'Whose Culture?' report
“It [the sector] is elitist. It’s to drive honeypots for funding for arts organisations masquerading as diversity drives. And the majority of the diversity drives heavily favour white, upper class women." - Whose Culture survey respondent
We are excited to share that we have launched a new report to combat the lack of data on young people of colour’s experiences and engagement with publicly-funded culture in Bristol.
The Whose Culture? report details the learnings from our project, Whose Culture?, a co-produced action/research pilot funded by Bristol City Council.
The project ran between 2018 - 2020 and focused on mapping and understanding the cultural engagement and experiences of People of Colour (POC) aged 16-25 in Bristol who are underrepresented in the creative sector saying: “despite Bristol’s strong creative and cultural sector, audiences, staff and producers of colour remain disproportionately unrepresentative of the city’s cultural makeup (which is 16% people of colour).”
A series of images of young people of colour who attended our Whose Culture lab in 2018
The report also shares our ways of working with young people and our methodologies for co-creation. The Whose Culture project was integral to the ways Rising has grown and developed as an agency and this report is a labour of love for us, and our gift to the sector.
In it, there are opportunities for reflection, growth and understanding - but it also details some of the harsh realities about the Cultural sector's engagement with young people of colour.
There are two versions of the report available to download; a full report and a version that details the headlines and highlights.
This report is a call to action. Read it, engage with it and join us in creating change!
The Whose Culture? Report was compiled by Roseanna Dias, Elinor Lower, Rosa Ter Kuile, Fatima Safana and Asiya Sutton
We hope the report can act as a springboard for doing things differently in the sector.
LET'S TALK ABOUT THE REPORT:
Interested in finding out more about the Whose Culture report and what we do?
Join us from 1 - 3pm on 30th June 2021, for 'This Is The Work: Whose Culture?' a panel discussion event with a difference.
Hosted by Rising Arts Agency, we'll be exploring what it means to ‘do the work’ of inclusion, anti-racism, community support and structural change.
Get your free place for 'This is The Work: Whose Culture?' here.