31/12/2021
In March 2021, the Oxford Cultural Anti-Racism Alliance was launched and Fusion was one of the many signatories of the alliance's manifesto.
The aim of the alliance is to get organisations in Oxford's arts and cultural sector to individually and collectively commit to dismantling systemic racism within the sector and across wider society.
By signing the manifesto, Fusion Arts has committed to radical and lasting cultural change, taking an active anti-racist stance and ensuring that there is meaningful representation of people from the Global Majority across Oxford's cultural sector.
As an organisation we are are using the IncArts anti-racism toolkit as a springboard to make changes in response to the points of action outlined in the manifesto.
During summer 2021, Georgia, an intern at Fusion Arts developed diversity and equality monitoring surveys for the use of all alliance partner organisations. Georgia attended training and met with Oxford Cultural Partner organisations at multiple stages in the survey development to get their feedback and discuss the surveys' construction. These surveys are for both the organisations as a whole and for individual staff members, with data being reported back to Arts Council England.
They are designed to help organisations and individuals within them assess how they can improve diversity of staff and meet the goals outlined in the manifesto, alongside meeting other equality and diversity targets. They will be used as a benchmarking tool to compare levels of equality and diversity in the organisations at regular intervals. These surveys are currently in circulation.
Fusion Arts work with artists, groups and communities from across Oxfordshire and beyond to support a variety of imaginative and socially engaged projects.
Exploring Climate Change Through the Eyes of Indigenous Farmers in Indonesia. A collaborative project with Soboman Artspace 219 in Yogyakarta.
Creative writing project for young people across Oxfordshire, building writing skills as important tools for self-expression.
Long term project using interactive art strategies to develop speech and language in young children.
