Diversity and Equity Acquisition Fund

Building a collection that represents the diversity of our community and our world is on ongoing effort that will take collective, concerted efforts to achieve. GRAM seeks to strengthen the diversity of its collection objects by addressing the current imbalance caused by decades of systemic exclusion. Historically, GRAM’s collecting agenda typically normalized a white, masculine, heterosexual perspective while excluding other voices and subjects. Rebalancing the collection will be accomplished by concentration on areas where inequity is most identifiable, namely: gender, sexual orientation, race, and culture of origin. 

For the past decade, GRAM has made concerted efforts to battle this systemic exclusion by presenting exhibitions featuring a myriad of voices and diverse perspectives, providing opportunities for dialogue around important societal issues, and prioritizing the purchase of art by artists from marginalized communities. However, a lack of funds for acquisitions has limited the museum’s efforts in this area. 

The fund will support the purchase of works in all media by Black artists, artists of African, Native American, Hispanic, Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander, Indigenous and Middle Eastern descent as well as works from women, LBGTQIA+ artists, and other artists that are subsequently identified as marginalized, oppressed, or underrepresented in the museum’s permanent collection.