CVAN Black Lives Matter statement

Our commitment to Black Lives Matter

We are a sector support and advocacy network for Contemporary Visual Arts across nine regions in England. Our mission is to support and promote the visibility and the resilience of the nation’s contemporary visual arts ecology by representing artists and independent creative practitioners, small to large scale arts organisations and galleries, and practices that are committed to education, engagement and public art. We believe in an equitable sector and collective action and are committed to embedding our work within civic life.

Black Lives Matter.

We add our voices to the protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and join the millions supporting the Black Lives Matter movement around the world. We stand in solidarity with our friends and colleagues in Black communities.

Systemic racism is real within the UK and the visual arts sector. As a national network of organisations, we commit to long-term anti-racist work to contribute to the ongoing fight against white supremacy in the arts sector. We acknowledge that demanding structural change will require time and collective action and therefore we encourage all sector leaders in positions of power to join us to accelerate this journey.

We are outlining tangible long-term commitments and goals in collaboration with our regional organisations to ensure that we are doing everything we can to be part of the change that is long overdue. We will also establish a code of conduct to ensure that we can be held accountable.

We will share the full details of our plan and commitments as we work through them.

In the meantime, we want to foster an open dialogue and we invite anyone who would like to hold us to account, to get involved or to simply comment to contact us at: info@cvan.art