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JUNE 30 2022
NEWS
Audiences at regularly funded arts organisation are 93% white – report
GIVERNY MASSO
Just 7% of audiences at National Portfolio Organisations from 2020 to 2021 were from black, Asian or ethnically diverse backgrounds, according to Arts Council England’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion data report.
Spanning the period from April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021, the report aims to provide a snapshot of how well the creative and cultural sector reflected the diversity of society in England.
The Arts Council has emphasised that much of the data this year is “stand-alone”, and direct comparisons cannot be made to previous years as the pandemic impacted how the 2020/21 diversity data was gathered and reported. This included data reporting being voluntary between July 2020 and July 2021, rather than a requirement for NPOs.
The report included data on the make-up of the workforce of Arts Council England’s NPOs, data on the organisations that received assistance from ACE’s £160 million
Emergency Response Fund and the government’s Culture Recovery Fund, as well as audience data.
Audience data All organisations that received national portfolio funding were required to use a tool called Audience Finder from the Audience Agency to capture audience data. • In theatre, 7% of audiences were from black, Asian or ethnically diverse backgrounds, while 93% were white. According to the most recent census, 85% of the population is white. • 70% of audiences were female, while 7%
said they had a disability. Workforce data • 49% of employees at ACE’s NPOs were women, which is around the same as the Office for National Statistics’ figure of 50% of women in the general workingage population. • 14% were black, Asian and ethnically diverse, compared to 17% of the workingage population. • 10% were LGBTQ+, compared to 3% cited by the Office for National statistics.
• 7% were disabled, compared to 23% of general workers. In the latest data, dance had the highest proportion of the workforce that identified as being from black, Asian or ethnically diverse backgrounds – at 24% – and also the highest ratio of female workers – at 55%.
The three organisations with the highest proportion of staff from black, Asian and ethnically diverse backgrounds were Rich Mix Cultural Foundation (45%), Theatre Royal Stratford East (32%) and Home in Manchester (32%).
Of a constant sample of 693 NPOs that all submitted data across a three-year period, the proportion of black, Asian and ethnically diverse staff has risen by four percentage points since 2018/19 – to 14% – and the proportion of disabled workers has increased by two percentage points.
However, the proportion of female workers has fallen by five percentage points.
The data also revealed the make-up of the NPO boards that submitted their data for that year: 49% of board members were women; 18% of board members were black,
Asian or ethnically diverse; 9% were disabled people and 8% identified as LGBTQ+.
The Arts Council also published data for its own workforce, which included 14.3% of staff from black, Asian and ethnically diverse backgrounds – compared to 12% in 2020/21. The mean gender pay gap in April 2021 was 8.4%, rising from 6%.
Data for emergency Covid-funding Of the £98 million of funds distributed by the Arts Council’s Emergency Response Fund and £745 million managed and awarded by the Arts Council from the government’s Culture Recovery Fund: • 10% went to black, Asian and ethnically diverse-led organisations. • 30% went to female-led organisations. • 10% went to LGBTQ+-led organisations. • 5% went to disabled-led organisations.
ACE chair Nicholas Serota said in the report’s foreword: “Though the impact of the pandemic on the data means comparisons are hard to draw, we know that more still needs to be done to make sure the creative and cultural sector better reflects society as a whole.”
Touring digs allowance must increase ‘immediately’ – Equity Theatres brace for more losses amid rail strikes
• Almost a fifth said digs-related issues
MATTHEW HEMLEY
Touring allowances for performers and stage managers should be increased “immediately”, Equity has claimed.
According to a survey by the union, a third of its members are unable to do their jobs properly because of unsafe digs.
The union’s proposed increase would see the minimum touring allowance rate rise from £265 to £300, a move that Equity’s industrial official for theatre Charlotte Bence said was needed as a priority.
“The minimum allowances in agreements are floors through which no worker must fall, not ceilings through which no worker must rise. And producers have always been able to pay more than those minimum touring allowances, although many don’t,” she said in this month’s Equity magazine, adding: “The union’s position is that touring allowances need to rise to £300 immediately.”
had impacted their mental health. In the magazine, actors – whose names were changed – shared their experiences of the digs on offer around the country.
One said they had tried to address the shortage of accommodation available within their budget but was told producers do not usually get involved with that issue.
Another, a person of colour, said they had experienced racism when arriving at digs.
Bence said: “There have been instances on current commercial tours where black and global majority company members in towns and cities outside of London have been racially attacked. The production companies responded reasonably well after the fact, but the question is: ‘How are people put in that position in the first place?’ ”
She added: “Pay and conditions are central to questions of safety because the lower your allowance, the fewer options you have when trying to find somewhere to stay.”
CONTINUED FROM FRONT
Earlier this week, Society of London Theatre president Eleanor Lloyd warned the strikes were adding to producers’ costs at a time when budgets have already been knocked by the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.
Lloyd, who is also producer of Witness for the Prosecution in London, warned box-office takings would be “significantly down”, with producers likely to incur extra costs due to paying for company members’ travel or for hotel accommodation to avoid the impact of the strikes.
Lloyd said producers were feeling “frustrated” by the strikes and added: “It’s another thing on top of all the things we are dealing with – such as Covid cases and the sporadic cancellation of shows. We are in a permanent state of problem solving.”
Meanwhile, Equity said it stood in “solidarity with RMT members”, and it had passed an emergency motion approving this formally.
“Disruption to public transport has certainly affected Equity members – especially those working in live performance – alongside workers all over the country,” a spokeswoman said, adding: “This is why it is imperative that rail and tube bosses end the strikes by meeting RMT members’ reasonable requests and ensure that transport workers are paid liveable wages, work on fair terms and conditions, and do not face compulsory redundancies.” • Society of London Theatre president Eleanor Lloyd has said Sunday performances are likely to remain part of the West End offering, with 23 productions now playing Sundays, compared with six Sunday shows pre-pandemic.
According to the magazine, the survey about the quality of digs found: • 91% of members felt there were fewer accommodation options since the pandemic and that prices had increased. • 32% said they were regularly unable to do the job to the best of their ability because of issues around quality and safety. • Almost a fifth (19%) said they regularly felt unsafe travelling to or from accommodation, while 52% said this was how they felt occasionally. • 63% claimed that employers did not think or care about wider safety issues.
According to the union, Equity negotiated a minimum living-away touring allowance of £300 a week in 2018, which was going to be implemented in 2020.
However, because of the pandemic, this did not happen. Instead, a special variation agreement was put in place, which meant the touring allowance rate was frozen at £265 a week.
The union is in the process of balloting members over increasing that amount. If approved, payments would be backdated to April. The union also highlighted the housing crisis and how this is impacting the digs market for theatre workers.
The SOLT president said producers were worried the recent strikes would be the first of many over the summer and warned there would be show closures if others took place.
“Producers build-up contingencies and plans for rainy days. You can survive a couple of rainy days, but you can’t survive months and months of rainy days,” she said
Lloyd said the West End was hovering around 2019 levels of total West End income. She said advances for shows were down £8 million compared to this time in 2019, and said that this, combined with the cost-of-living crisis, made the situation more precarious.
She said Sundays were now the secondmost-popular performance day after Saturdays, and that they would become increasingly more important.
While acknowledging that some performers and backstage staff find Sunday working difficult to balance with family commitments, she said: “As someone with two children, I understand [the difficulties], but it feels like the economic reality is we need them to be here to stay as I don’t think the world is going back to Monday-to-Friday office working. In the same way, people’s lives have fundamentally changed, and we need to respond to that. I know it’s tough but that is the reality.”
