What is an equity steering group?

The Crafts Council and Glasgow Caledonian University London recently set up an equity steering group when working on a collaborative project. We wanted to know how it worked in practice and what organisations looking to embed equity, diversity and inclusion in their work could learn from it.

The Crafts Council’s Equity Advisory Council (EAC) is made up of experienced people with a shared passion for establishing equity in the craft sector. Drawn from minoritised and underrepresented communities, the group initially came together during the Black Lives Matter debates to tackle anti-Black racism following a calling out of the Crafts Council on its stance. 

The EAC works behind the scenes as a critical friend to the Crafts Council. While craft and making can be a powerful and positive practice for some, makers of colour have long been excluded from the cultural space that is UK craft, and racism remains a significant barrier to participation. 

Adapting the approach

In 2022, the Crafts Council secured funding from the Centre for Cultural Value’s Collaborate Fund to work with an academic partner to research the cultural value of craft in the context of race and racism in the UK. 

Cultural norms to date have limited research into craft so we were determined to surface and tackle the challenges in carrying out the project. The EAC was involved from the start. It played a vital role in creating the project brief and selecting Glasgow Caledonian University London as an academic partner. 

Three EAC members joined the project steering group to ensure the voices of makers from marginalised backgrounds were heard and championed. This was vital in constructing emancipatory, critical and participatory engagement. They were remunerated for their time and work, placing it on par with other participants, raising the status of this essential activity, and recognising the value of their guidance and expertise.

Evolution of the steering group

The project was small in terms of funding, but it had the potential for significant impact in an under-researched area. The stakes were high as we wanted to disrupt established cultural norms, including the predominant hierarchies in research. So it was essential the project was designed and conducted in line with anti-racism and cross-cultural best practices. 

Having a steering group is common practice, but recruiting a group focusing on equity felt particularly important. Separately and collectively, we made time to reflect on our positionality to minimise the tendency of research to reinforce assumptions and stereotypes. There was a risk of misunderstandings and mismatches in expectations, given the disparate professional and personal experiences represented within our team of academics, practitioners, pracademics and Crafts Council professionals. 

To minimise these risks, the steering group and EAC chair, Dr Rose Sinclair, convened a meeting, hosted by an external facilitator, which allowed for negotiation and agreement on roles, responsibilities, reporting timelines and formats. Convened at the Crafts Council gallery, surrounded by artefacts, that meeting centred the act and significance of crafting from the outset. And by having a series of pre-meetings with key participants, the facilitator created a safe space in which the wider group felt able to air questions and concerns. 

Outcomes

Several recommendations emerged, including: 

•    To identify and create opportunities for minoritised early career professionals to gain experience in the creative industries.
•    To rethink what research is or could be, ensuring the approach promotes inclusion for research assistants, as well as for the communities from which we hoped to learn more about craft and cultural value.

And a further initiative to come out of the conversations was the recruitment of a paid placement for a Young Craft Citizen (YCC), to join a collective of 16–30-year-olds interested in shaping the future of craft, design and making in the UK.

Working alongside PhD students and early career researchers, this YCC contributed to the research, gathering data, adding insights and presenting her experiences to both the steering group and at seminars. The placement gave her valuable career experience and she brought a fresh perspective to the project.

Equity-informed research

As part of the research, we held two Living Labs in the form of craft workshops with cultural organisations and their communities that tested understanding of the meanings attached to craft in real-life settings. Participants were paid an honorarium for attendance in recognition of their contribution. 

We aimed to develop insights that help grow community participation and economic opportunity. Importantly, we didn’t want our research to be extractive of  participants so it was crucial the relationship with the EAC was not overly onerous. 

EAC members of the steering group did not take part in the research nor was it their responsibility to provide solutions to issues raised. However, the support and challenge they provided was invaluable in framing the Living Labs and determining appropriate research tools, language and methods to capture valuable data. 

One EAC member attended a Living Lab as an observer, moving between participants engaged in making while they talked about craft and culture. Her reflections on the structure, pace and outcomes showed EAC expertise had helped form equitable relationships. She particularly noted the organic and positive conversations between participants and researchers, which one participant described as feeling ‘like a hug.’

By centring the EAC in our project steering group, we were able to carry out people-centred, transparent and connected research. We hope that laying out our process offers a possible roadmap for other organisations in the cultural sector and creative industries that also seek to place equity, diversity and inclusion at the heart of their work.

Maher Anjum is co-founder of social enterprise Oitij.
Julia Bennett is the former Head of Research and Policy at the Crafts Council.
Natascha Radclyffe-Thomas is Professor of Marketing and Sustainable Business at Glasgow Caledonian University London.
Rose Sinclair is a Design Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London.
 www.culturalvalue.org.uk | craftscouncil.org.uk/ | gcu.ac.uk/london
@valuingculture | @CraftsCouncilUK | @GCULondon | @Oitijjo | @fashionnatascha | @dorcasstories

The Centre for Cultural Value offers a collection of research and evaluation resources. Read our new guide: How to … approach anti-racist audience and community research.  

This article, sponsored and contributed by the Centre for Cultural Value, is part of a series supporting an evidence-based approach to examining the impacts of arts, culture and heritage on people and society.