TWAM receives Creative Case for Diversity Bursary

Image: Attachments which fixed to the false arm of William Humphries who worked at Vickers Armstrongs Shipyard.

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums is one of eight organisations in the North that have been awarded bursaries to support them in exploring how they contribute to the Creative Case for Diversity.

The Creative Case for Diversity is the Arts Council's approach to diversity and equality, setting out how both can enrich the arts for artists, audiences and our wider society.

Creative Case NORTH is a sector-led programme of activity exploring the Creative Case, developed by a consortium of arts and cultural organisations and artists in the North, supported by the Arts Council.

The bursaries are providing six National portfolio organisations and two Major partner museums with the time, space and resources to develop their contribution to the Creative Case within their programming, collections or curatorial practice.

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM), Rural Arts North Yorkshire, Helix Arts, CapeUK, Octagon Theatre, Prism Arts, Manchester Art Gallery, and Sage Gateshead will share learning at a national event at Leeds City Museum on 26 April 2016.

The event will welcome arts organisations, museums, and freelance artists, curators and producers, to listen, share, question and challenge their approaches to the Creative Case though case studies, group conversations and one to one exchanges.

TWAM will use the bursary to reframe its collections with regard to disability. The bursary will allows TWAM to review the ways it collects, what it collects and how it should present the collections.

Working with external partners drawn from arts and disability backgrounds TWAM will rethink its approach and review examples of practice in other museums and more widely in the cultural sector to ensure that it is thinking creatively about the diversity of its holdings.

Abid Hussain, Director, Diversity, Arts Council England said:

"The Creative Case NORTH Consortium has done some amazing work over the past three years in raising the profile of its diversity and equality work which has been recognised nationally. The fact that the consortium is led by arts and cultural organisations is both encouraging and critical to its success. The event on 26 April will be a great opportunity to celebrate and share the practice of this year's eight Bursary holders."

Talking about the bursaries, Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh, Creative Case NORTH Steering Group Member and Artistic Director (CEO) of ZENDEH said:

"The purpose of the bursaries is to stimulate and support National portfolio organisations and Major partner museums to explore, develop and articulate their contribution to the Creative Case for Diversity. We look forward to hearing their experiences and insights, and coming together with sector colleagues from across the country, for mutual learning, exchange, and action at our event in April."