Culture of inclusion: Four lessons to embrace diversity

Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture did not begin with a stadium spectacular, as so many major events do. It came to life on the streets.

On a sunny day in June 2021, residents emerged from their homes to see a procession of runners tracing the path of a hidden river through the city.

They were accompanied by BMX riders performing spectacular stunts and Bollywood dancers bursting from vintage cars to a soundtrack created by Coventry kid Panjabi MC.

Instead of a celebrity headliner, there were pop-up performances across the city. In place of a firework extravaganza, there were community installations.

This approach mirrored the event’s core purpose: to involve as many of the city’s diverse communities in creating and enjoying culture as possible.

Harnessing inclusivity to maximise social impact

As the academic lead for social impact evaluation, I had the privilege of analysing the inclusive approach adopted for Coventry City of Culture.

Rather than looking at the festival from a financial perspective, we asked how culture could be used to bring about positive social change.

What we learned can help organisations take similar steps towards diversity and inclusion.

1 Identify the issues

Coventry was the third winner of the UK’s City of Culture competition, taking up the baton from Hull. Like their predecessors, local leaders hoped the event could help to address several challenges.

Chief amongst them was Coventry’s status as a Marmot City, recognising the fact that the city ranked 287th out of 326 local authorities for equality.

This was deeply rooted in social conditions. Poor health, low life expectancy, and mental health issues were more prevalent in neighbourhoods with higher levelsof social deprivation.

As the Number 10 bus wound its way across the city, it travelled through affluent and deprived neighbourhoods where life expectancy differed by nine years within the space of a few miles.

Less affluent communities also had historically low levels of participation in publicly funded culture. A survey found that just 29 per cent of the population engaged in cultural events and most of these cultural consumers were drawn from wealthier neighbourhoods.

What if all those under-represented groups were brought in from the cold? Could that help in the city’s fight against health inequality and contribute to social regeneration?

Keen to test this theory, the City of Culture Trust created a major arts programme involving groups that had traditionally been excluded from such events. This included events that combined art with physical activity and a focus on improved physical and mental health.

The evaluation scheme would monitor the success of that ‘inclusive design’ every step of the way and answer the questions: could a theory become a story of change?

The lesson for leaders within any organisation is that, in order to measure social value, you should start with a clear idea of the value you want to deliver.

2 Tailor your goals

Organisations should tailor their goals to local and individual needs. This requires consultation, adaptation, and careful acknowledgement. But ultimately, this tailored approach is more likely to secure buy-in from the people you want to include.

One of the first moves made by the Trust, was to create three programme strands and teams responsible for delivering an arts schedule of their own.

The Caring City team used culture to address issues such as food poverty and immigration, reflecting Coventry’s long history as a city of sanctuary for those fleeing conflict and persecution. It co-created its programme with vulnerable groups of residents, based on their hopes and struggles.

The Collaborative City team had a geographical focus, with a programme rooted in the needs and the desires of local communities.

The Dynamic City team was responsible for major events, promoting the arts for young people, championing the environment, and exploring innovation with new technologies.

Each strand brought cultural producers together with organisations such as the Refugee and Migrant Centre or Grapevine, as well as community organisations, family hubs, and schools.

Together, they co-designed and produced a range of events. The journey did not always go to plan. If you work with people from all walks of life, there is always going to be the unexpected.

Ultimately, though, ordinary people came forward to produce some extraordinary work. Local Caribbean musical acts turned out in force for the Reggae Fever event, while the homeless community told their stories at the HOME Festival, delivering benefits for wellbeing and civic pride.

3 Engage and evaluate

The result was truly culture created by the people, rather than culture created for the people.

An impressive 77 per cent of the City of Culture year was co-created with local residents (with the exception of commercial events), and artistic activity took place in every neighbourhood.

More than 3,000 community dancers, musicians, poets, and creators participated in this programme of hyper-local and affordable events.

To ensure audience engagement was equally inclusive, Warwick Business School helped to develop a data-analysis toolkit called the Coventry Cultural Place Profiler.

This helped us to map participation across different postcodes and identify ‘cold zones’ with lower levels of engagement, and thus think differently about how to promote events in those areas.

When we realised that people in a particular postcode weren’t signing up for events because they lacked smartphones with sufficient data to engage online, we began using paper posters instead.

As a result, 41 per cent of tickets went to citizens from Coventry’s lower socio-economic groups and we were able to tailor our work in response to audience feedback.

4 Co-creation is key

Any organisation that has inclusivity as a goal should take co-creation seriously. That goes for social enterprises, public services, and businesses embarking on new strategic departures or firms looking at their corporate social responsibility programmes.

It makes sense to hear as many voices as possible while designing innovation and while implementing it, analysing the collected data, and revising the approach accordingly.

Co-creation is also a way of building a sense of buy-in or a band of kindred spirits behind a project. We certainly found evidence of this in Coventry.

The long shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic may have reduced attendance at events and increased the cost of health and safety precautions.

Yet, a wide variety of historically under-represented groups engaged in the planning, execution, and consumption of the programme.

Residents who took part reported stronger feelings of civic pride, belonging, and social cohesion. There is also evidence that participation improved health and wellbeing.

These are things to be proud of. By driving a programme of community-led events, Coventry shed light on what is possible.

Further reading:

Six ways businesses can maximise social impact

Bread and roses: Making the case for cultural funding

Five steps to improve the impact value of major events

How co-ops and mutuals measure their social impact?

Haley Beer is Associate Professor of Operations Management at Warwick Business School. She teaches Creating Sustainable Organisations and Leading and Harnessing Diversity on the Executive MBA and Global Online MBA.

Learn about Leading People Through Change and Disruption on a four day Executive Education course at WBS London at The Shard.

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