Diversity School Initiative to end in December with programme of events
Hattie Fisk
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Now, in the final stages of the project, the team has launched an anonymous form through which students can share their experiences.
After five years of campaign work, the Diversity School initiative is set to end this December.
Maame Atuah, Steven Kavuma and Mumba Dodwell founded the Diversity School Initiative project in 2017, with the aim to hold drama schools to account on diversity.
The campaign has partnered with six education institutions since 2018: ArtsEd, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, LAMDA and Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.
The project is set to come to a close in December, launching a series of events to signify the end of its work. This included a Zoom session for drama school graduates to discuss their experiences, and another Zoom event for current students and any of the six partner drama schools.
The campaign has also launched an anonymous form for drama school students or graduates to share any experiences of sexism, racism, ableism and classism, with options to include their contact details if they wish to take their complaint further.
Kavuma said: ‘We never intended Diversity School to go on forever. The aim was that it was always temporary and the onus was on the drama schools to create that change.
‘We wanted to have a student-centred discussion around diversity and empower students and leave them feeling that they are part of the schools and their voice matters, and also to produce meaningful and long-lasting change. I think we’ve done that in the time we’ve been alive as an organisation, but there’s still so much to do, and that base that we’ve provided is there for the drama schools to take forward and do themselves.’
Atuah said: ‘This started from a really difficult experience at the beginning, and we never expected it to be this big and to be this much of an emotionally difficult journey.
‘We have worked tirelessly, travelled all over the country, and I’m really proud of our dedication to this as well as having full time jobs. I’m so proud of how much effort we put into it, and how many connections and friends we made along the way.’
