and to diversify our audiences. We seek to cultivate an impactful and sustained civic practice, which is an approach to working with our community that requires a shift away from transaction-based partnerships that are focused exclusively on sales and funding. Instead, its central goal is to help build a deeper capacity for connecting the community's needs with our artistic product.

Civic Practices asks us to consider:

1. How can the arts contribute diverse perspectives and approaches to community-based work?

2. Can integrating arts-based strategies help to serve the mission and goals of non-arts organizations?

3. How can partnerships between arts and non-arts organizations imagine equitable and just solutions to civic problems? 

Photo credit: Jim Chuchu