What will the project explore?

Cultural value is often created through collaboration, yet the specific dynamics of these collaborations are currently under-explored.

Rising Arts Agency is a Bristol-based community of young creatives aged 16–30 mobilising others for radical social, political and cultural change. Working with Andreana Drencheva from King’s College London, the partnership will explore the nature of truly equitable partnerships in the cultural sector, particularly how power imbalances manifest for grassroots organisations and marginalised creatives working with cultural sector institutions.

The project aims to shift the focus from how marginalised creatives and grassroots organisations can navigate these power imbalances – where the burden is on them – to how these imbalances can be removed to increase cultural value for creatives, cultural organisations and audiences.

This research will use Rising Arts Agency as a microcosm: part of a grassroots ecosystem, where marginalised creatives come for support and cultural partnerships are being continually modelled. Using reflection, interviews, diaries, labs, sharing events and archives these personal experiences will be placed in the context of the wider sector with benefits for institutions, similar grassroots organisations, marginalised creatives and funders.

We will update you with more findings from the project over the course of the next year.