Capacity Building through Diversity & Inclusion Training
According to the 2016 census, 49% of Australian are first- or second-generation migrants, yet only 10% of professional artists are from non-English speaking backgrounds.
The arts, screen and creative sectors help Australians to reflect, imagine and define ourselves. Yet the data shows that these sectors are losing a huge opportunity to become more relevant to real audiences through programming, casting, staffing and marketing that is skewed to cater to only one section of the population.
Diversity Arts Australia offers a range of diversity and inclusion services, tailored to the specific needs of arts, screen and creative organisations and led by highly experienced trainers.
I gained a sense of ally-ship from the mentor group and leaders. It was refreshing to be with people I didn’t have to explain my experiences to, people who could ‘see’ what I ‘see’ and who share the same vision for our creative industries.”
Capacity Building Opportunities with DARTS
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Organisation-Wide Audit
As a starting point, We useWe evidence-based tools to assist organisations in determining their strengths and potential areas of improvement. We provide a supported organisational audit that looks at several dimensions of diversity, equity and inclusion.
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Design a Diversity Action Plan
Using the data gathered from the organisational audit, we work with your organisation to develop a Diversity Action Plan that is tailored to your industry’s specific needs
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Tailored Training
We work with organisations to develop tailored training to fit specific identified needs, such as:
Antiracism in an arts, screen and creative sectors
Cross Cultural Safety
An introduction to key concepts: Justice, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Anti-racism
Inclusive Programming in an arts, screen and creative sectors
An Introduction to Intersectionality in an arts, screen and creative sector context
Inclusive Recruitment and Retention
Inclusive Marketing and Audience Development
Measuring Social Impact and Diversity
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Comprehensive Capacity Building Program
DARTS offers comprehensive one- and two-year capacity building programs that enable organisations to address diversity and inclusion at the individual, institutional and structural levels. This program includes the organisational audit, tailored training sessions and the development of a Diversity Action Plan with a DARTS mentor.
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DARTS’ extensive range of free resources, tools and training materials are available on our website. Our resources include the Creative Equity Toolkit, our podcast The Colour Cycle, a wide range of videos, reports, interviews from our Creative Lives project.
Have you seen our Creative Equity Toolkit?
This toolkit is a collection of arts sector resources from around the world. It provides an action-oriented approach to increasing cultural diversity in the arts, one topic at a time.
Participating in the Fair Play program was an incredibly valuable experience on both an organisational and personal level. The program is structured in a way that it allows participants to learn from a variety of diverse trainers and presenters, whilst unpacking the invisible parts that make up organisational culture. This process is an absolute must for any arts organisation— takeaways are tangible and have a lasting impact on employees, stakeholders and audiences alike.
Our Approach
Our human-rights-based approach is driven by these key principles:
- self-determination
- participation
- accountability
- non-discrimination
- anti-racism
- social justice
For more on our conceptual framework, see Guiding Principles and Approaches to Capacity Building.
Our workshops and training session are interactive and imaginative, using role plays, digital resources, creative responses, discussion groups and hands-on activities to give participants an engaging, memorable and well-rounded understanding of issues, pitfalls and best practice in diversity, equity and inclusion.
What is Diversity?
DARTS recognises that diversity goes beyond ethnicity, language and race. It includes First Nations communities as well as a spectrum of genders, sexualities, ages, physical abilities, education, religions and geographic locations. We regularly collaborate with individuals and communities from all these groups and can work with your organisation to design an inclusion and diversity program to address their specific needs alongside culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) communities.
Why Choose Us?
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Diverse trainers Highly experienced trainers from culturally diverse communities
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Customised Training derived from an evidence-based audit of the organisation’s needs
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Human-rights focus Emphasises empowerment and self-determination
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Creative sector-specific Training is specifically designed for arts, screen and creative organisations
Learn more about our training programs
Training Team
Dr. Alexia Derbas Research and Policy Manager
Alexia Derbas recently completed her PhD in Sociology at Western Sydney University, exploring race, gender and religion online. She has been a researcher at Western Sydney University for five years, exploring racism and particularly anti-Arab sentiment, Islamophobia and women’s experiences of exclusion in so-called Australia. She has been working with teams at UNSW and Charles Sturt University on racism as a public health issue. She teaches research methods, social science, and media and communications units on difference and exclusion at WSU and UTS.
Dr. Görkem Acaroğlu Training Mentor and Coordinator
Dr. Görkem Acaroğlu is a theatre director and interdisciplinary artist in hybrid performance with 20 years’ experience in documentary and digital performance, live art, text-based theatre, immersive and site-specific and community engaged practice. She runs Metanoia Theatre Company, specialising in experimental and site specific work interfacing technology and live art. Görkem was an inaugural Sidney Myer Creative Fellow and a key trainer in the Fair Play program in 2020. She has a long history of socially engaged practice working with culturally diverse artists and communities in Melbourne and Western Sydney, and has been a passionate advocate for diversifying the arts over the past two decades.