Inc Arts launches anti-racism tool for cultural sector

National collective Inc Arts has launched a programme to support anti-racist work in the cultural sector.

The Unlock toolkit is a free resource aimed at museums and galleries as well as theatre, dance, music, festival and combined arts organisations. The National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Cambridge Junction and Lyric Hammersmith Theatre are among the organisations that have already signed up.

“Unlock is what is needed right now,” said Amanda Parker, the director of Inc Arts. “It is a direct result of the urgent and necessary advocacy of the hundreds of individuals and advocacy groups that have worked tirelessly over 2020 to make explicit how racism has affected lives. It is free to use because the more people use it, the more we can all see the change that so many of us and our allies want to see happen.

“Transparency is important – but confidentiality and collaboration is equally important. That's why we will never be ‘calling out’ or sharing publicly in any way other than through showing trends that the whole sector is part of – the change we all want to see.”

Unlock will allow organisations to build a longitudinal picture of the positive changes being made in the sector. It has been created by gathering the recommendations, demands and suggestions of those most affected by racism in the arts sector.

The Unlock toolkit offers organisations a choice of more than 100 suggestions and pieces of advice to help implement their anti-racist commitments. Suggestions in the toolkit range from how to diversify leadership, through to diversifying procurement and hiring.

Unlock, which is being backed by the Gulbenkian Foundation, is being launched with the hashtag #100ActionsAgainstRacism. The launch is being supported by a series of conversations for all organisations working with Unlock.

Inc Arts was set up to champion the creative, economic and contractual rights of the UK’s ethnically diverse cultural workforce.