Racial Equity at Pratt Fine Arts Center

Racial Equity is a system that recognizes and celebrates our differences, where everyone has access to what they need to be successful. 

Click here to read Pratt Fine Art Center's Land Acknowledgement & for a list of actionable items to directly support Indigenous community members & Indigenous-led organizations.

Click here to read more about our committment to dismantling White supremacy and structural racism in the arts.

Why is Pratt focusing on race?
We acknowledge that our culture is infused with many systems of oppression.  We lead with race because when we look within other dimensions of identity - income, gender, sexuality, education, ability, age, citizenship and geography - we find racial inequities. By focusing on race and racism, we believe our efforts will lead to positive outcomes for all oppressed communities.
 
Pratt Racial Equity Statement - Summary
Pratt Fine Arts Center recognizes that institutional racism, through conscious and unconscious practices, creates vast disparities in access to publicly funded services, including arts education and support for artists. At Pratt, we are committed to racial equity as a core value and ongoing practice, allocating resources to the breakdown of systemic barriers and the development of equitable solutions organization-wide. Click here to read Pratt’s entire Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Statement of Purpose. 
 
Our Commitment

Pratt Fine Arts Center’s commitment acknowledges and embraces a responsibility to honor the legacy of its namesake, Edwin T. Pratt, whose life’s work addressed racial inequities in education, housing, employment and many other systems until his assassination in 1969. Furthermore, Pratt strives to be an active ally to its Central Area neighborhood, a historically redlined neighborhood, one to which the Black community was segregated for many years. 

Our Approach
In 2016, Pratt Fine Arts Center established its Race Equity Committee to inform, guide, and monitor our race equity efforts. One of the committee’s first duties was to describe what race equity would look like and provide metrics to assess our progress. In 2018, the Pratt Race Equity Continuum was created, a localized art-focused adaption of the © Crossroads Ministry Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist Multicultural Organization. This approach also borrows heavily from the City of Seattle Race & Social Justice Initiative, where many of our tools and tactics originated. We continue to work with local external consultants to evaluate our progress. 
 
Executive Commitment
  • Embracing undoing institutional racism is a core value within the organization as well as the community
  • Committing all staff, board of trustees, and other key volunteers to be provided basic race equity training
  • Funding the ongoing training and related activities necessary to achieve race equity

Transforming How We Work
  • Provide an ongoing race equity training program for staff and key volunteers (not one and done)
  • Establish a race equity resource library for self-education and reflection
  • Incorporate a race equity lens into our daily operations
    • update policies and procedures for race equity
    • incorporate race equity and stakeholder analysis within major initiatives
    • incorporate race equity metrics within performance expectations
    • incorporate a race equity lens into our daily activities and interactions
    • collect and analyze racial demographics of the populations we hire, serve, and interact with
  • Address specific areas of known under-representation
    • develop and implement actions plans that target the removal or mitigation of specific racial barriers within our structure
    • ensure that hiring processes and staff management practices are inclusive and respectful of BIPOC populations
    • actively reach out to BIPOC populations for employment and volunteer candidates
    • review vendor practices for greater inclusion of minority business enterprises (MBEs)
  • Update educational programs and resources to be more inclusive of racial and cultural BIPOC elements
  • Conduct an annual assessment and realignment of Race Equity efforts
Engaging the Community
  • Establish collaborations and partnerships with other non-profits working to undo institutional racism
  • Establish relationships and partnerships with under-represented populations as stakeholders in the neighborhood and community-at-large
  • Ensure communications are inclusive and respectful of BIPOC populations
  • Openly share our successes and challenges to achieve race equity