Recently, Michaël Berghman and Pauwke Berkers received a grant for their project:Inclusiviteit in kunst en cultuur: impliciete associaties als expliciete drempel, financed by the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)
Although diversity is of great added value for the cultural sector – both in terms of contents and audience – and inclusiveness is therefore high on the agenda, many still do not feel at home in the cultural sector. Much effort goes into making programming, audiences and partners more diverse. However, the personnel of cultural institutions receives far less attention. People working in this sector have often received training and built up experience in circumstances that were culturally less diverse. They may therefore not be aware of certain sensitivities when putting ambitions of inclusiveness into practice. Without even knowing, they may cling to a majority perspective and thereby unintentionally make their programmes less accessible to other groups. In collaboration with the RRKC, this project studies the implicit assumptions that are adhered to by board members, directors, programmers and people in marketing and communications in the cultural sector. In this way, our goal is to help organizations in the cultural sector to see their own blind spots. By doing so, we want to enable them to overcome a persistent threshold to reaching a more diverse audience and providing access to the great wealth of culture and art the city of Rotterdam has to offer.
