1.
Diversity a lived experience
Suzanne Alleyne – Zurich 2017

2.
Overview and content
• Living in a world from birth of being the diversity
• Overview of who I am and how I came to be in university
• Sharing of particular questions, challenges, pleasure of studying a
masters in arts and cultural management, whilst working in the
industry and taking part in a leadership course. Through the lens of
my eyes and being

3.
Me – in this context
• Black British (parents from Jamaica and Barbados)
• Female
• 52
• Grew up in a suburb outside London (Croydon)
• Don’t come from a family that would usually engage with publicly
funded arts
• Dyslexia
• Dissociative disorder
• No one in my immediate family of my generation went to university

4.
My student and work life currently
• A King’s College London, Arts and Cultural Management masters
student
• 25 + years of producing and consulting experience across commerce
and culture
• Arts Council England Changemaker:
• Commercial and Brand Director at Apples and Snakes

5.
Previously
• Media including launch of PR Week
• Corporate identity and design
• Working at the intersection of lifestyle or culture (often board sports)
and commerce
• Publicly funded arts (individuals and organisations)

6.
Skillsets
• Ability to deliver inaugural or one off projects
• Instinctual ability to recruit, develop and lead super diverse teams
• Joy at working at the intersection of commerce and culture
• Instinctual reflexive way of thinking and working

7.
How did I get into arts and
cultural management and why
have I stayed there?

8.
What took me to King’s
College London to study?

9.
Frustration at lack of diversity and
a desire to be part of change

10.
This is one of the most important speeches I’ll make as
Chair of Arts Council England. Today I’m committing the
organisation - which belongs to all of us - to a
fundamental shift in its approach to diversity.
The plain fact is that despite many valuable, well-
intentioned policies over the past decade, when it comes
to diversity, we have not achieved what we intended.
(Bazalgette, 2014)

11.
Context, this is me. Chicken or egg?

12.
My experience – me as a student?

13.
Me – in this context
• Black British (parents from Jamaica and Barbados)
• Female
• 52
• Grew up in a suburb outside London (Croydon)
• Don’t come from a family that would usually engage with publicly
funded arts
• Dyslexia
• Dissociative disorder
• No one in my immediate family of my generation went to university

14.
Questions that arose for me thinking about
this presentation and during my studies
• What does academia want from diversity and intercultural relations?
How is this prioritised and actioned?
• How can academia better support minority voices and how can it do
this without inflicting Western perspectives
• How does the role of cultural policy globally affect, support or not
minority voices locally?
• How do I explain the difference between being the majority and ‘the
other’ or the ‘minority voice’ to those that are the majority

15.
2.8% of black and minority ethnic female academics are employed
at professor level (ECU,2009)
Here's a question I'd like to see in a GCSE maths exam: in a climate
where only one in 13 (7.7%) university professors are from BME
backgrounds, where only 50 out of a total 14,000 university
professors in Britain are from black Caribbean or black African
backgrounds, and only 10 of these are women, how much tenacity
does one black female PhD student need to achieve her full
potential? (Bradbury, 2013)
In three years of my programme there have been 2 Black British
students, no teaching staff that remotely look like me, few staff who
specialise in my dissertation topic (diversity) (or intersection of
commerce and culture)

16.
Arts Council England (2014) Arts Council and the Creative Case for Diversity. [online]. Available from:
http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-
file/Sir_Peter_Bazalgette_Creative_Case_speech_8_Dec_2014.pdf (Accessed 5 July 2017). [online]. Available
from: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-
file/Sir_Peter_Bazalgette_Creative_Case_speech_8_Dec_2014.pdf (Accessed 5 July 2017).
Booker, M. (2017) Challenging the lack of opportunities for people of colour in the arts and academic sectors.
Toni Stuart [online]. Available from: http://tonistuart.tumblr.com/post/157479332569/challenging-the-lack-
of-opportunities-for-people (Accessed 5 July 2017). [online]. Available from:
http://tonistuart.tumblr.com/post/157479332569/challenging-the-lack-of-opportunities-for-people (Accessed
5 July 2017).
Bradbury, J. (2013) Black, female and postgraduate: why I cannot be the only one [online]. Available from:
https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/may/03/black-postgraduate-university-
diversity-recruitment (Accessed 5 July 2017).
Equality Challenge Unit (2011) 1st edition. London: Equality Challenge Unit. [online]. Available from:
http://www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/experience-of-bme-staff-in-he-final-report/ (Accessed 5 July 2017).
Miller, K. (2017) Kei Miller - Because Some Things Just Can't Be Said (By Me to You), I've Never Told Anyone This
Before, The Essay - BBC Radio 3 [online]. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04vd608
(Accessed 5 July 2017).
Romer, C. (2017) Arts Council warns new NPOs: Improve diversity or no funding [online]. Available from:
https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/arts-council-warns-new-npos-improve-diversity-or-no-funding
(Accessed 5 July 2017).
Romer, C. (2017) Arts funding: 183 new NPOs as largest organisations take 3% cut [online]. Available from:
https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/arts-funding-183-new-npos-largest-organisations-take-3-cut
(Accessed 5 July 2017).
Bibliography and reference reading