Anti-racism

In June 2020, Towner Eastbourne outlined its commitment to becoming an actively anti-racist organisation in response to the Black Lives Matter global action following the murder of George Floyd on 25 May 2020. We last reported our progress on actions taken and forthcoming priorities in December 2020. Given the long period of lockdown in the first half of 2021, most of the work to take forward our commitments has taken place in the latter half of the year, so an interim six-month report was not issued in the summer, as we had planned.

Our priority this year has been on developing an anti-racist culture within our team of staff, volunteers and trustees. Focus was around the first half-day Diversity and Inclusion Workshop in September led by trustees Jenny Williams and Mark Moorton, co-chairs of the Diversity Task Group with experience and expertise in diversity, inclusion and unconscious bias training. This first of regular sessions invited staff, volunteers and Trustees to reflect and share personal experiences of discrimination in all forms so we could learn from each other and begin to understand how individually, we can contribute to making Towner actively anti-racist and inclusive to everyone. Our reflective discussion was the starting point for an open, informed debate about how we create an ethical internal culture that will help deliver our commitments around programme, public engagement and speaking out. The session also included unconscious bias training and discussions on recognising and challenging unwanted behaviour.

We invited anonymous feedback to help inform next steps in our actions. These include a commitment to hold two all team sessions each year to continue conversation around anti-racism and to explore broader issues of diversity and inclusion across the organisation and in our programme, for instance how to make Towner genuinely accessible to other groups such as disabled, D/deaf and neurodiverse people, those who particularly marginalised due to their experience of multiple disadvantages, and those who experience disadvantage due to lower socio-economic background.

Other actions undertaken during 2021 include:

Internal Culture

· The Diversity Task Group (DTG) meets monthly to ensure delivery of the action plan. It reports on progress at quarterly board meetings under a standing Diversity and Inclusivity agenda item and ensures the governing body’s accountability for Towner’s Inclusivity & Relevance Action Plan and its commitment to diversify board membership over the next two years up to 2024.

· The DTG has prepared the groups Terms of Reference to be published in early 2022, which will set out the process for broadening the group’s membership.

· Expressions of interest to join the DTG have been invited from the wider team including Front of House, Shop, Café and volunteers ahead of publication of the Terms of Reference.

· A Code of Conduct has been agreed and shared internally with expectations for behaviour of staff, volunteers, the artists we work with and of visitors and participants, both in our physical and digital spaces. Its aim is to support the team in ensuring Towner is an inclusive, enjoyable and safe space for everyone.

· The Staff Handbook and induction materials have been reviewed to reinforce Towner’s values and diversity commitments, particularly around anti-racism and expectations of staff conduct.

· Recruitment and hiring procedures and practices have been reviewed to ensure that our workspace is inclusive there everyone can be themselves and succeed on merit.

· Staff with line management responsibility have received training in ethical recruitment and our new performance review procedures.

· A Diversity Survey was carried out of the whole team in May 2021 which captured diversity data for all protected characteristics across our workforce as well as gathering feedback from staff on our performance in relation to diversity & inclusion.

· We have reviewed our gift acceptance and ethics policies to ensure that they are reflective of our anti-racist principles

Public and community activity

· All exhibitions, engagement activities, events, commissions, acquisitions and projects are considered for their strategic relevance including priorities around diversity and inclusion through a new Project Plan and Evaluation Template to ensure delivery against organisational priorities from point of conception to review post project.

· Diversity and Inclusion is a standing agenda point in our programming meetings to ensure that we continue to explore the opportunities we are offering and hold ourselves to account.

· Discussions are under way with community partners including local voluntary action organisation 3VA and Willingdon Trees Community Centre on devising and delivering creative workshops for adults, artist residencies and creative play sessions for families with young children in Eastbourne’s disadvantaged Shinewater and Seaside communities from Spring 2022.

Speaking out

· Our new Code of Conduct makes public Towner’s commitment to upholding an inclusive environment and the steps we will take to challenge unwanted discriminatory behaviour.

Internal culture

· Appoint two new board members in Spring 2022 who are reflective of the communities we serve and bring a diversity of voice and experience to our governing body.

· Hold further Diversity & Inclusion Workshops for all staff, trustees and volunteers biannually to continue informing and educating on racism and other barriers to progression such as gender, disability and socio-economic background, and to understand the importance and benefits of a diverse and inclusive workplace and society.

· Continue to collect, share and promote resources, toolkits and reading lists for trustees, team and volunteers to inform and self-educate on issues of exclusion.

· Compile and share a comprehensive Glossary of Terms encompassing diversity, equity and inclusion.

· Expand the membership of the DTG to include representatives from across the organisation and in time, we will also invite external voices into the group.

· Benchmark our progress in diversifying our workforce and governing body from data collected from the staff survey in May 2021 to better understand the composition of the board, staff, and volunteer teams and inform decisions around hiring and career development.

Public and community activity

· We will continue to amplify underrepresented voices through the artists we collaborate with and whose work we present, with an increased commitment to programming and supporting the development of work by artists who experience racism.

· Our programming team will undertake an audit of the opportunities we provide for artists and creative practitioners.

· We will strengthen our processes and monitoring measures for our exhibitions and collection to benchmark the diversity of artists represented in our exhibitions and whose works are acquired into our collection.

· We will actively promote the regular availability of Towner’s spaces for community groups working towards an anti-racist agenda to meet and hold events for free.

· We will continue reaching out to community and sectoral partners who will challenge and inform our thinking and support the delivery of our action plan.

Speaking out

· We will publish data collected regarding board and team composition, and public and community programme for review and discussion and in order that Towner is a transparent entity accountable for its actions.

· We believe in the power of influence and therefore will require our suppliers and contractors to commit to our standards and values which are articulated in our procurement and contractual documents.

· We will work towards ensuring that our marketing and promotional materials are reflective of a diverse society and represent Towner as a welcoming and inclusive organisation.

· We will identify opportunities to highlight our Code of Conduct messaging to visitors in a variety of ways, including in the building and online.

In our initial statement, we made a commitment to hold a public forum in-person examining the impact of racism on the town’s residents. We remain committed to delivering this event, however with the ongoing uncertainty around COVID we will hold on committing a date for this to happen.

We remain committed to making Towner an actively anti-racist gallery and acting as a leader in the journey towards making Eastbourne and Sussex inclusive and welcoming destinations for everybody to live, work and visit. As always, we know that we won’t get everything right immediately and that we still have much to learn.

We welcome feedback on the steps we have laid out in this statement. You can contact us via towner@townereastbourne.org.uk 

Last updated: December 2021