Lucie: I had the pleasure of chairing the Young People In the Arts’s (YPIA) latest event, facilitating discussions around audience diversity and representation. The event was held at Rich Mix and organised by Gabrielle Young, one of my colleagues from the Audience Finder platform team. I thought that there were so many great ideas from the wonderful panellists - Shaz Hussain (Assistant Curator, Science Museum), Rob Adediran ( Executive Director, London Music Masters) and Tobi Kyeremateng (theatre, poetry and festival producer) - that it would be a shame not to share them with you. Firstly, Gabrielle will tell us a little about YPIA.
Gabrielle: Young People in the Arts organises monthly talks, workshops and networking opportunities for young cultural professionals in and around London. It aims to provide young people working in arts with a platform for development through creating dialogue between senior industry professionals and younger members, and hopes to inspire the next generation of arts leaders. Everyone is welcome to these events – keep an eye out on the YPIA website for up to date news on future talks: https://www.ypia.co.uk/
I’ve been part of the committee for Young People in the Arts for just over a year. As Assistant Programme Manager, I pitch ideas for our monthly talks, before finding speakers and venues if the theme is taken forward. I was lucky enough to get Lucie on board as chair quite early on – she did a fantastic job helping prepare for it and was a gem on the day. The issue of diversity and representation in cultural audiences is an important and evolving discussion that needs to be approached with nuance and innovation. Our fantastic speakers really delivered.
Lucie: Have a browse through the Twitter precis of, and responses to, the panel's discussion below, to get a sense of the breadth of conversation we achieved, from limiting unconscious bias to acknowledging the museum sector's colonial inheritance and looking to other industries and cultures to inspire change...
You can find all the tweets relating to this event with #YPIAtalk.
Written by Lucie Fitton and Gabrielle Young.
Featured in June's edition of The Learning Diaries. To receive The Learning Diaries, visit the sign up page.
