What solidarity looks like to us

2017 Youth Apprentices Sean Dozier and Graham Robinson in front of “Ascension.”

To our Creative Art Works family,

As a creative youth development organization with a focus on the visual arts, we sometimes opt to show rather than tell -- it’s a delight to have our kids’ work speak for itself, as it does in the picture above. At the same time, we wouldn’t get to art like this without engaging in honest and challenging conversations, with and among our youth, our communities, and each other. We won’t shy away from those now.

To our students and youth apprentices especially: You are the center of all that we do, and we stand in solidarity with you in stating unequivocally that Black lives matter.

We also want you to know what solidarity looks like to us. It means that we will continue:

• to see you -- your innate worth, your resiliency, and your dignity,

• to generate opportunities for you to develop your creativity and self-determination, which we see as a fundamental human right,

• and to amplify your voices and support your dreams.

We also acknowledge that racism and unconscious bias are entrenched in our society and its systems and institutions. We promise to continually strive to do more and better, individually and organizationally, and to live up to the inherently anti-racist principles and sense of shared humanity on which CAW was founded.

On behalf of all of us at Creative Art Works, we are so proud of our young people, the bravery with which they express themselves, and the positivity with which they focus on solutions. With our youth, side by side, from the classroom to our boardroom, we, too, are focused on being part of a brighter, more equitable future, together.

Sincerely yours,

Brian Ricklin
Executive Director & CEO