Fair and Equitable

Fair & Equitable (F&E) is a five year programme and commitment to instituting equity within the visual arts sector in England.

The Fair and Equitable programme is led by Dr Cecilia Wee and Veionella Spaine who are part of the CVAN England team, in conjunction with the nine CVAN England regions: YVAN (Yorkshire), CVAN North West, CVAN East Midlands, New Art West Midlands, East CVAN, North East CVAN, CVAN London, CVAN South East, Visual Arts South West. Fair and Equitable builds on equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives that have already been started in the nine CVAN regions. 

The aim of the Fair and Equitable programme is to make a significant contribution over a five year period, to developing a visual arts sector and ecology that facilitates the leadership and thriving of artists and arts workers from underrepresented and marginalised communities. 

The programme is grounded in the lived experience of artists and arts workers who are most marginalised , specifically, individuals who identify as part of Global Ethnic Majorities, disabled and neurodivergent, LGBTQI+ and working-class communities. 

Our approach recognises that questions of equity in the visual arts sector are being more publicly explored. The Fair and Equitable programme sits alongside work that is being undertaken by organisations such as Inc Arts, Runnymede/Freelands Foundation and the APPG for Creative Diversity report on ‘What Works’ to ground future equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) interventions in the visual arts with evidence. 

We have identified three key constituencies for the Fair and Equitable programme:

• Artists and arts workers from marginalised communities
• Individuals working in arts organisations
• CVAN regional networks

We aim to work with these three overlapping yet distinct constituencies, developing targeted activities, based on different needs.

2021 – 22 is a pilot phase for the F&E programme. It is an opportunity for us to test some approaches within the regions and gather information from artists and arts workers, establishing a baseline for this work going forward. This phase of the programme will involve a snapshot survey of individuals, research conversations, and public events. The Fair and Equitable programme team will also collaborate with partners, including CVAN regional networks, to develop experiments in shared equity, diversity and inclusion resources and knowledge. 

By September 2022, the end of this pilot phase, we aim to document our process and outline broader goals and outcomes for the rest of the programme 2022 – 26. 

As part of the Fair and Equitable pilot phase, we are conducting a survey of individuals, inviting artists and artsworkers from underrepresented and marginalised communities (specifically individuals who identify as part of Global Ethnic Majorities, disabled and neurodivergent, LGBTQI+ and working-class communities) to share their views and experiences of the visual arts sector. 

The survey will help map the needs and experiences of individuals from underrepresented and marginalised communities working in the visual arts sector. The findings play an important part in shaping the development of the Fair and Equitable programme. Information collected will help us identify how the sector needs to shift to establish more fair and equitable practices in issues including: recruitment, retention and progression; education and professional development; governance and infrastructure within artistic and education institutions. 

The programme team will analyse and discuss survey results with a working group of artists and arts workers from across England who come from marginalised communities. We will publicly share key findings, along with our developing plans for the programme in Summer 2022.

This survey is now closed, thank you to those who responded.

If you would like to stay in touch with the Fair and Equitable programme, receive information about survey findings and opportunities to participate in focus groups, please sign up here.