4) Prioritise long-term, structural work on gender equity and diversity within your sector. Why? • In many contexts, gender equity and diversity is seen as a "nice to have," something that is addressed only after "core activities" have been taken care of. Thinking of this work as long-term and structural means that it might (and probably will) infuse many aspects of organisational life as part of an ongoing process of change. • Like many "socially-engaged" topics that go through cycles of trendiness, there is a risk that tackling sexual harassment and power abuse in the arts on a structural level becomes a lower priority within organisations once public attention has waned.
Recommendations • Ensure gender equity and diversity is foundational to your organisation’s activities, not a box to be ticked once in a while. • Pay attention to who is in the room and to how they have a seat at the table.26 • Offer workshops on discrimination to staff, network members, board members, students, and external collaborators. • Organise regular meetings with your network that focus on sharing good practices, resources, stories of change, advocacy campaigns, etc. Such meetings should be seen as a starting point for collective organising and creating broad support for structural change in the face of resistance and potential backlash.
Discussion point • How might your artistic programming and/or educational curriculum need to shift in order to prioritise gender equity and diversity? What would it look like for the values embedded in this artistic and/or educational content to inform concrete, internal changes within your organisation ?
Recommendations for European cultural networks
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