The Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University stands in solidarity with protesters in the US and around the world against police brutality, oppression and systemic racism as we mourn the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the countless other victims of police force. We join Wilkinson College’s Department of Art in condemning all forms of racism, violence, bias, aggression and the marginalization of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) as well as discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, intersectionality, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. 

Art in its many forms embodies a playing field of visibility, representation and writing of history. As part of the landscape of institutions that populates this field, we want to contribute to actively forming a vision of society and our campus community that is anti-racist and anti-oppression, where art is not produced and consumed as a luxury good, but as a means of convening and expressing a critical, ethical, and moral view of the world, and speaking truth to power. In this moment, which is extraordinary in every sense, we are hopeful that real change is immanent. 

We acknowledge our responsibility to reflect the multiplicity and diversity of society and continue to commit to helping unwarp its distorted reflection in the art world. We are committed to continually educating ourselves and the community we serve by exhibiting work that is contributing towards racial and gender equity and towards increasing diversity and inclusion. Through our exhibitions, events and virtual presence we pledge to raise the visibility and representation of BIPOC artists and their suppressed histories.

We echo the chants of protest in cities across the world and affirm that Black Lives Matter!