OUR VISION

To foster participation in and support of artistic expression, diverse education, and civic responsibility, through immersive festivals and innovative programming.  

Our goal is to work alongside many community partners that share in our efforts to put Lincoln, Nebraska, “on the map”; Making Nebraska a globally recognized cultural destination supports the recruitment and retention of a vibrant and diverse workforce representative of the communities we aim to serve.

OUR COMMITMENT

The staff & board of Lincoln Calling acknowledge the difficult time our community has been going through with regards to COVID-19 and ongoing systems of oppression (racism, sexism, ableism, classism, homophobia & transphobia).

We recognize that these issues are not mutually exclusive. With the majority of Nebraska’s COVID-19 cases being people of color, race is a crucial factor to consider when building our response plan to the pandemic.

Lincoln Calling stands with the Movement for Black Lives, and therefore we cannot plan an event that will encourage people to gather and risk further harming communities of color in this city. For the safety of artists, staff, board, volunteers, and community members, Lincoln Calling will only offer virtual programming in 2020. 

Our programmatic offerings will continue to respond to the unique needs of our community and industry as we move forward

How we have been changing 

× Lincoln Calling has made diversity in artistic and educational programming our top priority for the past five years.

× Lincoln Calling changed the structure of the organization, now a 501c3. We are a decentralized team, composed of many collaborators and a board. LC is more representative of and better responding to the community we serve.

× Lincoln Calling has made some progress toward achieving a more diverse board and staff, but there is much work left to do.

× Though our organization has decentralized power and we have achieved greater diversity by some measures, LC is still a predominantly white organization. As such, we acknowledge that our collective inherent biases cause harm to communities of color and minoritized communities. We are committed to taking action to address our blindspots and to earnestly engage in harm reduction.

Actions we are taking to reduce harm and increase equity

× We formed an Equity, Diversity & Inclusion committee in 2020. These board & staff members are tasked with:

• • • Authoring, implementing and evaluating an Equity, Diversity & Inclusion plan.
    • Planning anti-bias, anti-racism trainings for staff, board, and volunteers.
    • Overseeing artistic and educational programming to ensure inclusive and equitable curating.

× We’re developing an equity plan that will function as the core of our 3-year strategic plan.

Our plan will formalize the ways in which we ensure the equitable distribution of Lincoln Calling resources. It will prioritize recruitment, cultivation, and retention of staff & board members from BIPOC and other minoritized communities. And it will chart a path towards new leadership more representative of the Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Disabled, LGBTQIA2S communities we serve.