Standing for Cultural Democracy

The USDAC’s Policy and Action Platform Summary

Arlene Goldbard

This cultural policy platform is offered by the people-powered U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, a grassroots action network inciting creativity and social imagination to shape a culture of empathy, equity, and belonging. It emerges from the USDAC’s ongoing action research, engaging people across the U.S. in articulating hopes, dreams, and concerns through art and culture.

We offer this platform to amplify ideas that can advance social healing and a future that countless Citizen Artists have told us they wish to inhabit: cultural democracy grounded in equity and engagement; full cultural citizenship, belonging without barrier; and deep respect for the right to culture—expression, participation, recognition—underpinning any just and caring society. We understand culture in many senses, but the foundation is a medium for growth for ideas, expressions, individuals, and communities. Ideas are essential to nurture the national conversation needed to reveal the true depth of demand for cultural democracy. Ideas are essential, yes, but without action they are stillborn.

Source: Summary