Towards a Charter for Equity for the West Midlands Culture Sector

Guest blog by independent researcher Dr Lucy Lopez about the development of a Charter for Equity for the cultural sector in the West Midlands, a project driven by our members’ priorities and an action from Collectively Strategising Culture: Our Plan.

Since October last year I have been working on a piece of research for Culture Central, gathering input for a recommendations report which will inform the possible development of a Charter for Equity for the cultural sector in the West Midlands.

The idea for a Charter for Equity came from Culture Central’s members: it emerged as a shared commitment in the 2024 Member’s Summit, for a way of championing, modelling and measuring equitable practice across the sector. As you may be familiar with, Culture Central already have a few different schemes which aim to foster equity in terms of who has a voice in our region’s culture; from their Inclusive Network which provides opportunities and support structures for individuals ‘traditionally excluded’ from the sector with an interest in personal development and sector change, to their work with Radical Listening Week (which returns this year with a focus on Disability Justice), to the leadership programme Collective, which I’ve been lucky enough to be a participant in this year, a programme focusing on alternative and often radical approaches to rethinking leadership, aimed at those not often included in such spaces.

So what is a Charter for Equity? In brief, a document which outlines and defines a set of principles and commitments that cultural organisations can adopt to promote equity, fair treatment and inclusion across the cultural workforce. In practice, we don’t know yet what it might be: some of the questions I am asking in my research consider whether a charter is the right form for this work; whether codes of practice are effective measures in actually changing how we work in the sector; and how to reach those who are not already committed to the long-term work of transforming the sector.

Is a Charter for Equity something that we need? In 2021, a report produced for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Creative Diversity found it still to be the case that:

Women, racially minoritised people, those with a working class background, people with a disability, and those living outside of London and the South East, are all significantly underrepresented in the creative and cultural industries, particularly in senior decision-making roles and key creative professions (Wreyford, O’Brien & Dent, 2021).

And further than this, that:

Only 16 percent of the creative workforce are from working class social origins, compared to just under one-third across the whole UK economy (…) Class also intersects with other factors to create further disadvantage, so that men from privileged backgrounds are five times more likely to work in a creative occupation than working-class women. Someone with a disability from a working-class background is three timesless likely to work in a creative occupation than someone who is privileged and able-bodied (Wreyford, O’Brien & Dent, 2021).

Whilst this may be familiar to those working in the cultural sector, it is often at odds with the way that the sector presents itself – and a key concern of my research is how to argue for a more equitable sector in ways that are not performative, but which are able to make a genuine, tangible and long-lasting impact on how we work. The same 2021 Creative Diversity report also notes how numerous academic studies ‘have been critical of a shift in language from inequality and social justice to a discourse of diversity (…) [highlighting] how diversity might hide injustice and conceal organisations’ reluctance to engage with key structural and social problems, for example racism, sexism, or homophobia’ (Wreyford, O’Brien & Dent, 2021). Indeed, Sara Ahmed has written extensively on the way that diversity policy can act as a smoke screen, concealing rather than exposing bad practice (Ahmed, 2012). I am looking to recent reports and writing which avoid and challenge this tendency, such as Dr Jack Ky Tan’s ‘AREVA Report: CVAN London x INIVA Report on Anti-Racism and Equity in the Visual Arts’ from 2023; CVAN’s ‘Fostering Equity in the Visual Arts Sector: a report on creating conditions for artists and arts workers from underrepresented and marginalised communities to thrive’ (Wee & Spaine, 2022); and Jemma Desai’s 2020 paper ‘This Work Isn’t For Us’. I am also looking at the brilliant work being done by artists and organisations across the sector, which models equitable practice.

Across the West Midlands, there are many examples of this: from Selina Thompson Company, to Spectra, to Grand Union, to name just a few. My research so far has involved speaking to people and organisations across artforms and across the region. It’s clear that from the freelancers and micro-organisations doing brilliant things on a small scale, to the biggest institutions who are working hard to make changes in long-established infrastructure, across the West Midlands we have a great many examples which deserve to be recognised and celebrated.

A key priority for me is to develop recommendations for how a Charter for Equity could be useful and actionable, both for freelancers and the biggest institutions, and everyone in between; and following this, to advocate for accountability: not just what policy recommendations might be, but strategies for their implementation and longitudinal evaluation. It is a significant undertaking, which will be further developed by the Culture Central team after the submission of my recommendations report.

My approach

My approach to this research has been one of embedded, qualitative research, in addition to gathering quantitative data. This means I have spent a lot of time talking to people about their experiences of equitable (and inequitable) practice. I have also been working with critical friends to guide my work, and have assembled a group of Charter Caretakers, a working group who meet to discuss, challenge and input into my research-in-progress. This group has been brought together cross-artform and region, representing many different perspectives and experiences of the sector, including traditionally excluded groups.

Ways to get involved

By now, you may have already learnt about the Charter for Equity research: perhaps we’ve had a conversation about your organisation’s work, or you’ve seen me present as part of the 2025 Summit, at a CRU or Inclusive Network meeting. There’s still time to be involved in the research, and we want to gather as much input as possible, both from members and from other organisations and freelancers in the region.

Today we are launching this short survey to gather further perspectives on equitable practice in the sector. It’s crucial that we hear from all different stakeholders and participants in culture in the West Midlands, so please do take the time to contribute and share widely.

I also have regular ‘open house’ slots where you can come and speak to me one-to-one, in person or online. I’d love to hear more about your work or experiences in the sector. To learn more, just drop me an email at lucy.equityresearch@gmail.com

References:

Tan, J.K. AREVA Report: CVAN London x INIVA Report on Anti-Racism and Equity in the Visual Arts, 2023. Available at: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/67440973/areva-report-jan-2023-cvan-london-iniva-jack-ky-tan

Desai, J. This Work Isn’t For Us, 2020. Self-published. Available at: https://heystacks.com/doc/337/this-work-isnt-for-us--by-jemma-desai

Wee, C. and Spaine, V. Fostering Equity in the Visual Arts Sector: a report on creating conditions for artists and arts workers from underrepresented and marginalised communities to thrive, 2022. CVAN England. Available at: https://cvan.art/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Fair-Equitable-Prog-Fostering-Equity-FULL-REPORT.pdf

Wreyford, N, O’Brien, D, and Dent, T. Creative Majority: An APPG for Creative Diversity report on ‘What Works’ to support, encourage and improve diversity, equity and inclusion in the creative sector, 2021. King’s College London. Available at: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/cultural/projects/creative-majority

Dr Lucy Lopez is an independent curator, writer and researcher. Currently she is Curator of Radar, a programme of commissions connected to research at Loughborough University. She is also a custodian of Birmingham Resistance Library, and is conducting research to inform a Charter for Equity for the West Midlands Culture Sector, lead by Culture Central. Together with Alba Colomo, she is co-founder of la Sala, a small ecofeminist art organisation. In 2014, she co-founded the London-based art organisation Jupiter Woods. She holds an MFA in Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a PhD from Birmingham School of Art.