Louisville Visual Art - Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access Policy and Plan

Louisville Visual Art (LVA) cultivates a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment where all board members, staff, volunteers, participants and members receive respect and high regard regardless of gender, age, race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation/identity, disability, education, or any other aspect of who they are.

In all of our work, we advance nondiscriminatory practices, modeling diversity, equity, and inclusion, while maintaining high regard and fair treatment for all. Hiring for professional and volunteer positions is equitable, and all employees enjoy the same consideration for advancement.

LVA appreciates that diverse life experiences enrich our Board and leadership, actively listening to and incorporating a wide range of views in our operations and communications.

In order for LVA to be a more diverse, equitable and inclusive space:

1. We undertake ongoing internal and external reviews to recognize inequities in our policies, programs, and services, and to identify and discard underlying assumptions harmful to the success of this diversity policy.

2. We pledge to regularly update documentation of progress w/r/t our diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.

3. We strongly encourage all LVA representatives, from the Board to contracted employees, to advocate for removal of systemic inequities or evident biases that hamper the consistent, robust activation of this policy

4. We equip our personnel to orient and train new staff and volunteers w/r/t our diversity, equity and inclusion policy.

5. We dedicate energy and resources to expanding the diversity of our Board and leadership.

6. We practice transparency in all of our efforts to advance diversity, equity and inclusion.

7. We commit that our Staff and Board will consistently express respect and appreciation for all, and that we will encourage all contracted employees and volunteers to do so in their work for LVA.

8. We create formal, transparent policies and empowering educational resources to strengthen cultural competency throughout LVA.

9. To better welcome diversity, promote equity, and expand inclusion, we remain especially alert to systemic bias during recruitment, hiring, and evaluation processes.

10. We recruit and promote with the explicit intention of increasing the diversity of our Board and leadership.

In order to promote greater diversity, equity and inclusion in our sector:

1. We openly share with our members and the wider community the materials we use to strengthen cultural competency throughout LVA.

2. We regularly conduct or consult research to help improve LVA’s diversity, equity and inclusion, sharing our findings publicly on our website.

3. We cooperate with other organizations that are committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in order to increase Louisville’s collective capacity to benefit underrepresented constituents.

4. We advocate for the development and evolution of public sector systems and policies that promote diversity, equity and inclusion; and we challenge public sector systems and policies that re-inscribe dominance, inequity and exclusion.

5. We offer public programs, training and opportunities designed to move LVA and the Metro community towards a more just and equitable society.