A toolkit to help artists and arts workers from marginalised and underrepresented communities understand a host, or commissioning organisation’s approach and commitment to equity and inclusion.
Many organisations in the visual arts sector are looking to become more relevant, equitable and inclusive. This will hopefully mean more work with artists and arts workers from marginalised and underrepresented communities.
This toolkit aims to give artists and arts workers from marginalised and underrepresented communities insight into the extent of a commissioning, or host organisation’s commitment to equity and inclusion work, and the practical approach the organisation adopts to this work. By enabling artists and arts workers from marginalised and underrepresented communities to do this, we hope to reduce some of the extra work required of these individuals to undertake this work repeatedly.
Developing an organisational culture and approach of inclusion and equity is a continuous improvement process, not a one-off initiative. Organisational policies, ways of working, culture etc, need to be considered and reflected on to enable change and growth, and to ensure relevance.
This toolkit may give you a snapshot of an organisation’s approach to equality and inclusion. However, it’s important to note that organisations continue to evolve and change. It’s also important to note the limitations of this sort of approach, especially when gauging authentic care, intentionality and a genuine approach. Therefore, as an artist or arts worker, please use this toolkit as a starting point or as one of many approaches to help understand an organisation’s current approach and commitment to equity and inclusion.
The PowerPoint versions can be used to write on and are available for download.
These toolkits pick up on themes covered in our Fostering Equity in the Visual Arts Sector report. Three toolkits are for organisations; the fourth is for artists and arts workers.
The toolkits are intended to act as a stimulus to encourage the development of further work toward a fairer, more equitable sector, helping to translate theory into practice and action. The toolkits highlight the necessity of having a good (or outstanding) approach to equality and inclusion internally, as this will impact an organisation’s ability to deliver this work externally. They also recognise that this work should be taking place without waiting for direction from others.
They are aimed at organisations that include insightful prompts to assist with self-reflection. They also provide a structured resource divided into bite-sized sections that can be used to encourage discussion and reflection around gaps and strengths.
Toolkit themes
For organisations
- Toolkit 1: preparing for equity and inclusion work
- Toolkit 2: talent development of underrepresented and marginalised artists and arts workers
- Toolkit 3: exploring intersectionality
For artists and arts workers
- Toolkit 4: for artists and arts workers from underrepresented and marginalised communities to share with host or commissioning organisations to gauge the organisation’s approach and commitment to equality and inclusion work.
This toolkit was created and developed by Monique Jivram. Monique’s career spans more than ten years in arts organisations as a funder and practitioner in inclusive community, public engagement and visual arts programming. Operating at the intersection of curation and inclusive public programming, Monique’s work focuses on improved inclusion, more efficient distribution of resources, and supporting underrepresented people to thrive in the arts sector.This toolkit builds on sections of CVAN’s 2022 research report Fostering Equity in the Visual Arts Sector, written by Dr Cecilia Wee and Veionella Spaine, with further programme support from Rukhsana Jahangir.
