SAFER SPACES AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION CREATE EQUITY

Marjo Mäenpää, Director of Cupore research institute in Finland, led the last session of the kick-off seminar in Helsinki. Mäenpää brought light to some of the discoveries in a recent study amongs professional visual and performing artists in Finland. In the discussion the focus was in how to battle the negative cycle of assumptions when trying to program more diverse jazz events.

Resources 

Europe Jazz Network’s Gender Manifesto

Creative Europe project Keychange. Keychange is an international campaign which invests in emerging talent whilst encouraging music festivals, orchestras, conservatoires, broadcasters, concert halls, agents, record labels and all music organisations to sign up to a 50:50 gender balance pledge by 2022. 

Jazz Connective has hosted a series of sessions around inclusion in jazz. 

Safer space policy should be implemented and monitored in all events. Here are some Canadian rescources for event planning.

Accessibility checklist for events by Voluntary Arts. Accessibility does ot only mean removing physical obstacles, but also making the events and activities available for all.

Every organization should create and implement a strategy for equity, diversity and inclusion to both raise awareness and understanding, and take action to increase aforementioned. This has direct positive effects on the work culture, productivity and effectivity.

Antonio C. Cuyler’s study of Demographic Diversity in Arts Management 2015 has some thought-provoking figures and forecasts.  

Be a role model. Here is a research and a pocket guide by Maya Productions’ project about the role models in the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups. The role model types like “bright lights”, “enablers” apply to jazz world as well as other industries, and in addition to BAME you can insert other minority groups there, like women, disabled, self-learned etc.   

Knowing and growing your audience by AMA is an introduction to strategic approaches that you might adopt to start to know and grow your audience.

Audience Development Tools for Touring Companies has good pointers also for building our Nordic touring networks.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: IS THE JAZZ COMMUNITY EQUAL? 

In a recent study, Tyttöhän soittaa kuin mies, Anna Anttila 2019, the Finnish visual arts professionals replied as follows:  

To the statement ”The art field is equal”, 37% of responders fully disagreed, 37% closely disagreed 

To the statement ”There are structures that keep up inequality”, 80% said yes. 

To a question whether the responders had faced or witnessed discrimination or inappropriate treatment, 49% said they had experienced, and 37% had witnessed. (Out of the responders who worked in the music field, 14-19% had experienced or witnessed.)

Sub-groups that reported discrimination in visual arts:  

• Women and other gender 

• Aging and young artists, women of all ages and young men 

• Artists living outside the metropolitan area 

• Artists without formal education or with “wrong” education (not academic or foreign) 

• Immigrant artists, especially young, female, non-white 

• Artists from low socio-economic background; lacking social or cultural capital

• Shy, socially incompetent artists 

• Verbally and literally incompetent artists 

• Artists who have trouble working in the digital environment 

• Religiously or politically attached artists 

• Disabled artists 

The experiences of discrimination or harassment that they faced: 

• Gender-based discrimination in the allocation of opportunities or esteem 

• Sexual harassment or abuse by teachers, fellow students, gatekeepers, employers, audience 

• Regional inequality in grant allocation and esteem 

• Ageism: both cult of “youth and stars” and also gerontocracy 

• Exclusion based on ranking of schools, spaces, associations, networks etc.

• Protectionism: restricting access from immigrant artists and artists who don’t speak Finnish/Swedish, those with foreign experience and degrees 

• Exploitation through unpaid work 

• The functioning of tight, exclusive circles who decide upon resources, grants, exposure and opportunities 

• Cronyism/cabinet networks, favouritism, nepotism, corruption... 

Marjo Mäenpää raised the question: How does Nordic jazz relate to the study regarding the sub-groups or types of discrimination or harassment?

Monday workshop notes: Ways to strengthen equality and welfare in the culture sector

Zero tolerance is the key to stop harassment

• Make the structures, work culture and work community rules and policies visible and transparent

• Give no room for harassment, discrimination and abuse

• Take responsibility and stop blaming the victim

• Create and enforce a code of conduct

Legislation and funding guidelines, evaluation

• More guidance to the work places to know and enforce the legislation

  • Evaluate your contracts and recruitment policies and update them

• The funding organizations should require an equity and equality strategy already in the application phase and apply financial sanctions in cases of abusing the grants. The funding organizations should collect and release equality data from their grant recipients.

  • Start the process to create an equity and equality strategy and collect your own data immediately.

Education and evaluation

• More staff management education and training for those directors/leaders/teachers who have their merits in the artistic content.

• More education and training for norm-criticism, interaction and equity to all art & culture professionals; acknowledging and requiring safer spaces policies, recognizing the norms and unconscious biases.

• Professor selection should lean on pedagogical merits.

Deconstructing the outdated gender tradition, stereotypes and myths

• There are no exceptional individuals, who have superior rights

• Decent working conditions should apply to vocational professions also

• All communication and discourse (internal and external) should always be respective towards all people and professionals who it addresses or involves

• Make everyone else in the industry aware of your own best practices, or work places where you have encountered positive experiences!