Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Absolutely everybody should have access to arts, creativity, and culture. We know that there are barriers, injustices, and inequality in access to creativity, as well as people not being represented in creative activity. We also know that it is up to us to dismantle these barriers, and take responsibility to do the work to improve equality, diversity, and inclusion.
Peterborough Presents is committed to championing diversity in all its forms. We pride ourselves in the successes and positive change we have seen across our programme so far. We strive to ensure our audiences are reflective of this diverse city of Peterborough, and most importantly, we want everyone to feel valued for who they are.
We recognise Peterborough Presents must actively keep improving all elements of our programme to be truly equal, diverse, and inclusive. This is at the heart of all of our programme – from our audiences, to our artists, to our staff and partners, to what type of projects we do.
EDI working group
We have a brilliant EDI (equality, diversity, and inclusion) working group who represent a diverse and intersectional range of demographics and personal experience. This is a paid role and the group meet a handful of times a year. They help us with different aspects of our programme by having conversations about the work we do. For example, this page on our website wouldn’t exist if not for them!
Malika Speaks
(she/her)
Spoken Word Artist/Teacher
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Our stats
Part of our commitment to increasing equality, diversity, and inclusion is to monitor the demographic data of our creatives, audiences, and staff. This is so we can understand who is/isn’t getting involved, celebrate how diverse Peterborough’s creative communities are, and take an honest look at where we can do better. We hope that being transparent about our stats makes us accountable for the work we are doing.
Please note that some of our stats use binary or umbrella terms, which we have since changed. For example, we have broadened out our “Disability” stats to include mental health, neurodivergence, and long-term health conditions that only affect people some of the time. When we release our 2022/23 stats you will be able to see these stats in more detail.
Diversity of our audience
In 2021, we reached 60,000+ people in-person and online. Our survey responses suggest that:
Gender: 65% of our audience identify as Female, 30% identify as Male, 1% identify as Other, and 4% preferred not to say.
Ethnicity: 70% of our audiences identify as White British, 8% identify as Asian or British Asian (Indian), 6% identify as Asian or British Asian (Pakistani), 4% identify as Other White Background e.g Eastern European, 2% identify as Mixed/Multiple Ethnic Backgrounds, 2% identify as Other, 1% identify as Gypsy or Irish Traveller, 1% identify as Black or Black British, 1% identify as Arab, and 3% preferred not to say.
Age: 19% were under 19, 4% were 20-29, 18% were 30-39, 8% were 40–49, 6% were 50-59, 14% were 60-69, 8% were 70-79, 1% were 80+, and 22% are unknown.
Disability: 13% identify as Disabled, 80% identify as Non-Disabled, and 7% preferred not to say.
As part of our evaluation, we compare our demographic data with citywide stats to understand if our audiences are reflective of the make-up of Peterborough. From analysing this data, our target audiences for 2022-23 are disabled people, men, young people aged 11-19, and global majority communities of colour.
Diversity of our artists
In 2021 we worked with over 70 artists or organisations. Our survey responses suggest that:
Gender: 19% identify as Male, 66% identify as Female, 6% identify as Non-binary, 3% identify as Other, and 6% preferred not to say.
Sexuality: 72% identify as Heterosexual, 3% identify as Gay Woman / Lesbian, 3% identify as Bisexual, 3% identify as Gay Man, 13% identify as Other, and 6% were not known or preferred not to say.
Ethnicity: 72% identify as White or White British, 9% identify as Black or Black British, 3% identify as Pakistani, 9% identify as Asian or Asian British, 6% identify as Multiple Ethnic Backgrounds/Mixed Heritage
Age: 3% were under 19, 47% were 20-34, 38% were 35-49, and 13% were 50-64
Disability: 47% identify as Disabled, 47% identify as Non-Disabled, and 6% preferred not to say.
Diversity of our staff and consortium
In 2021 our staff and consortium demographics suggest that:
Gender: 55% identify as Male, 45% identify as Female
Sexuality: 82% identify as Heterosexual, 9% identify as Gay Woman / Lesbian, and 9% identify as Other
Ethnicity: 82% identify as White British, and 18% identify as Asian British
Age: 18% are 20-34, 82% are 35-54
Disability: 9% identify as Disabled, and 91% identify as Non-Disabled
Please note we will update this info in April 2023 as there have been some staff changes. An action we have taken to increase the diversity of our staff, consortium, and strategic team, is to invite guests from the many communities we work in to be “friends of the consortium”, attending occasional meetings. If you’d like to know more about this, please get in touch.
What else are we doing?
Our EDI action plan sets out much of what’s contained on this website page into yearly targets. You can read the full EDI action plan by clicking here. We’ve also summarised some more steps we are taking to improve our EDI within all things Peterborough Presents.
Introducing ourselves using names and pronouns
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Making sure we include access information about venues/activity e.g wheelchair access information
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Working with a range of community and non-arts partners to build and shape our projects
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Sharing our learning by making online resources
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Improving process of recruiting people by positively promoting equal access e.g creating video and audio briefs, accepting non-written applications
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Creating programmes that are relevant and shaped with our target audiences
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Spending time in the neighbourhoods we work
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Creating opportunities to bring an intersectional group of people with a shared interest together e.g dinners, social events, networking
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Improving our digital access through plug-ins and other accessibility toolkits
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Investing in our EDI working group to continue to meet, share learning, and improve our equality, diversity, and inclusion across all the programme