Cultural Organizations Summit: Addressing Intolerance

In response to local artists experiencing harassment about their art, and the tragedy at the Club Q venue in Colorado Springs, the Boulder Arts Commission recently unanimously approved a statement of principle:

The Boulder Arts Commission is aware that artists in our local community have been bullied and had their artwork defaced. We believe in and work to support the following tenets of a thriving arts environment:

Protection of freedom of expression,
Acknowledging a variety of perspectives from the community while still honoring our Statement on Cultural Equity, and
That the fabric of expression that we all weave makes us a stronger and more vibrant community when it includes diversity of expression.
These tenets form the cornerstones of the City of Boulder’s Cultural Plan.

The Boulder Arts Commission stands with our artists from all backgrounds including, but not limited to, the LGBTQ+, immigrant, PIPOC, Indigenous, Latine, disability, unhoused, faith-based, and other communities. If you find yourself, your organization, or your art as the target of harassment, bullying, or threats, these are resources to help you.

At our next summit of cultural nonprofit leadership, we will meet these challenges of intolerance and harassment head on. Our panel, including Z of Bread and Roses Law and artist/survivor Wyatt Kent, will talk about the best ways to protect yourselves and your community against harassment, offer resources should you run into challenges, and help us band together as a community against these forces with the courage necessary for great art to flourish. Special welcome by Andrea Gibson, Colorado’s Poet Laurate, and moderated by Boulder Arts Commissioner Maria Cole. Free; light refreshments. RSVP required to [email protected].