ACE renews its commitment to diversity

Arts Council England’s (ACE) National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) are to be monitored and supported to ensure their programming, audiences and workforce are “more reflective of the diverse communities they serve”. In a speech described as “one of the most important speeches I’ll make as Chair of Arts Council England”, Sir Peter Bazalgette has outlined a “fundamental shift” in ACE’s approach to diversity, revolving around the Creative Case for Diversity, which all NPOs have already signed up to. But in future, they will be expected to deploy their ‘Creative Case’ plans, and future funding settlements will be influenced by their success at delivering them. Speaking at Sadler’s Wells in London, he said: “We can’t give people creative talent. But we can and must give those with talent creative opportunities. The arts are a mirror for society; and if we sort this, the arts won’t have to make the case for diversity.”

The new approach comes against the backdrop of ACE’s last investment round for NPOs, which saw a drop in the number of black and minority ethnic (BME) and disability led organisations, with some areas of the country having no new applications at all. ACE’s Grants for the Arts programme, which funds more than 3,000 small organisations and individual artists, has also seen a decline in BME applications and a substantial fall in applications from disabled people.

Over the years ACE has made a number of policy interventions to influence the diversity of the sector, but Bazalgette concedes that “we have not achieved what we intended”. He attributes this to a failure to grasp the complexity of the issue: “…we thought hard about improving the overall employment figure for diversity, but probably did not grasp how important it was to resource the leadership programmes that would drive sustainable change. And we concentrated on BME-led organisations – fine, but as a consequence, we didn’t nurture diversity in all our work, across all our funded organisations and their audiences. We need to think about programming, the workforce, leadership and audiences, and how all these are interrelated.”

Among staff working at NPOs, representation from black and minority ethnic groups is currently 13%, which is beneath the national average of 15%; but in management, fewer than one in ten come from a BME background. According to Bazalgette: “the art we produce reflects who is in charge… from now on we’re going to make sure diversity is truly the responsibility of everyone and every organisation.” NPOs will continue to be required to produce an Equality Action Plan addressing areas such as recruitment and retention of staff.

ACE will be using its £6m diversity fund to address specific gaps, including support for the Unlimited programme for work by Deaf and disabled artists; a leadership programme and an ‘Agents for Change’ strand to help develop models of good practice; and a Creative Case Commissioning fund to invest in talent development outside the National Portfolio.