We have partnered with the Southampton UK City of Culture 2025 Trust and organisations from across our city to make an Inclusion Pledge.
By committing to our pledges together we are unified in our aim to make Southampton an actively Inclusive City. Across Southampton, organisations have come together to create meaningful, change-making Inclusion Pledges. The pledges have been created from a series of Inclusion Workshops launched in 2021 led by Southampton 2025 Trust alongside John Hansard Gallery as a response to the wider consultation for the UK City of Culture 2025 bid process.
The Inclusion Pledges are a commitment to improving access to and equity of opportunity for Southampton’s diverse population, taking into consideration age, class, disability, race, religion or belief, gender and sexual orientation.
Here at John Hansard Gallery, we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to experience, engage with and take part in culture and creativity. Our city centre location and links with local communities, gives us the unique opportunity to reach new, diverse and expanded public audiences, including those least likely to engage. We will celebrate diversity and the importance of difference within contemporary life across all our programme, operations and engagement.
John Hansard Gallery pledges:
Learning
We will actively work with our team, expert colleagues, community leaders and representatives of community groups to develop, review and revise our plans, policies and procedures.
Team
We will ensure that our recruitment process is open and accessible to all applicants with a positive emphasis on recruitment of candidates from underrepresented groups and communities.
Leadership and Management
We will develop a shared model of leadership that foregrounds marginalised voices and underrepresented communities within the senior management of the gallery.
Governance
We will ensure that our Strategic Board is representative of the diverse communities within Southampton with a positive emphasis on recruitment of members from underrepresented groups and communities.
Programme
We will ensure that our programme is reflective and representative of the diverse communities within Southampton, across the UK and globally.
Audience
We will actively reach out to communities and work outside the gallery to develop new audiences and partnerships.
Partnerships
We will proactively work with community groups and organisations to reach diverse audiences and participants.
Monitoring and Measuring Success
We will undertake robust monitoring and evaluation of progress and implementation of our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion action plan and pledges.
We acknowledge that we do not have the answers and solutions for this work. We hope that by implementing our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion action plan and pledges, we will bring about positive change across our organisation, our programme, our team and our governance.
Visit www.southampton2025.co.uk for more information about Inclusion Pledges.