Patti Smith Diversity Fund
The Patti Smith Diversity Fund was established in memory of former board member Patti Smith for the purpose of supporting financial assistance to the Certificate Training Program for those who identify as Black, Indigenous or a Person of Color (or BIPOC).
With the help of generous donors we raised $9,000 toward our 3-Year goal of $20,000 last year for this newly created fund, which helped us to enroll our most diverse group ever!
Donations will be directed toward the Patti Smith Diversity Fund. Participants in the current cohort (2022-2025) need continuing financial support to complete their training as we strive to meet or exceed this $20,000 goal.
Please consider giving as generously as you can at this time.
Statement on Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Access
The work of the Center for Biography and Social Art is grounded in the belief that every person is a reflection of the universal human spirit and is equally worthy of value, respect, and the ability to seek truth and be heard. Biography and social art work is enriched through the participation of individuals from diverse backgrounds, who contribute to a fuller understanding of what it means to be human. We see in each individual a higher Self aspiring toward self-development that is independent of social categories such as gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and financial status.
In light of this knowledge, the Center for Biography and Social Art aims to:
Extend welcome to members of diverse populations to participate in our programs and to join our Board.
Implement alternative funding models to minimize financial barriers to participation in our programs.
Reach out to individuals from underrepresented groups to better understand both their interests related to biography and social art work, as well as questions or concerns they might have about this way of working.
Work with poetry, stories, and examples that represent the diversity of human culture and experience.
Stay up-to-date on the broader cultural conversations related to diversity, inclusion, and equity issues to ensure that our work remains sensitive to the growing understanding of such issues.
Make positive contributions to these broader conversations wherever possible through our way of working and our understanding of the human being, including:
Our ability to create and hold space for witnessing, reverence, wonder, (self-) compassion, and (self‐) forgiveness, where the “other” can be met as an individual rather than an abstraction.
Our appreciation of the process of human becoming, which follows a long arc throughout human history toward freedom and love.
Our invitation to live into questions rather than grasp for answers.
Our emphasis on listening to what life is speaking to each of us, and our faith in individuals to find their own story.