Values

Where The Future Is Present

We believe that our purpose at The Jazz Gallery is to celebrate creativity, build community, and raise awareness around Jazz, a powerful and life changing medium; an art form that was born out of slavery and forged by the sheer strength of human spirit, incredible resilience, and inner beauty that all human beings possess.  This Black American Folk Music we now call jazz is so generous in its spirit that it allows room for everyone to join in. It welcomes dissonance and finds resolutions in most unexpected ways. Practitioners of this art form must learn to listen well and serve something bigger than themselves: the music.

The Jazz Gallery is dedicated to fostering the artistic growth and voices of musicians in the world of Jazz, a distinctly American art form which grew out of the African-American experience. With this principle guiding our mission, the values of diversity, racial equity, and inclusion are integrally woven into the heart of what we do. However, we recognize there is always more work to be done. The Jazz Gallery continually seeks to reimagine policies and business practices through these values while also staying deeply rooted in our community and our commitment to Jazz and improvised creative music in New York City. We are committed to removing barriers to participation and to advancing a diverse representation of cultural backgrounds. We strive to fulfill these commitments through a process of examination, self-interrogation, learning, and visioning, while accepting the work will never be finished.

Jazz has been a generous and nurturing guiding force for everyone involved in The Jazz Gallery, and we wholeheartedly believe in its ability to foster understanding, encourage unity, and deepen our humanity. We always want to be in service of this music, and not to use it as a tool. Arts, particularly music by nature, is a powerful thing and all of us who deal with it have a great responsibility. Regardless of race, socio-economic status, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, gender, or marital status, we are an organization that celebrates the richness of our community and of our work within it.