Tools

The picture book

Welcome to the Cultural Desert is a graphic story about the successes we hear talked about and the failures we don’t.

Set in a cultural desert near you, this is a simple story that many of us know too well but which can be told in multiple ways.

It juxtaposes the claims we make publicly with the things we may think privately and invites you to consider which narrative you find yourself telling most often, to whom and why.

As this is a book with two narratives, it also offers two potential endings. One in which the cultural sector continues to emphasise success at all costs. And another in which we are all empowered to interrogate failures and their implications.

The book is designed to stimulate and develop your conversations with colleagues and participants and, ultimately, to help us all build a more equitable cultural sector.