About Us

Equalities, Diversity & Inclusion

A manifesto explaining City Arts' approach and commitment to equalities, diversity & inclusion.

A group of people at an indoor event, with one person in focus wearing a bright purple coat and smiling, standing behind a person with short red hair seated in front of them. In the background, there are two easels displaying a photograph and a text panel. Another person with long blonde hair and glasses is partially visible on the right, holding a drink.

Despite legal protections, people are discriminated against and marginalised in most if not all areas of society because of attitudes to their disability, race and ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality and socio-economic background. There are often intersections between these forms of discrimination.

This is long-lasting and far-reaching injustice which City Arts alone doesn’t have the power to change. But we do have the power to make changes to the way we work and inspire others to contribute to change in Nottingham’s arts sector, with the ultimate aim of bringing about broader societal change.

A diversity of life experiences amongst the artists we work with produces art which is socially just. It can also produce art which is more interesting, offering new ideas, new ways of thinking and challenges to the status quo. It increases art’s relevance to audiences and participants.

This enables us to reach a more diverse range of people who otherwise would not find themselves represented in the arts.

In all areas of our work, we will commit to active listening, in order to identify, understand and remove barriers to access. We will work to increase representation on our team and board, as well as ensuring inclusivity amongst the artists we support and employ, and the participants and audiences our work reaches.

Socio-Economic Class

City Arts prioritises artists, participants and audiences from less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds. Socio-economic class and its intersection with other barriers is the core inequality that all of our work seeks to address.

We measure socio-economic background in two ways – using the UK Government’s Indices of Multiple Deprivation data for postcode areas, and using specially designed surveys that allow people to tell us about their individual socio-economic background.

City Arts staff and board will work to understand the complex intersections and interactions between class, disability and ethnicity.

Disability

City Arts uses the Social Model of Disability. The model says that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference.

All of our work will consider barriers to access at the beginning of any given project. We will ensure that there are budget lines for access costs, alongside relationship-building with disability-led groups and organisations, removing as many barriers as possible so that disabled audiences can take part in our cultural offer.

Aspects of our programme will be made with, by and for disabled people, and we will ensure bespoke / tailored approaches to remove barriers to access.

Ethnicity

We will strive to represent Black, Asian, mixed heritage and people from other underepresented ethnic backgrounds amongst our artists, to ensure our work is representative of participants and audiences we wish to include.

We will work to understand and remove barriers to opportunities including employment, governance, commissions and bursaries, building new relationships and networks to achieve this.