Thinking of Equality
What does Nitin Sawhney's orchestral commission for the Britten Sinfonia have in common with Jamaican comedies at the Hackney Empire and a training scheme for black and Asian museum curators in Birmingham? Well, quite obvious really: they are examples of the new cultural diversity in Britain which is set to change our view of the artistic landscape. To quote a recent Arts Council paper: "Britain's culture has been transformed. . .with new forms, energies and cultural perspectives. This process has generated a quality of heat and excitement that has not been lost on countries outside Britain."
Seeking cultural diversity is surely a laudable aim: to reflect the diversified communities in terms of cultural management and artistic production. Yet some naysayers still mutter about the perils of "political correctness" and cultural relativism. Indeed the issue of the right to cultural diversity caused such discord in Australia that the brilliant artistic director Peter Sellars was compelled to resign from the Adelaide Festival for wanting more than a tokenistic presence of Australian ethnic minority culture. More relevantly for the UK, many arts institutions seem to place more resources into presenting a shiny smiley package of equal opportunity proposals and monitoring forms than they do in actually implementing radical new practices.
If we take arts for all as a serious objective, it must mean that in an increasingly multiracial, multicultural society, we reflect these communities in the arts at all levels. Belatedly the arts establishment, from the Museum Libraries and Archives service to the Film Council, has been forced to recognise that much needs to be done.
The current thinking is that equal access can be achieved by the proper implementation of equal opportunities for those of African, Caribbean, Asian and Chinese origin; ethnic minorities make up about 30% of Londoners - 7% of the UK population. Moreover, the Arts Council's paper argues that the leaders of these arts organisations will need to start promoting black and Asian work and recognise the dynamic force that our various communities represent.
What this means in practice can vary widely. There are the exciting attempts to cross-fertilise ideas and themes between different cultures realised by musicians such as Belize-born composer, Errolyn Wallen, flitting from jazz to Shostakovich-influenced compositions. Her band, Ensemble X's motto is "We don't break down barriers in music. . .we don't see any." Or Nitin Sawhney's musical hybridity, which deconstructs barriers by drawing on traditional Asian and contemporary sounds, flamenco guitar and Latin rhythms, drum'n'bass and electronic music.
Then there are one-off festivals such as the extraordinary Push Festival last summer that showcased black visual arts, comedy, opera and even circus. And Birmingham's The Drum, the only arts centre in Europe committed to promoting work from the ethnic communities.
How institutions respond depends on their building a dialogue with the communities involved. The Museums, Archives and Libraries service has set up groups to advise and share good practice on how local communities can see themselves in their collections. This has led to new initiatives such as recording memories from the Afro-Caribbean communities in Gloucester Folk Museum for an audiovisual exhibit, to a new touring exhibition on Egyptology that will, for the first time, see these relics of antiquity through the prism of black African art.
The Film Council is in the middle of an extensive process of consultation, listening to the constituencies' demands before it declares more detailed measures on how best to proceed. Patience will be needed: they are playing a long game, but the transformative effect of diverse filmmaking in the mainstream could profoundly change the film culture.
There are new spaces for creativity and grounds for inquiry here. Only time will tell whether this is mere window dressing or the sign of a new political will to blast us into the future.