Culture, creativity and heritage makes Torbay a better place in which to live, work, learn and visit. Torbay Culture was set up with support from Arts Council England to provide strategic leadership for the local culture sector, and progress the cultural strategy which is focused around people and place.
EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
A Statement from the Board of Torbay Culture
The following statement was issued in the summer of 2020 and we have kept this here as part of our commitment to work for equality, diversity and inclusion.
Diversity, Equality, Respect: Black Lives Matter
‘Diversity and representation should not be current because it is the news on any given day. It should be part of our everyday. In a predominantly white area with less visible black, Asian and ethnically diverse populations, leadership and language is crucially important. Torbay Culture will listen, learn, empathise and engage. We commit to challenging when we see or hear injustice, intolerance or racism. We will evolve, and improve.
Leadership and governance: Torbay Culture can and shall actively evolve our leadership and governance to be more representative and diverse. The process of improvement is ongoing, it is not something which can be done to a fixed timescale and then regarded as ‘achieved’ or ‘delivered’. Ongoing reflection, review and attention are needed.
We commit to actively improving our diversity. As part of our strategy review in 2019 we planned to recruit new members for the board of Torbay Culture. That process was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. We now need to start that process, whilst remaining sensitive to the challenges that continue during recovery from the pandemic. During 2020/21 we are actively involved and supporting the Torbay Council review into racism, including connecting partners across culture and heritage with that process.
Our work – our activity and actions: Torbay Culture has enabled and commissioned many pieces of work over the last six years. Always we have operated on a principle of equal access, and transparency, but we need to look at this and see how we can improve in future. We recognise that we need to take more proactive approach to encouraging engagement and participation.
This work is not just about equality, it is about equity: What barriers are there to potential partners, audiences, participants? What can we do to improve diversity and representation, and what can we do to encourage and enable others to address this as well? We do not have all the answers, but we are listening, and will work collaboratively to make a difference.
Most of Torbay Culture’s work is strategic development, advocacy and collaboration with others. We do not manage services or venues, though we work with partners who do. Our focus is about ensuring creativity, arts and heritage are part of everyone’s thinking. As part of this we intend to keep working with our partners to ensure that the issues raised by the #BlackLivesMatter movement are part of the wider culture sector’s thinking, planning and action.
We will continue to support partner organisations in the bay, share information and good practice and will create space for conversations. Whenever we have open calls for creative opportunities, we will actively encourage under-represented members of our local communities to apply and get involved’.