Artswork staff undertake Race Equity programme with specialists No Barriers
Date Created: 26th Oct 2022
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At Artswork we strive to make the arts and creativity available to absolutely everyone. We aim to break through barriers and develop new ways for people to discover the success, empowerment and sheer joy that the arts and creativity can bring to classrooms, communities and careers.
Between December 2021 and May 2022, all Artswork staff took part in a Race Equity and Anti-Discrimination programme, working with specialist partner No Barriers. The programme helped the staff team to build confidence and develop awareness, knowledge and skills to be active anti-racist allies, through:
- Upskilling sessions to increase understanding of concepts and frameworks central to understanding racial disparities
- Individual and group reflection activities (Groupswork) aimed at prompting reflection on the content from the programme and contextualisation within the Artswork’s practice.
- In conversation sessions supporting participants to work in small groups to research, discuss and present on a training topic of their choice
- Discussion panel sessions with external guest speakers Jana Manuelpillai, Ama Afrifa-Tchie and Dr Tola Dabiri
Over the course of the programme, all staff took part in anonymous surveys to measure the change in attitudes, knowledge and confidence. By the end of the programme staff confidence in the use of race-related language and terminology had increased greatly with 44.4% of respondents saying they were in this language in the final survey, as opposed to just 4.4% of staff prior to the programmes start
The programme has also seen an increase in staff confidence and a strong development of knowledge, awareness and understanding of racism, antiracist practice, and how individuals within themselves and in their role can develop equitable practices to become more diverse and inclusive.
Following discussions as part of these anti-racism sessions, a staff working group has created Artswork’s first Anti-Discrimination Charter – a set of commitments and expectations that we are signing up to as individuals and an organisation.
Other key outputs from the programme include:
- Ongoing changes in approaches to recruitment to reach a more ethnically diverse workforce;
- A review and purposeful development of a more representative portfolio of images for marketing;
- Development and sustaining of partnerships with underrepresented community groups;
- The creation of a staff Reading Group, to continue to explore themes related to anti-racism and anti-discrimination.
We are passionate about challenging and educating ourselves further and look forward to continuing the conversation and strengthening our commitment to anti-racism in all aspects of our work. We still have a long way to go on our journey to true, meaningful allyship and would welcome any suggestions or guidance you would like to share with us. Please email info@artswork.org.uk with the subject line ‘FAO Artswork’s Race Equity Group’.
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