We believe anti-racist audience research practices are an important part of improving racial justice, representation, and equity in the arts and cultural sector. Research can play an important role in understanding who is being included, and who isn’t.
We define ‘racist’ as any type of research that directly or indirectly perpetuates outcomes or results that have a disproportionately negative effect on racialised communities, regardless of the intention of the researcher. Anti-racist audience research is accessible and practical. Arts and cultural organisations and researchers of all kinds and confidence levels should be able to implement it. The goal of these collaboratively created and constantly evolving guidelines is to help them do that.
CEO, Anne Torreggiani comments:
"Research should create an evidence base that drives advocacy and real change. But research has often had a negative effect on communities who experience racism, sometimes actively causing harm – through exclusion, misrepresentation or sheer ignorance. We want the Guidelines to help people confidently carry out research which increases diversity and equity in the arts and cultural sector, by generating a truly representative evidence base, addressing bias and improving the experience for both audiences and researchers."
Reference Group
We are working with an External Reference group consisting of leaders and experts in the fields of audience research, arts and culture, and anti-racism.
Our Group currently comrpises 6 members from a range of disciplines and perspectives from across the UK, including Dr Roaa Ali, Dr Kevin Guyan, and Valerie Synmoie.
The project is in its early stages and we are eager to include as many leaders and thinkers in the field as possible, so please get in touch if you think you'd like to input to the process.