The Work Ahead.
"Again We Rise," a mural on the Aura Concert Venue and Nightclub building in Portland, Maine, painted by local artists Ryan Adams, Mike Rich and Jason McDonald. The mural features a portrait of George Floyd and some of the names of victims of police brutality.
So much has recently happened in support of the nationwide demand for racial and economic justice, police accountability and meaningful and lasting societal change. Surf Point Foundation honors this historic moment and pledges to do our part in the struggle to dismantle systemic racism so that people of color can finally be safe, free, and fully enfranchised by the social contract that has been too long denied. We face a pivotal moment of reckoning in which no one can remain passive or silent.
Details from message board on Free Street, Portland, Maine (above and below).
As an organization in its growth phase, Surf Point has the opportunity to reaffirm core commitments, ideals and values - and to articulate new ones. We hold ourselves accountable to listen, learn, change, and devote ourselves to the challenging work ahead:
We will continue to reaffirm our responsibility to diversity and inclusion and to prioritize recruiting people of color, LGBTQI, women, and those with a connection to Maine as residents. We will do everything possible to make Surf Point a positive, welcoming and empowering space for every resident and visitor, with special sensitivity to the historical, cultural and economic history of our location in York, Maine. Community building is among our top priorities through sustained and anchored relationships.
As a primarily White governing body, the Surf Point Board of Directors will create a diversity committee whose mission will be to translate our ideals into meaningful actions and structures. Actions include: prioritizing meaningful diversity on our Board of Directors; mandatory Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training for our Board and staff; and identifying and supporting through grants Maine-based arts entities that fight for racial justice, judicial reform, and economic equality.
We will pursue partnerships with institutions that reciprocally share our values and can enhance our sense of intersectional networks, including creating opportunities for internships and hiring.
We will correctively expand our founders’ art library to include monographs, exhibition catalogues and historical and critical works by and about Black and Brown artists and scholars, cultures and creative movements, both historical and contemporary. In addition to serving our residents, we will explore how this library can become a resource for the larger community.
We will seek to learn what we do not understand. We will listen. We will see and remember. We will speak out.
In response to the many pressing concerns in our society, and in solidarity with the local and broader community, we have donated to organizations we respect and admire in Maine and New Hampshire that address hunger relief, community building, and celebrate BIPOC artists, art workers, and history: the Abbe Museum, Abyssinian Meeting House, Curtis Memorial Library; Gather, Indigo Arts Alliance, Mayo Street Arts, Ogunquit Museum of Art; Space Gallery, and York Community Services Association.
I look forward to your participation in this discussion long into the future and, as always, welcome your thoughts.
Yours,
Yael Reinharz,
Executive Director & the Surf Point Foundation Board
