Statement on Equity and Inclusion

The Putney School Summer Arts’ support for Black Lives Matter, communities of color, and the fight against systemic racial injustice

The Putney School Summer Arts stands firmly against racism in its many forms. We seek to nurture the creativity and humanity of our Black students and students of color, and will engage with all of our students on their own terms. To do so successfully remains central to our mission to support the next generation of artists.

As educators, we are working to deconstruct the largely white canons of work, and to critically reimagine what a collection of inspirations can look like for students who are building their artistic practices. By decentering whiteness, we are creating space to learn from and with students and everyone in the Putney community — where racism, bigotry, and bias will be named, and where we can foster a continuing discussion about how to progress further beyond those divergent realities.

The administrators of the Putney School Summer Arts hereby pledge to hire faculty with a broader range of experiences, cultural backgrounds, and identities as we seek to improve our community. As a private educational institution, we understand that our history is indelibly entangled with a legacy of inequity, and with the perpetuation of eurocentric, colonized curricula and pedagogies. We pledge to continue to examine our own position of privilege as we strive to strengthen our communities and creative spaces for everyone.

Student leadership and the relationships we build within our community are central to the experience at Putney. As you have questions, concerns, suggestions, or as things come up for you, please talk with your teachers, with Dan, and with Tom, whose job it is to lead the programs. Lisa Muñoz, Putney’s Director of Equity and Inclusion, is also eager to continue this conversation and provide any additional support. We are all on board for whomever wants or needs to open and engage in this dialogue. We encourage those who may be hesitant to speak up to make their voices heard. We pledge to take all community members’ experiences seriously, to listen, and to respond.

Together, we will make Putney a more equitable and inclusive place. We hope that the experiences we have together will inspire us to engage in our communities beyond Putney as we continue the work of dismantling the infrastructure of systemic racial injustice.