Access Commitment to Anti-Racism

Please see our Accountability Update to this work

The Board and Staff of Access Gallery wish to unequivocally state our support for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and our solidarity with those demanding justice for Black and Indigenous lives lost to police violence and brutality.

Statistics and historic data have long been available chronicling the violent colonial histories of police and RCMP in Canada. It is through the compliance of mostly white settlers sheltered by systemic white supremacy that this cycle of violence has been allowed to continue.

Institutional models like artist-run centres are not free from compliance with colonial structures and systemic racism. Non-profits, like Access Gallery, rely on funding structures steeped in systemic inequities, and are at risk of perpetuating structural racism through board recruitment and hiring processes, governance and policy development, programming decisions, and more. Drawing on educational structures that perpetuate these same biases further narrows access to our organizations. Dismantling these structures demands anti-racist action.

Access is committed to the interrogation of our structure, policies, and processes, beginning with humility, self-reflexion, education, and the implementation of changes where needed. We consider this an ongoing process to be undertaken with increased urgency, and acknowledge that our efforts are informed by the labour of BIPOC communities.

We wish to express our commitment to lift and support individual artists and arts organizations who have been ignored, passed over, or harmed by the conditions of white supremacy. We will work to:

• recognize where we have failed and where we have gaps in knowledge by undergoing anti-oppression training in 2020, and budgeting for ongoing learning; 
• uphold and further develop our Code of Conduct and Safer Spaces Statement within an anti-oppressive framework to ensure those who enter our space are protected and those who would cause harm are held accountable;
• ensure that our structures, programs, and behaviours reflect these values, in order to attract and retain a diverse board, staff, and membership;
• disrupt the dominant whiteness of our Board—the training we undertake will focus on removing barriers to create a governance space that is inviting and trustworthy in order to shift this power balance without tokenizing; 
• enable full participation by compensating all staff positions at or above a Living Wage, working towards fair payment for all consultation, including juries, and evaluating membership/voting fee structures;
• reflect on our past program and address inequity through our curatorial decisions, programming structures, and partnerships such as PLOT.

We have an intimate knowledge of how community-supported fundraising efforts affect the possibility and success of programming in Vancouver, and we encourage our members to donate and offer their ongoing support to the following local organizations to ensure their continued success:

Black Lives Matter Vancouver
Black Arts Vancouver
Hogan's Alley Society

In light of the ongoing RCMP violations to Indigenous rights, please also consider donating to the Unist'ot'en Camp.
 

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通路艺术馆反种族歧视宣言

通路艺术馆的董事会和团队希望在此明确表示我们对黑人、原住民和被种族化的群体的支持。我们希望与广大有识之士一起为那些在被暴力执法中丧生的黑人、原住民寻求公义。

长期以来，各种历史数据均呈现了警察体系与皇家骑警在加拿大的暴力殖民史，而此类种族暴力的循环发生是与一些白人定居者默许的白人至上主义分不开的。

艺术家运营中心作为一种机构运营模式也无法完全避免对殖民架构及系统性种族歧视的默许。通路艺术馆作为非盈利组织，不但所依靠的财政拨款牵涉系统性的不平等政策，在董事会招募、机构管理、政策制定、项目计划等方面也存在维持结构性种族主义的弊端。若继续参照那些维持此类偏见的体制只能固步自封；想要真正废除此类体系需要切实的反种族主义行动。

通路艺术馆承诺将长期以谦逊自省、灵活好学的态度对自身架构、政策及运行进行思辨与推敲。在黑人、原住民和被种族化的群体的付出与知悉下，我们将持续完善这项日益紧迫的使命。

我们希望通过以下理念与行动扶持那些因白人至上主义而被忽视、排挤或伤害的艺术家和艺术组织：

• 通过在2020年进行和规划未来的反压迫培训来反省我们现有的不足和知识空缺；
• 在反压迫理念的前提下执行并持续完善我们的《行为准则》和《安全空间声明》，从而营造一个安全健康、不纵容有害行为的环境；
• 确保我们的组织架构、规划运营及一举一动都体现我们认可的价值观，从而吸引并维持多元化的董事会、团队及会员群体；
• 突破董事会以白人为主导的局面 — 我们的内部培训将注重于建立一个诚信友善的管理氛围，从而在真正意义、而非象征意义上改善权力分配；

• 通过向所有工作人员支付维生工资或以上的薪资标准努力实现咨询、评审类工作的合理酬劳标准；对会员/投票费用模式进行评估以确保上述人员的充分参与；
• 对我们过去的工作进行回顾与反思，通过策展、规划与合作（如PLOT) 等策略来改善不公现象的产生。

我们深知社区筹款对于温哥华非盈利机构的运营规划的重要性，因此我们鼓励我们的会员为以下本地组织捐款，贡献您的一份支持：

Black Lives Matter Vancouver
Black Arts Vancouver
Hogan's Alley Society

鉴于加拿大皇家骑警对原住民权利持续性的侵害，请您也考虑捐款给Unist'ot'en Camp。

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通路艺术馆位于xʷməθkwəy̓əm（马斯基姆）, Skwxwú7mesh（史夸米希）, 以及 Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh（兹莱尔-瓦图什）原住民未割让的土地上，作为不请自来的客人我们对此心怀感恩。

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通路艺术馆同时也认识到我们地处于自十九世纪便是说粤语的华人务工、经商、聚居的温哥华中国城; 仅一街之隔则是原黑人聚居地、后因建造乔治亚街引桥被强行拆除的霍根（Hogan’s Alley）。