Relevance & Representation
Now, more than ever, as theatres and cultural organisations up and down the country struggle to survive the challenges of the Covid-lockdown, we need to be asking ourselves who makes up the communities we exist to serve and how are we relevant to their lives?
It was already clear, and it’s been brought home to us by the uneven impacts of Covid and campaigns such as #BlackLivesMatter, that there continues to be high levels of inequality within our society, reflected in a lack of diversity across the arts.
Exeter Northcott Theatre is committed to playing its part in addressing this, by putting inclusion at the heart of everything we do, by working to broaden representation within our team and amongst our collaborators, and by investing in partnerships with under-served communities to ensure that we’re relevant to the lives of all the people we’re here for.
A Statement of Principle
Exeter Northcott Theatre believes that theatre and the performing arts are at their most vital, successful and relevant when they’re inclusive of all voices, talents and perspectives.
We believe that the moral and creative case for increasing diversity across the arts stands alone, but we also know there are proven business benefits, including: a broader talent pool; higher levels of innovation; better decision-making; and improved financial performance.
For all these reasons, we’re committed to achieving greater diversity across all those involved in what we do: our workforce; our leadership and governance; the artists and companies we work with; and the audiences and participants we engage.
Putting Principle Into Practice
We recognise that to undertake a meaningful review of our approach to diversity and inclusion, and to effect real change within our organisation and across the work we do, we need to work with people with lived experience of barriers to inclusion.
We’re therefore currently working with two South West-based not-for-profit diversity organisations, THE DIVERSITY TRUST and DEVON DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION, who are supporting us to design and implement an equality, diversity and inclusion action plan, providing training for our staff and Trustees and helping us build partnerships within the diverse communities of Exeter.
We expect this work to yield a range of results, including facts and figures about us and the work we do, plans for what we’re going to do differently in future, recruitment opportunities, and specific creative projects with inclusion at their heart.
If you have any questions or want to talk about this, you can get in touch with our Creative Director and Joint Chief Executive, Martin Berry, by clicking on the link below.
Email MartinMore about Exeter Northcott
