OutdoorArtsUK would like to send our sincere thanks to everyone who came to “Equity in Action: The Power Of Diverse Narratives”. We saw 350 people attend the conference, which was the first one organised under our Director, Sho Shibata. In conjunction with the conference, we created a digital brochure of touring works of our members, which you can see here.

Our core message from the conference

OAUK used this conference to signal Outdoor Arts as the beacon of inclusivity and access. We are the go-to sector in taking high quality arts experiences to hard-to-reach communities. The conference took place in Stoke-On-Trent, as it’s a city with many good examples of good practice and impact. The morning session involved speeches by colleagues from Stoke-on-Trent who not only did the city proud but the whole sector too. They demonstrated precisely how our sector is poised to deliver on the Government’s Manifesto (“Breaking down barriers to opportunity” and “making streets safer”). OAUK are grateful for their excellent delivery, which was heard by key representatives from Arts Council England, Arts Council Wales, Creative Scotland, DCMS and Local Government Association. These emotive speeches invigorated our sector colleagues, for many of whom the cost-of-living crisis has had major impact.

The morning speakers deliver

Local artist Dave Lovatt (Cat and Mouse Theatre) opened the conference with an energetic dad-dance routine to “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses, whose guitarist Slash is from Stoke. Dave told us how his mistaken entry to the Performing Arts course at Stoke College opened his journey to becoming a theatre maker, enabling him to inspire many disenfranchised people through Outdoor Arts. You can read his speech here.

Susan Clarke, the Director of Stoke Creates, then gave a rousing speech based on the letter she wrote to the Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy MP in the aftermath of the General Election. She spoke about the extra care, resources, time and effort it takes to develop genuine relationships for socially engaged art to work. Her story of a project in Karansebes in Bosnia, where the asylum community threw a mountain of donated old shoes into an empty swimming pool, had the auditorium in tears. “We don’t need your shoes, we want engagement, love and support, something positive our desperate families can do with you, artists. That’s what we need’. You can read Susan’s speech here.

To help render some of Susan’s points, B.Arts, Amity Hub, Frontline Dance and Appetite Stoke spoke briefly about their projects.

B.Arts introduced their youth-driven work New Futures Lab. The proactive reaching out to the Fegg Hayes area of Stoke has boosted the confidence and outlook of young people. It was fantastic to hear from the young people of different age groups, with the older ones now giving back to the community as practitioners and producers. We were particularly impressed by the young speaker Amy Jackson, who had a special permission to miss school to address our audience. She was fantastic!

OAUK supported Amity Hub and FRONTLINEdance create short videos about their work so that the delegates could hear directly from their respective refugee and disabled communities. You can watch the videos below or on our YouTube channel. Amity’s video shows a great example of a local charity creating safe spaces for marginalised communities, and how working in partnership with arts organisations can widen reach and the impact of creativity. FRONTLINE’s presentation was delivered by their Artistic Director Rachael Lines, who spoke about the importance of creating an inclusive environment for disabled dancers to thrive. It was a nice touch by Rachael to mention she was a year below Dave Lovatt in Stoke College’s Performing Arts course.

Rasandeep Singh Devgon and Ruby Nixon from Appetite Stoke capped off the morning session by introducing their new model of community consultation and involvement in decision making. Collaborative decision making with the community has been the fundamentals of Appetite from its inception, but it was great to hear from Ras and Ruby who have purposeful meetings with a whopping 400 (!) community representatives to engage in conversations about programming ideas. (Slides from Ras here).

Keeping our sector at the forefront of Inclusivity

The afternoon of the conference was dedicated to shared learning, which took the form of multiple breakout groups. Each breakout had pioneers, experts, and those with lived experiences to give us an insight into what this ‘better’ might be. You can see the outline of each breakout session here.

We can share the presentation slides from British Future and Cohesion Plus, who co-presented for “Bringing Communities Back Together After Unrest”. Click here to access the British Future slides and click here to access the Cohesion Plus slides. UK Centre for Carnival Arts also kindly prepared a PowerPoint for their 10-min provocation. Click here to access the UKCCA slides.

Each breakout session ended with delegates forming small groups of 4 or 5 to ideate possible solutions and reflect on their learning. They were asked to write these down on some leaves to hand on the Promise Tree, which we erected in the venue foyer. You can see some of these promises in the images below.

– Sho Shibata, OAUK Director