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You Belong At CIA

A group of students and staff are dancing at the opening of the 2024 BSA exhibition.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is woven through the fabric of CIA. Our community is more creative, more collaborative and stronger when differences are celebrated and individuality is encouraged.
President’s Office Community Impact Strategic Plan

Diversity and Anti-Racism Statement

The Cleveland Institute of Art recognizes and embraces diversity and believes that an outstanding education in art and design should be accessible to all individuals regardless of ethnicity, race, religion, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, socio-economic status or disability. It is essential for the College to advance diversity by encouraging our community to share a responsibility in creating, maintaining and developing an environment in which difference is valued, equity is sought, and inclusiveness is practiced.

The MOSAIC Pre-Orientation group is wearing their shirts and posing together as a group at the end of their week.

MOSAIC Pre-Orientation

MOSAIC (Multicultural Orientation Series for Artists In College) was created in 2022. The program is open to all incoming first-year students and strives to support those who may benefit from a more personalized transition into college. It is a year-long program that offers students a chance to get their academic career off to a strong start. They are introduced to academic and support resources, given tours of campus and University Circle and matched with a peer mentor who will support them throughout their first year.

Two students are wearing pride shirts and holding pride flags. They are marching in Pride in the CLE 2024.

Making a more equitable future

Each building on our campus has at least one gender neutral bathroom.

You can identify their chosen name, something we call campus name, in the student information system and have that name be viewable on internal school documents, such as class rosters. All you have to do is contact the registrar’s office: registrar@cia.edu.

These conversations are places for open, facilitated dialogue around poignant and provocative questions. The acronym TRI indicates a willingness to attempt to put ideas into practice, trying out different perspectives and disrupting entrenched thinking or methods.

Past topics have included:

  • Resisting Ableism and Supporting Neurodiversity
  • It’s OK to Disagree, Speaking Truth to Power Respectfully
  • Identifying microaggressions and navigating Blackness in the classroom
  • Acknowledging our identity in how we respond to others
  • The Harm of Silence

The IDEA Council comprises faculty, staff and students who bring diverse perspectives, experiences and priorities to foster comprehensive dialogue and action planning.

Goals:

  • Promote a welcoming, respectful and inclusive community that encourages understanding of appreciation of difference
  • Identify the needs of underrepresented members of our community and make recommendations for initiatives that will be ongoing with clear intentions to effect permanent cultural change
  • Support diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, strategies and tactics aligned with the strategic plan
  • Assist students, faculty and staff to develop and enhance skills and competencies to relate and work with people who are different than themselves

Land Acknowledgment Statement

The Cleveland Institute of Art believes it’s important to understand the history that brought Northeast Ohioans to reside on this land and to understand our collective place within that history.

CIA occupies land officially—if not willingly—ceded by 1,100 chiefs and warriors who signed the Treaty of Greenville in 1795.

That land and our buildings are in the city of Cleveland, the county of Cuyahoga, and the state of Ohio. The terms “Cuyahoga” and “Ohio” are both derived from languages of various Indigenous tribes that lived here for thousands of years. We recognize those people for their careful stewardship of this land and acknowledge the thousands of Native Americans who today call Northeast Ohio home.

Finally, we also recognize that colonialism is not limited to our past but continues today in many forms. We encourage you to join us in working to understand and actively address the factors that fuel bigotry and colonialism so that past wrongs are not repeated and so that we can work together for a more just and equitable world.

Updated September 16, 2022. Looking for more information? Please visit native-land.ca


What CIA is doing

  • Members of CIA’s IDEA Council are working to connect with local organizations to better learn the history of the land on which the College was built.
  • IDEA Council members are seeking a speaker(s) to take part in Reinberger Gallery’s Lunch on Fridays lecture series. We are hoping these speakers can provide the CIA community—and all Northeast Ohioans—greater context.
  • IDEA Council members are exploring professional networks to identify partnerships that might lead to scholarship(s) for Native students.

Equal Access

Our campus embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion and upholds a Non-Discrimination and Anti-Bias, Harassment, and Intimidation Policy as part of our Student Handbook and Non-Discrimination, Anti-Harassment and Non-Retaliation Agreement as part of our employee handbook. Additionally, we understand that civic engagement and civil discourse play an important role in our community and share our expectations around the conduct of demonstrations and protests.

CIA community members and guests who believe their equal access rights have been violated are encouraged to share their concerns via our Equal Access Concerns Form. Alleged violations of these policies will be processed through the appropriate reporting area.

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