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Art Department Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

Art Department Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

OVERVIEW

The Art Department understands that diversity is integral to our achievement of excellence. We are committed to cultivating, supporting, and promoting the expression and creation of culturally diverse experiences and perspectives within our department. We believe diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) deepen both the educational experience and the scholarly environment. A growing body of research shows that having diverse faculty, staff, and students improves research and teaching and increases community, creativity, innovation, and problem-solving.

Our first priority is to reflect and address the needs of our increasingly diverse student body. We embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion and anti-racism as core values of our practice. We actively oppose all forms of discrimination. We see DEI as essential to an art education, preparing students at UCSC for creative participation in the world.

POLICY

The Art Department:

  • Promotes a community ethos and environment that supports, encourages and demands a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion among all faculty, staff and students.
  • Listens to feed back and concerns by including diverse voices in department policy, relations and pedagogy.
  • Cultivates a welcoming and safe environment for diverse points of view, dialog, and art-making as research.
  • Celebrates publicly the research and creativity of diverse experiences and narratives of our students and faculty within the University and the greater community.
  • Respects and empathizes with the diverse perspectives and experiences of our students, faculty and staff.

Our DEI Practices:

  • Integrate our DEI policies throughout our curriculum, learning, pedagogy, syllabi and learning objectives.
  • Prioritize FTE hiring of faculty whose research and practice investigates, reflects on and articulates diversity, equity and inclusion.
  • Expose students to the work of arts professionals whose practices, research and creativity decolonize the canon,reflecting creative perspectives of non-traditional communities throughout the curriculum.
  • Host and promote events, lectures, symposia and exhibitions that promote DEI and educate theArt Department and the larger community.
  • Include diverse faculty, undergraduate and graduate students in various departmental decision-making processes and governing.
  • Evaluate, analyze and evolve our ongoing commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion through feedback from faculty, staff and students.
  • Innovate through our unique MFA in Environmental Art and Social Practice that teaches students the value and importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in their practice and research and through working with communities beyond the university.
  • Communicate our commitments to and the importance of DEI throughout the department, university and broader community.
  • Support minority students in financial need, BIPOC, first generation and other underrepresented students through programs, student organizations, teaching and scholarships. (Appendix A).

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Appendix A
Current Student Funding and Community Support

  • Florence French Scholarship
    • Provides scholarships for graduate students in the art department for students in need.
  • Irwin Project Grant
    • Provides grant funding for undergraduates based on the excellence of the nominees' proposed creative work.
  • Irwin Scholarship/Fellowships
    • Graduate (fellowships - amount varies) and undergraduate scholarships - ($2,500 and participation in an annual exhibition, must be nominated by faculty and apply, faculty vote on scholars): Selection is based on the excellence of the nominees' creative work.
  • SAC (Student Artists of Color Coalition)
    • There is currently no funding associated with this and the group.
  • Eduardo Carrillo Memorial Fund
    • Provides fellowships (undergraduate and graduate) to qualified students majoring in Art with documented financial need who have achieved high academic merit. Although ethnicity will not be used as a criterion in the selection process, recipients of Hispanic and African American descent who have been approved to receive scholarship funding will be given preference to receive a Carrillo Scholarship using the student-to-fund matching process.
  • ArtsBridge
    • Provides opportunities to Arts majors (undergraduate and graduate) interested in exploring professional pathways into education through direct mentoring and hands-on teaching experiences. Students who participate in ArtsBridge are awarded a scholarship. Scholars are selected through a faculty review process and need to be in high academic standing.
  • Paper Store Fund
    • Provides funding to enable students with financial need to purchase limited supplies from the Art Paper Store. Funds distributed via ladder faculty advocacy in coordination with Print Media SRA and department manager.
  • Virginia Rose “Ginny” Kleker Memorial Endowment
    • Honoring the donor's wishes to retain talented undergraduate students at UCSC and to assist them in achieving their goals, the award will be based on financial need. The award may be used to satisfy such expenses as supplies in pursuit of the major, and cost of living. No GPA requirements. 
  • Pamela Kibbee Memorial Scholarship
    • Provides annual support to one or more undergraduate or graduate art students who exemplify Pamela Kibbee -- a creative, ambitious, generous, talented, committed artist -- and accomplish something meaningful above and beyond their normal art education at UC Santa Cruz. (begins Fall 2023)
  • Porter Undergraduate Scholarships
    • Funded through Porter College for Porter-affiliated undergraduate art majors. Distributed either by highest need or through an application process, at the discretion of the Art Department Chair.