Week Two at Equitas health has brought a lot of new learning opportunities! I started the week attending the new employee orientation, where we focused on and learned a lot about the organization’s mission statement and key values. Some key values that have stuck out to me include Cultural Humility, Inclusivity, Nobility of Purpose, and Acceptance & Respect. Equitas works hard to promote these values across the organization, with everything from including our chosen pronouns on our cubicles/email signatures, to providing healthcare in underserved communities. As I have immersed myself in the history and values of the organization, I am blown away by how much courage it took to begin to provide HIV/AIDS healthcare in the early 90s, with this nobility of purpose carrying on to this day.

The rest of the week has been a process of preparing to work with the Art for Life selection jury. We have been soliciting art donations for the Art For Life Fundraiser (if you are reading this and are an artist: submit work to us! We’d love to see it at this link!). The first jury selection meeting is this week, so I have been working to make binders with handouts of each piece of art, with a description of the artist, the value, the gallery, and other contact information. Almost all of these artists are local to the central Ohio area, and it has been so interesting to learn more about Columbus through these artist’s works. From paintings of High Street to empty State Routes, the landscapes of the area show up in these works too.

Tonight is the jury meeting down in a Short North gallery- I am very excited to meet our board and get to show them the artwork selections. Next week, the event will be picking up even more, as there begin to be more planning meetings as we finalize the auction items.