Purpose of the Fund
The Fund addresses inequalities of opportunity to access and participate in the arts. We want to support change in the way the arts are created, presented, accessed and experienced.
Through the Covid-19 crisis we have been made increasingly aware that inequality plays out in ways that connect and intersect across race, gender, class, disability and other identities and experiences. We want communities facing the greatest structural inequalities to have more power in decision making and more opportunity to engage in the arts as audiences and participants. We want to create change within and across the system so that a wider range of artists and / or practitioners, as well as arts and cultural organisations, can undertake meaningful and high-quality work with different communities, groups and individuals. We want to support and champion diversity in the leadership and delivery of this work. And we want the work we fund to be evaluated and the learning shared in order to influence others.
Over the long-term we want to see:
Change in and across the system where a wider range of arts and cultural organisations, practitioners and artists are able to undertake meaningful and high quality work with different communities. This means an ecology of arts provision that works better – individually and collectively – for all kinds of people and communities.
Shifting power where communities are empowered to make decisions about their cultural lives and able to access the resources and partnerships they need in order to pursue these ambitions.
Diverse and inclusive sector where the arts and cultural system is more diverse and inclusive in its leadership and workforce with many more people in these roles coming from communities which currently experience inequality and discrimination.
Evidence and learning where the arts and cultural sector – organisations, practitioners, funders and others – continually shares learning, is rigorous and reflective in evaluation and appreciates the value of collective understanding and improvement.