MUSICIANS AT PLAY
EQUITY STATEMENT

Created: September, 21, 2018

Updated: February 21, 2021

We, the Musicians at Play Foundation Board of Directors, recognize our roles as stewards of the organization who set direction, policy, and priorities. As stewards, we must consider these things as the Arts field and country evolves to be responsive, and continue to serve the public good.

We pledge to continue to prioritize policies that dismantle inequitable systems, and assist those we serve within the arts and culture field in doing the same, including setting more specific actions and metrics to center equity in our mission and work, while holding ourselves accountable. We promise to continue advancing the leadership of our organization and the service of our programs to communities whose principal languages are not English, indigenous people, communities of color, racially and ethnically diverse individuals, tribal communities, immigrant and refugee communities.

As organizational stewards, we commit to:
Require, resource, and fund continued education and internal work to drive fundamental systemic change within the organization.

In particular, we pledge to:
(1)explicitly center cultural and racial equity in our strategic plan
(2) require baseline cultural competency for all board and staff;
(3) train and transform the Board of Directors towards a higher cultural competency
(4) establish measurable outcomes to ensure accountability.

Resource and fund specific field-oriented work around cultural and racial equity that sparks systemic change within the arts and culture field. In particular, we commit to model behavior for other boards by encouraging focused work that addresses inequities in the pathways and retention of our teaching artists and executive leaders who identify as Black, Latinx, Indigenous, all people of color, LGBTQ, and/or disabled.

In particular, we pledge to:
(1) Support individuals or businesses owned by those who identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of color, LGBTQ, and/or disabled.
(2)) ensure staff act on policies that include a cultural equity lens in the hiring of staff and contractors. We will require regular accountability, evaluation, measurement, and reporting related to these equity-related initiatives.

AW/President
NL/Secty