Since 1997, Black Country Touring has strived to make access to the arts easier in the region and break down social, financial and cultural barriers to experiencing amazing performances.

We enable people of all backgrounds to be the decision-makers, choosing the performances and events that take place in their neighbourhoods. Reflecting the diversity of the region’s communities and cultures – which are such a key part of making it a special place – is at the heart of what we do, through our work with Community Promoters, schools and our home-grown productions.

We have been rated ‘outstanding’ by Arts Council England for our contribution to the Creative Case for Diversity in 2019 and 2020. And yet, we know we need to do more. We are wholeheartedly committed to ensuring equity, investment in, and opportunities with and for artists and creative professionals from under-represented and under-served communities.

Some of the steps we’ve taken since 2020 include:

• Signing up to the More Than A Moment pledge, the West Midlands’ arts sector’s pledge 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

• Reviewing our use of language in public facing and internal communications to identify and remove the use of outmoded and reductive terms and acronyms such as BAME and ensure the language we use is inclusive, friendly and welcoming to all

• Forming a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) working group, which consists of staff and trustees, to consult on and monitor progress against the organisation’s DEI action plan

• Commissioning more artists from ethnically diverse backgrounds to make new work, as part of our digital programme

• Reviewing and revising our recruitment processes to remove potential barriers for under-represented creatives to apply and finding new channels to communicate employment opportunities

• The BCT team took part in Unconscious Bias training to better understand how our perceptions, decisions and interactions can be guided by inherited or learned bias, often without us realising

• Researching available touring shows and liaising with our Community Promoters to ensure that post-Covid, our live programme is reflective of the diverse communities and lived experiences in the Black Country