Adopted by the Tides Institute and Museum of Art, June 10, 2020:
The Tides Institute & Museum of Art stands with those protesting across the United States and elsewhere in the world in response to the senseless killing in Minneapolis of black American, George Floyd. We stand with those calling for social justice and racial equality in all communities.
The Tides Institute’s mission is to bridge boundaries and explore borders, both cultural and artistic, and we include this entire border region, not just one community or group. We strive to collect, preserve and share the history, art and culture from this unique boundary location: U.S., Canada and Passamaquoddy. As a cultural organization, it is our duty to address bias, and to address the gaps in our collections, efforts and initiatives, as these omissions and absences represent absent voices and experiences in our collective history and contemporary practice. We strive to promote cultural efforts throughout the region, work in partnership with others and support new work by contemporary artists and others from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. We seek to strengthen this region’s economic prosperity, vitality and wider connections. To achieve these goals, we must address the systemic injustices at play in our communities, regions and nations, including our own. We are committed to doing more, and doing a better job.