Today marks the start of our work as part of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio. After nearly 10 years riding the project to project roller coaster, we are raring to spread radical inclusion more widely and deeply thanks to the stability this core funding brings.
Over the next three years, we’ll be welcoming new team members and getting stuck into a programme of meaningful and fun activity. We’re going in with our eyes open too, conscious to make sure that our radical ambitions don’t diminish even though we’re becoming part of an institution.
What are our plans?
Over the next three years, we will be exploring and advocating for radical inclusion through the following work*:
– growing on the work of Abundance and with our partners Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust, we’ll be working with local people to look at how Midland Metropolitan University Hospital can serve their creativity and how arts can support their engagement with the hospital. We’ll also be dreaming up new garden playspaces and inviting others to geek out on nature with us.
– We’ll be working deeply with a handful of groups from different backgrounds to create interactive, playful, sensory experiences for whoever they define as their community.
– All of our work, but especially these first two strands, will be helping us to answer the question, ‘What happens when we create inclusive spaces that encourage play for everyone?’ We think inclusive play and the many benefits it brings might be the key to changing a lot of what ails society. We hope to commission academic research into this idea – and to explore how making the results of that research truly accessible can help the impact of that work ripple out.
– We’ll have an annual Neurodivergent Artist Development project, which will build on the pilot we’ve just finished delivering. In the first instance, we’ll work with Spectra artists to set goals and develop skills or project ideas. As we continue to grow, we’ll open this opportunity out nationally.
– Neurodivergent arts management leadership is an area we think is really underexplored. We’ll be commissioning and supporting research into this area and very much expecting it to shake up how we work.
– We’ll be making a show too! With the aim of full production and a short tour in 2025, we’ll slowly be researching and developing a ‘spectrafication’ of the novel Precious Bane. Think pop-up orchard, the smell of sun-warmed wood, the taste of apples, killer music and a physical theatre exploration of people with visible differences falling in love, triumphing over evil, and taking up space.
– With our eyes on nuance and intersection and the broadest understanding of diversity, alongside our core work on neurodivergent and learning disability activism, we will continue our work on anti-racist and environmental action through learning, discussion and activity.
*NB – we still need to secure an awful lot of funding to make this all happen!
New team
Joining our Creative Director, Kate DeRight, and our Creative Lead, Hayley Guest, in the core team will be an Impact Lead, a Development Lead, a Marketing & Communications Lead, and a Policy Advisor. We’ll be introducing new folks over the coming weeks, so keep a watch on our social media!
As well as building our capacity and making our work more robust and dynamic, our core team is going to be focussed on embedding inclusivity in EVERYTHING we do as a way of creating radical new systems. This means we’re going to be thinking deeply and doing our best to be transparent about how to make policies, management, contracting, recruitment, finances, evaluation, marketing, and all the other aspects of running our organisation meaningful AND accessible. This focus will also include blog posts…. 😬
Our wonderful team of freelance artists and workers will be expanding too. As we grow our pool of artists, we’re enjoying thinking about how we articulate and share our practice.
We are really pleased to have welcomed our new Chair of the Board, Jamaal O’Driscoll. Once Jamaal has got his legs under the desk, we’ll also be expanding our Board with the aim of bringing in expertise in areas that could use an infusion and, as always, continuing to diversify.
Attention!
We are seriously chuffed to be joining the portfolio, but we feel like we’re relinquishing some kind of outsider status in order to do so. We’ll be checking in and watching out for what sort of impact this has. We’re pretty sure it’s going to change our work, but how?
Is the admin and reporting going to crush us or will we reach new heights bolstered by our reinforced base? Likely a bit of both.
How do we push back against the cult of productivity and keep the pace thoughtful and playful?
How do we keep attentive to nuanced ethics with multiple projects spinning at once?
No question about love, but how de we maintain care as the team gets bigger and we work with more and more people?
We reckon there will be more questions than answers but, given curiosity is central to everything we do, that’s the way we like it.
Our work is all about collaboration, so if you want to talk about any of the above – please get in touch!
#LetsCreate #RadicalInclusion