Its feels important to state that Mansions of the Future stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement. As a team and community, we welcome the global upheaval condemning police brutality, structural oppression, systemic racism and prejudice. We also welcome a critical re-evaluation of the sector; of inequality of access, opportunity, representation and unconscious bias, we are in deep acknowledgment that ‘standing in solidarity’ is not nearly enough.
Mansions of the Future is a three year Ambitions for Excellence funded project. As we enter our final months, we will build on the work of our colleagues, peers and community and necessarily take this opportunity to commit to doing much more to support BLM causes. We will engage in uncomfortable conversations to learn how we can do more as individuals working in the arts sector, share resources across our platforms and advocate for sectoral change that seeks to go beyond the diversity tokenism of funders objectives and work to carry this learning into our future careers.
We work directly with artists and communities to co-create projects. In a city with a 98% white population, we’ll be working with researchers who can relate directly to not seeing their own experience reflected in the broader arts sector to develop a diversity strategy for Lincoln. Part of our Legacy Agenda, this strategy will build and reflect on the project’s impact and reach and be presented to Lincoln’s stakeholders as part of an agenda which intends to communicate organisational learning and inform the city’s evolving cultural infrastructure before the culmination of the project.
This document will capture learning and advocate for the absolute urgency of taking actions to address structural inequality, welcome diverse perspectives, and create and hold space for black people and those from underrepresented backgrounds. We will also be inviting presentations, perspectives and strategies for change from black individuals, activists, artists and communities as part of the two-day Innovation In Engagement Conference 2021, which will be delivered in partnership with the University of Lincoln.
Finally as part of our legacy year project wind down we will be embarking on a considered redistribution agenda – contacting local community and grassroot groups and initiatives, particularly those supporting the black community and/or social change to gift all of our individual assets and resources. If you are a local group or project who would benefit from this please get in touch via info@mansionsofthefuture.org
In this moment we are indebted to the writers, artists, organisations, charities and activists who are compiling advocacy, educational and donation resources in this moment, many of which can be found below.
This statement is organic and we intend to keep re-addressing this commitment and how it will tie in with our work, feel free to check back for updates.
This is a conversation and we welcome feedback and thoughts on how we can do more, if you would like to get in touch, you can do so via info@mansionsofthefuture.org