Venu Dhupa and Nicola Turner explore the forces that create the hostile status quo faced by achievers from ethnic minority groups.
The barriers to leadership are many ? the lack of a coherent career structure, the limited number of entry points, low salaries, lack of training, short-term contracts. Add potential prejudice on the grounds of ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and gender and the opportunities for leadership becomes slender. We only need to take a look at the merry-go-round when a senior position becomes vacant or the depressingly uniform profile of the leadership of our museums and galleries sector to see how these forces play out.
To articulate the reasons for this we would need a book, but a focus on ethnicity as an illustration may well apply more widely. What is the status quo? We have legislation in place, including the Disability Discrimination Act, the Equal Pay Act and the Race Relations Act (with the 2000 Amendment). There are also policies at national and organisational levels, like Arts Council England?s Race Equality Action Plan, supported by a good deal of rhetoric. A plethora of initiatives and awards exist, from Decibel to Eclipse, Fast Track to Board Bank, Next Level to the Digital Media Bursaries for Disabled Artists and the Race in the Media Awards. And there are role models (notably who have supported each other) who are catalysing ?the art?, offering a glimpse of a diverse society, with the confidence to debate a range of issues and simultaneously be an inspiration, a conscience and a healing force.
Faltering evolution
So why aren?t leaders emerging to (r)evolutionise the mainstream? Several reasons could be argued. Firstly there have been no high profile cases in the arts to test the teeth of the legislation and the metal of the enforcing bodies. Policies are a sop to the legislation, vary in quality and are ineffective unless championed vigorously from the top. Who at the top? The Boyden Report found that only 16 out of 463 (3.5%) of board members of English producing theatres classified themselves as African, Caribbean or Asian. Even if it were more it cannot be assumed that leaders could or should represent the interests and concerns of all of their minority, there needs to be a critical mass working for change at all levels.
Initiatives are short-term solutions that temporarily raise the baseline, are convenient for funders to demonstrate action but do little to alter the infrastructure and provide minimum levels of sustainability or enrichment to the hinterland. Most particularly the sector allows them to be appropriated by funders thereby blunting their radical edge. This is not to say there are not some excellent ongoing initiatives that demonstrate good practice, such as the National Disability Arts Forum, set up in 1990.
Finally artists focus energy on staying alive or viable and making the work. Many feel they are supported as long as they ?stay in diversity? but not when they begin to make demands on the mainstream or for significant resource.
Hostile environment
Research into leadership, including interviews with 16 high achievers from ethnic minority groups in the creative industries, revealed clusters of issues relating to the environment, the organisation and the self, and we can use this as a framework to explore the question more deeply.
The prevailing environment is one where there is an absence of appetite for radical social change: perhaps the result of the Thatcher years; perhaps an apathy in the face of an increasing gap between ourselves and our elected politicians; perhaps a realisation that we are far from a meritocracy and bodies and organisations are more self-interested than interested in making the case for those they are supposed to serve. Following the press coverage generated by ?Too Diverse??, an essay on immigration, diversity and solidarity by David Goodhart, published in Prospect magazine, and the response to ?genteel xenophobia? by Trevor Phillips in The Guardian, it seems we are no longer allowed to debate the pressure on core values, or deficiencies exposed in the ethnic majority raised by increasing diversity. No debate. No sensible solution.
Actions speak louder?
To win hearts and minds perception is critical. By allocating tens of millions to the Royal Opera House we are indicating that no world-class city should be without this cultural experience. So what are we saying by setting potentially crippling fundraising targets for organisations like inIVA and Autograph? Are we saying that actually this multi-racial melting pot that is London is fine without fully supported leading-edge organisations to reflect that diversity or are we just sadly but knowingly misdirecting the energies of the leaders of those organisations? If so what?s the point of emerging leaders putting themselves on the line for change, or promoting all the benefits of diversity and leadership?
Bad practice
Organisationally the research tells us the approach to recruitment practice and evaluation at senior level is poor. The national psyche is still wedded to the ?visionary? leader rather than teams to lead. It is almost impossible to find the range of skills to enable the work, empower artists and manage and account for complex organisations in one person. No leader is perfect. Combine a tendency to recruit in one?s own image (a phrase that masks a great deal) with less leeway, and leaders who are ?different? are more likely to be deselected. As a sector we are statistically worse off for companies and leaders than we were in the 1990s. The perpetual trainee from an ethnic minority often flying a lonely flag for change is prevalent. We are all on a learning journey, and this has been identified consistently as a shaping force for leaders, but the implication is, rather patronisingly, ?you?re not quite there yet.?
How good it would be to see a motivated group of board members from well supported institutions and organisations coming together in a ?governance for change? effort, perhaps looking at the language and style of operation at senior level which is currently riddled with middle-class mores, inherited from the industrial and manufacturing age, epitomising the class barrier. We need to find inclusive communication structures commensurate with the knowledge and information age.
Working practices within arts organisations are not conducive to a balanced existence. That may be a deciding factor in whether or not to accept work, and could be of greater influence on women and ethnic minorities. Organisational leaders operate under such pressure they are unable to look above the parapet, either to constructively self-critique or to find solutions. It is a rarity at networking events to come across leaders from the arts networking outside their own discipline, let alone across fields or sectors.
Standing firm
When it comes to the Self, we shouldn?t allow ourselves to be pulled apart or undermined by forces within and between ethnic minority communities or ethnic majority communities. We need to inform ourselves of and build on the work of the ?pioneers who stood there and took the bullets?. Many success stories can be traced back to them. We need to know ourselves, so we can progress from a position of pride in our identity and a foundation formed with integrity. We need to hone our skills, take an incisive and strategic approach to recruitment and construct and compete for leadership positions; then focus on the tasks rather than be distracted by the burdens of being a role model. Most importantly we must treasure and encourage those that are alongside or who follow, which does not always come easily in the world of the arts.
Towards a new agenda
Anecdotally, many achievers from ethnic minority groups see themselves as internationalists, some even passing through. We need to be enabled to see ourselves has having a stake in the artistic future of our organisations and institutions and embrace the agenda for changing the status quo, however daunting. The effort would seem more worthwhile if, like a Venn diagram, we could see the energies and views of the stakeholders, the creative self, the organisation and the environment in alignment to achieve exceptional art and exponential development.
We can compare ourselves to other sectors that are struggling with similar issues: the Set Fair Report by Baroness Greenfield and the Daphne Jackson Trust are working to rectify the dearth of women leaders in the science sector. Or we can admire the chutzpah and determination of millionaire businessmen like Len Dyke and the late Dudley Dryden. We endorse the view that the subsidised and commercial sector support each other, but we are at a moment in time when we can spare a nod to the market. There is a growing pressure on the mainstream to adapt or become increasingly sidelined.
Venu Dhupa and Nicola Turner are overseeing Cultural Leadership at NESTA;
w: http://www.nesta.org.uk