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Balboa Art Conservation Center (BACC) headquarters reside on the ancestral homeland of the Kumeyaay Nation. Kumeyaay peoples continue to maintain their connection to, and care for, this land.
BACC is committed to building and sustaining a thriving community that prioritizes the principles of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Access, and Representation. We use the term BIPOC to represent Black, Indigenous, and People of Color community members who currently inhabit the Western region of the United States, and which have been deeply affected by systemic inequities and colonial harm.
As one of the few nonprofit regional conservation centers in the United States, and the only such center in the western region, BACC has a responsibility to acknowledge the role of art conservation in upholding systemic racism. With this comes a unique opportunity to foster deep-seated change in the conservation profession and securing access to conservation and preservation for communities underrepresented in museum collections and the American cultural canon.
To this end, Balboa Art Conservation Center promotes equity in the workplace and fosters an environment that is welcoming, inclusive, and representative of ALL people.
To address Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, BACC is expanding engagement and education programs to demystify the field of art conservation and supporting training for emerging conservation professionals from BIPOC communities.
To address Access and Representation, BACC is supporting access to conservation, preservation, and collections care services for institutionally underrepresented communities, expanding its knowledge base to include culturally conscious and responsive methods of conservation and stewardship, and centering the voices, experiences, and narratives of BIPOC communities in the preservation of their cultural resources, intellectual property, and cultural heritage.
We honor this cultural equity statement and recognize that it is a living document, of which we as an organization are committed to grow in our knowledge and practice concurrently. We do this in solidarity with Indigenous peoples, in acknowledgement of our participation in colonial legacies and in commitment to supporting Indigenous sovereignty and rights to self-determination.
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This month's newsletter is a simple one. We wanted to share with you our recently released Cultural Equity Statement. We are grateful for the support of our Board of Trustees, our staff, and our cultural partners in the crafting of this statement. We are also grateful for the tireless work that has been done over the years and particularly since last summer by Black, Indigenous and People of Color to demand accountability and change. The burden carried by BIPOC communities to bring organizations like BACC and the field of the arts to a moment of self-reflection should not be overlooked.
