More Than A Moment Action Plan
More Than a Moment Action Plan
The More Than A Moment pledge is the West Midlands arts sector's promise to take radical, bold and immediate action to dismantle the systems that have for too long kept Black artists and creatives from achieving their potential in the arts and cultural industries.
More Than a Moment are calling on the sector to be transparent and share their action plans to show how they are putting the pledge into action within their organisations.
This is LYNNEBEC’s action plan.
Actions so far:
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In a recent call out for a new role, we prioritised and interviewed applicants who self-identified as global majority/protected characteristics
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We have included access riders in our recruitment process and made space in the budget for wellbeing
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Ensured that fee’s for creatives are above industry standard
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On our current project, we have 1/6 black creatives in the cast and a 1/5 black creatives in the core creative team
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Members of LYNNEBEC have attended Anti Racism training with Strawberry Words
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We have created a bespoke mentorship role (paid value exchange) for an independent black artist/producer and their theatre company
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Actions going forward:
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LYNNEBEC will go through a company restructure in the autumn, part of this will include organisational development with bespoke training with MTAM directly or with a local EDI consultancy to transform how LYNNEBEC is working with and for Black creatives
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LYNNEBEC will integrate the McKinsey Inclusive Assessment Model into their leadership and creative practice
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From this organisational development, LYNNEBEC will design an inclusive programme that translates skills into practical examples for the core team and collaborators alike
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As part of our company development plans in 2022-23, we will be developing an in depth equality action plan which will be published this onto our website and social media
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More Than A Moment Pledge
Black Lives Matter, Everyday
June 2020.
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LYNNEBEC have never made a pledge before. We are primarily movers and whilst there’s absolutely a place for interpretative dance, we have swapped movement for words to make ourselves crystal clear.
In our work, we have consciously sought to provide a platform for artists from Black, Brown, LGBTQIA+ backgrounds as we are acutely aware of the importance of representation, particularly in the arts industry.
Whilst this issue has influenced internal decisions, we have not done enough to vocalise tackling these systemic problems, challenging unconscious biases, and entering into difficult yet necessary conversations with collaborators and organisations. This makes us part of the same problem and for this, we must apologise and implement immediate change.
In the past few months, we have all witnessed huge racial injustice, violence and erasure within the US through the horrific treatment of George Floyd and the UK government's gross mishandling of the pandemic. Although we can never fully understand, we share the empathy, grief and outrage, with the black community.
We feel it necessary to make a pledge to tackle the unconscious biases within ourselves, to tackle the apathy in our lives, hold ourselves accountable and to challenge the systemic racism within our industry.
We have dropped our routine and refocused our time listening, learning, sharing, protesting, challenging, educating and reflecting. We have seen online and offline the efforts of friends, followers and some organisations do the same. This learning needs to translate into demonstrable action.
There’s no excuse for us all not to contribute to a better and equal future. Whilst our privilege exists, it needs to be transformed into positive action and progress the removal of inequality.
We commit to Leah Thomas’s (@greengirlleah) Intersectional Environmentalism Pledge. Leah is an Activist and Eco-Communicator. Intersectional Environmentalism advocates for the protection and justice of people and the planet.
In addition to Leah’s pledge, we commit:
To actively engage with conversations outside of our echo chamber to ensure that an action is impactful outside of the conversation.
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To build vocal activism into our company strategy to use our platform to support the Black Lives Matter movement for the future.