To the Artists, Audience, and Community member of coLAB Arts:

Thank you so much for your continued enthusiasm and support for coLAB Arts’ mission to engage artists, social advocates, and communities to create transformative new work. In these trying times, we are reminded of the importance of community, both in our connection with one another, and our individual responsibility towards mutual well-being. This year, we are asking you to consider doubling your intended contribution. Here’s why:

coLAB Arts is excited to be starting a participatory budgeting process as part of our efforts to address issues of systemic racism and inequity in our community and in our own organizational structure. We hope you will consider donating to our newly created participatory budgeting fund, as well as to coLAB Arts’ general fund. Here’s what you need to know:

• What is participatory budgeting? Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic process in which community members decide how to spend part of an organizational or public budget. It gives people real power over real money.

• Why is coLAB Arts implementing PB? In the wake of the unjust killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and others, and the subsequent protests against police brutality and systemic racism, coLAB Arts has been compelled to examine the ways in which we are actively working to dismantle white supremacy, as well as the ways in which we have been complicit in upholding systems that harm and marginalize people of color. PB is a way for us to put our money where our mouth is, taking our racial and economic justice work a step further by not just including the community in our work, but granting them real power and ownership over this artistic process, from start to finish.

• What does PB look like at coLAB Arts? We’ve developed an exciting process for participatory budgeting that involves a lot of creative thinking, teamwork, and conversation. We invite you to check out the infographic included in this mailing to learn more about how this will work!

• Why should you support PB? We at coLAB Arts believe in the power of the arts to effect positive change, and we’re guessing you do, too. So, it’s our responsibility to support movements that seek to restore justice to communities that have long been marginalized and silenced. We know that art can be a powerful tool in achieving this goal, and participatory budgeting is a way to make that art truly by and for the people—all the people—in our community. 

This has not been a typical year. We have all been forced to reckon with the inequities in our society, and to decide what we are going to do to address them. As 2020 comes to a close, we hope that you will support justice through the arts by making a charitable gift both to coLAB Arts and to our participatory budgeting fund. We will be in touch over the coming months with updates on this work, and we welcome you to reach out to us if you have any questions or would like to have a conversation. We’re in this together, and we would love to have you along for the ride.

Sincerely,

Dan Swern, Producing Director
John Keller, Director of Education