Inclusive Network: Where We Are and Where We’re Headed

Charlene Carter-James, Partnerships & Developmet Manager at Culture Central, reflects and updates on our Inclusive Network programme.

Inclusive Network started as a simple idea: create a space for people traditionally excluded from the culture sector in the West Midlands. A space to connect, share, and support each other. A space that values lived experience as much as formal qualifications. A space that isn’t just about getting in the room, but about shifting the room entirely.

We’ve built a community with shared values. People have connected, collaborated, found work, shared practice, and held space for each other, online, in person, and everything in between. The network has never just been a Culture Central project. It’s a practice.

Over the past year, we’ve stepped into spaces regionally and nationally, from Compton Verney to view the works and explore Class, Culture & Colonialism with Chila Kumari Burman, to the Good Growth Hub at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to see how they work with and support diverse artists through their programmes. We’ve had private tours of local exhibitions and knowledge exchanges with both major cultural institutions and hidden gems. Members shaped the Activate Development Grant Scheme, lending lived expertise to improve access to CPD funding for freelancers and small organisations across the region.

We brought paid opportunities to the group and created space for learning, unlearning, and showing up as we are.

And people showed up. They shared knowledge, found collaborators, tested ideas, asked better questions, and held conversations that mattered. They started seeing themselves as leaders, not just participants.

“Can something be done to bridge the yawning gap between funders and active practitioners? Too often we have to distort what we actually do to fit into transactional, mechanistic funding forms.”

That’s what Inc Net does when it’s working well, and still, we know there’s more work to do. Some people dip in and out, and others don’t come at all. We hear you - time, access, and headspace are real barriers.

“As a freelance artist and designer, I struggle to keep pace with meetings and opportunities... I work on demand to short deadlines and have to prioritise paid work.”

But building the sector we want won’t happen unless we turn up and shape it.

So, this year, we’re making it easier to plug in - with a clearer structure, stronger offer, and better access points.

Here’s what to expect:

●      Monthly check-ins and coworking sessions

●      Themed tracks for deeper learning and exchange

●      More visibility and pathways into paid roles through the Critical Friendship Framework

●      Support for member-led activity and co-curated events

●      A clear role in sector advocacy through the relaunch of Radical Listening Week and the next phase of the Charter for Equity

We want Inclusive Network to be the sector’s first stop when lived experience, challenge, and insight are needed. And we want more people from excluded groups to be in the room, shaping what comes next.

“I would love to have a development/reflection day... a workshop to help define our practice, refine our artist statement, maybe even get headshots and network at the end.”

And as we continue to build, we’re also listening.

“I’m not great with emails… but if there could be one place where all the upcoming events are, that would be really helpful.”

That’s exactly what we’re working on!

How to get involved

If you’re a cultural organisation looking for a critical friend and/or want to build better practice, informed by lived experience, start here. Email: charlenecarterjames@culturecentral.co.uk

If you're an individual from a traditionally excluded group working or navigating the culture sector in the West Midlands, no matter your career stage, this space is for you.

Register here and get involved.

We’re inviting you to help us shift the course and take up space in ways that make inclusion impossible to ignore.

Want to know more?

Register here for an online Programme Briefing Session - Thursday 8th May, 12pm-1pm

If you have any access needs for this event, please email charleymarshall@culturecentral.co.uk