As an all-white, disabled-led disability arts charity we are acutely aware of the representational challenges we face. Diversity needs to be intersectional and in concentrating (albeit successfully) on specific areas of diversity, we have neglected others.
We are actively working to address this.
In the short term, our recently announced artistic commissions and the programme for our festival in November will both provide platforms for the voices of black disabled communities and support for disabled artists unused to working in the digital world.
At the most recent DaDaFest Board meeting the Trustees considered and agreed a number of possible changes to the organisation and the way that we do business. These include:
· Making some immediate changes to specific policy areas that we think may have a positive impact. The most obvious one of these we have already implemented – a guaranteed interview scheme for people of colour that mirrors our existing one for disabled people
· Exploring the possibility of working nationally with other disability arts organisations to develop a training or mentorship programme and progression pathway for disabled producers, particularly digital producers, with a focus on recruiting people of colour
· Developing a rolling programme of mentoring and support for the position of Board vice chair for a person of colour to ensure the Board better reflects a wider range of voices
· All staff and Board members undertaking unconscious bias assessment and/or training and the results of this along with advice and guidance from local specialists to be used to inform and re-write a broader range of our policies and procedures.
The Board also considered some more radical options. However, the Trustees have taken the decision to delay progressing those options until a new Chief Executive/Artistic Director is in place. This decision has been taken deliberately to allow the appointed person maximum flexibility in terms of the actions that might be needed to ensure that our executive and charity management structures, systems and processes better reflect the voices of all disabled communities.