
Looking back, 2020 meant a lot of things in flux, including how our organization thinks about delivering our mission of connecting communities through art. We’ve had to deeply rethink what our programs look like, how we fund them, how we tell our story, and how we wear our values on our sleeves through action, not just words.
After IPMM founder Evan La Ruffa’s Black Lives Matter statement on behalf of the organization and our Board in June 2020, our Board of Directors embarked on a plan to bolster our commitment with an actual plan as to how to formalize our commitment in the way we do our work, by being intentional about our processes, and codifying ways of walking the walk, and being the change we want to see in the world.
The result was 3+ months of work led by IPMM Impact Advisor Levi Baer in conjunction with IPMM Executive Director Evan La Ruffa, and supported by IPMM Impact Advisor Chevy Williams, and IPMM Executive Board Members, Brian Flannery, Josh Hoekwater, Sam Kirk, and Roxy Piersanti.
Out of our collaborative efforts came a 5-part plan to set in place goals, enforce accountability measures, and support BIPOC led nonprofits and organizations working in Chicago.
Part 1 of our DEI plan reflects our belief that IPaintMyMind can only do the work we aim to do if the organization is a welcoming, equitable, and accountable place to work. Our staff need to feel comfortable calling out bias, asking tough questions, and pushing for new ideas in order for us to serve our communities at the highest level possible.
That organizational openness and honesty will take work, but we’ve come up with the following 6 policies and programs.
Part 2 of our DEI plan involves investing in and amplifying the amazing work of BIPOC organizations working in arts and education. We plan to work with 10 local BIPOC organizations and black leaders who work in education and the arts and assess what kinds of partnerships, collaborations, and financial contributions we can offer to maximize our impact.
We’ll partner with 3 BIPOC led organizations per year for the next four years.
In Part 3 of our DEI plan, IPMM decided to continue prioritizing minority representation in our Permanent Collection, with the goal of representing and speaking to the full diversity of the communities we serve and our collaboration partners.
IPaintMyMind’s goals as far as building our Permanent Collection are all about being able to provide mirrors and windows for every community we work with. This means ensuring that the IPaintMyMind Permanent Print Collection be composed of works that reflect the communities we serve while also providing access to very different realities. It’s this interchange between reflection and expansion that we love as far as getting people and communities to think about themselves within the creative landscape.
As such, we want to move the above metrics in the following 2 key representational categories: Gender, and Race & Ethnicity.
Gender (National Metric, Women 51%, Men 48%, 1% Non-Binary)
Race & Ethnicity (Local Metric, see below)
We are aiming to reach our ambitious acquisition goals by Winter 2022.
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