Creating Cultures and Practices for Diversity and Inclusion

As an organization and practice community, AIN generates, amplifies, and reproduces stories and narratives about who belongs and who is valued.  It's imperative that these stories affirm and uplift the art, culture, voices, and experiences of marginalized communities, including BIPOC, immigrants and refugees, women of color, LGBTQIA+ communities, and disabled people.  AIN strives to cultivate a shared spaces of diverse practitioners who play, practice, learn and grow together. Together, we seek to cultivate belonging, interconnectedness, trust, compassion, vulnerability, and courage.  We believe our shared efforts can help transform the larger global community for equity and justice.  

As a starting point, AIN is committed to growing an organization that is welcoming and respectful for all—particularly for individuals, groups, and communities that have been historically marginalized. We commit ourselves to embedding principles and practices of diversity, equity, and inclusion within our structures, policies, processes, gatherings, and membership.  (And we understand that commitment alone is not enough to bring about the change needed in this world.)

Our Individual Commitment as Members:

• Be considerate, respectful, and intentionally inclusive.
• Be curious. Everyone brings a unique experience and experiences things uniquely.
• Nurture relationships across perceived differences.
• Stretch yourself and your comfort zones.
• Build skills around cross-cultural interactions and communication.
• Be attuned to those you’re working/playing with. Be attuned to the larger context.
• Take responsibility for how you might be excluding others.
• Invite feedback about your impact. Be willing to offer feedback with care and candor.
• Take care of each other—alert an AIN representative and/or event organizer if you notice a dangerous situation or someone in distress.

Our Collective Commitment as a Community:

• We commit to co-creating an inclusive community by leveraging the unique contributions of our diverse members in the communities and on the platforms where AIN has a presence.
• We embrace the ideal of a diverse ensemble of applied improvisation scholars, teachers, trainers, and practitioners because it will enhance our organization and its members.
• We seek to work/play collaboratively—to build relationships where all members are valued, heard, and empowered.
• We are open to diverse points of view, to seeing multiple perspectives, and working to understand others from their perspectives. Our listening, attention, and presence with one another are keys to better ways of relating and communicating with one another.
• We endeavor to embody a “yes, and” principle, which guides us to explore and heighten our respective contributions. Ideally, our work and play together builds on each other’s ideas, perspectives, experiences, strengths, knowledge, and abilities to maximize our collective potential.

Code of Conduct (details):

Play and spontaneity promote growth, learning, and creativity—when we play, we thrive.  But, play only occurs when the risk is fun. We can’t play when we are in a situation of danger, anxiety, or contraction. To that end, AIN is committed to creating learning spaces in which participant safety and play are not hindered by discrimination or harassment. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for details on unacceptable behaviors during AIN-sponsored events.  

Our Organizational Commitment

“AIN seeks to save the world by spreading the joy of improvisation in diverse communities for positive change with deep global impact.” – Barbara Tint, AIN Past-President (2019 Stony Brook Conference). We believe there is endless possibility in our diversity and an invaluable opportunity to stretch and grow across our differences. This shared commitment to cultivating an inclusive organization calls upon us to generate a collective sense of belonging for all who share in AIN’s vision. Working together, inclusively, we can co-create lasting change and impact all around the world.