Diversity

A report by Bristol City Council has found that Bristol Harbour Festival is suffering from an "identity crisis", with many people unclear as to the nature of the annual event.

“Some think it predominantly a music or food festival due to the programming… Generally there is a feeling it is commercialised, with big brands monopolising the food offer and few people see it as a community festival,” the report noted.

It added that many people were put off by the festival’s “drinking culture”, calling for major changes to the event.

“The drinking culture has a detrimental affect on attracting participants from different cultures and the older community,” the report found, with many visitors to the festival choosing to leave the area before evening. The report also raised concerns that the event is “too middle class and white”. 

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests and the toppling of Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol in 2020, it said that the festival needed to make changes to “better reflect Bristol’s communicates in the context of these global events”. Recommendations include installing a creative director to help attract a more diverse audience.

“The festival needs to reflect recent events in its addressing of the issues around the harbour as well as celebrating the diversity that Bristol represents,” the report said.

Despite this, members of the council's are expected to approve an extension to 2023 for the current festival organisers, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

They are expected to use next year’s event as a transition to a new contract, which will be retendered in 2024.

Freelands Foundation has awarded £608,000 in the form of seven new grants to small and medium-sized Black-led visual arts organisations in Bristol, Leicester and London.

The Space to Dream fund will allow the selected organisations to work with artists, curators and local communities as part of the foundation’s £3m commitment to address racial inequality in the visual arts.

The seven organisations were selected by the foundation’s Diversity Action Group.

They are 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning in Brixton, the Arab British Centre in Central London, Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham, Cubitt Artists in Islington, June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive in Peckham, Rising Arts in Bristol and Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage in Leicester. 

Each organisation will use the fund to invest in a different aspect of programming or outreach,

Rising Arts plans to use the grant to expand its youth-led programme, using mentoring, young trustees, networks and collaborative commissions to embed diverse voices into the cultural sector.

“This funding will allow us to put resources into the recommendations that came directly from people of colour in our community,” said Euella Jackson and Jess Bunyan, Co-Directors.

“We will celebrate the legacy of the work that has come before and build on this towards a future sector where young people of colour can truly thrive.” 

The Bernie Grant Arts Centre will use the grant to develop a visual arts programme shaped by international guest curators, bringing world-class programming to local community groups.

Hannah-Azieb Pool, Artistic Director and CEO, said the grant “will make it possible for us to commission ground-breaking new work by Black artists and allow us to create a bold, ambitious new home for Black visual arts”.

Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage will use the award to explore African diasporic identities across the Midlands through a documentary photography project marking the 60th anniversary of independence for many African and Caribbean nations.

The Arts Marketing Association (AMA) has launched a series of job templates to help tackle the “growing gulf” between expectations of arts marketing roles and offered pay rates.

It warned that during the pandemic “a huge amount” of marketing talent left the arts, culture and heritage sector, due to a crisis caused by consistently poor pay being offered to skilled workers.

The association reported that recruiters are struggling to fill roles, warning that marketing “ultimately can be the difference between success and failure in reaching audiences and ensuring a sustainable future for organisations”. 

A recent Centre for Cultural Value study revealed that the performing arts workforce is 15% smaller in 2022 than it was in 2021, meaning that staff are working longer hours to accomplish the same level of output. Many advertised vacancies are for two roles that have been merged into one without reducing expectations accordingly, AMA said.

“We’re seeing demoralised and burnt-out arts marketers who have left and will continue to leave our sector,” said CEO of AMA, Cath Hume.

“Long-term this will negatively impact the success of the sector and its organisations. Our members are being asked to take on more and more within their roles, but with no corresponding increase in resource or budgets.”

Many advertised roles have become “catch-all” positions with “wildly unrealistic” expectations, the association said, in part due a widespread misunderstanding of what marketing roles involve, particularly at senior levels.

The new templates aim to combat this by including appropriate job descriptions for various roles that can be used for recruitment. 

As well as creating fairer conditions for existing arts marketers by ensuring that skills and expectations are aligned with the pay and working hours available, they aim to make the sector more accessible and inclusive to those currently under-represented in the workforce.
 

A new £4.1m creative hub for young musicians and dancers has opened as part of efforts to support diverse talent.

The Talent House, based in Stratford, will house both East London Dance and national youth music organisation UD, providing young music and dance professionals free and affordable access to world class facilities as a launchpad to reach new audiences.

It is hoped the venue, paid for with initial funding from Arts Council England and the Greater London Authority, will attract more than 12,000 people every year with an "inspirational" public programme, co-curated with young people, artists and local residents.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who opened the hub, said: “London’s music and dance scene is thriving, but these companies need a home to nurture and support talent, so I’m proud to have invested in this state of the art facility, which will not only be a springboard for creatives and performers in Newham and across the city, but help to cement London as the creative capital of the world. 

"Investment like this is essential for our city’s recovery and a key part of building a better London for everyone.”