PODCAST: Change Culture in the Culture Sector

Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is commited to Trustee Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.  We were used as a positive case study in this 2022 Falmouth University research led by Dr Lucy Frears here and our Chair, Miranda Bird, was interviewed for this pilot podcast ‘Change Culture in the Culture Sector’ (2024).

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This is the pilot episode of a new podcast from Falmouth University, Change Culture in the Culture Sector, designed to help organisations navigate and influence change in board culture, focussing on equity, diversity, and inclusion. The goal is to empower those organisations with the tools and knowledge to include voices that have been historically marginalized.

The series is based on research carried out in 2022 titled “Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: How to Make Your Cultural Leadership More Diverse,” by Dr. Lucy Frears with collaborators Andy Chatfield and Dr. Abigail Wincott. You can read or download the full research and recommended actions for free here: www.falmouth.ac.uk/research/projec…y-and-inclusion

In this episode, we are exploring “First Steps” — what you can do to prepare your board before beginning the recruitment process, and the reasons why these initial steps are crucial. We’re going to hear what invited experts on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (or EDI) in the arts have to say, as well as Chairs and CEOs of arts organizations and those with trustee experience, but first, here’s some brief context on why diversifying boards is important.

In 2017, the Charity Commission revealed that 92% of trustees were white, older, and came from above-average income and education backgrounds, that, essentially, those who hold the power in arts organisations do not reflect the communities they serve, and that board practices, such as recruiting through invitation, perpetuated this lack of diversity into the future. For years, the arts sector, with support from Arts Council England, has increased efforts to improve representation of traditionally marginalized or excluded groups. However, our 2022 research revealed there’s still much to be done. Out of 63 trustees involved in our study, fewer than 10% identified as working class, only one person is from the Global Majority, one person identified as LGBTQIA+, two trustees were under 25, 68% were over 50, and there was no representation from anyone with physical disabilities. Women were the only group close to balanced representation.

And so we asked, without better representation on boards, can arts organisations really offer a programme that a diverse community wants and can they ignore calls to diversify their board?