Our values

FolkEast is committed to creating an open, friendly and welcoming environment in which audiences, artists and staff come together to make and enjoy a rich culture of music and arts.

 Our aims are to:

  • Promote participation and interest in music and the arts

  • Celebrate and promote our local community and folk heritage

  • Create a positive, safe and inclusive environment in which to create and share new work

  • Encourage and value collaboration

We look to achieve these aims through the FolkEast values of Diversity, Collaboration and Creativity whilst always ensuring that we are wholly accessible and welcoming to everyone.

Diversity

Diversity is a strength to be respected and celebrated by all those who participate and contribute to music and the arts

It is about recognising individual as well as group differences, and FolkEast aims to create an inclusive culture for all.

We believe that working with people from different backgrounds and with different experiences allow us to learn and get a new perspective, enriching and progressing the work we do

We aim to treat everyone fairly, regardless of their age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

Moving forward

Diversity will be a key consideration in our artistic and organisational planning and the FolkEast team are encouraged to take responsibility for furthering the aims and values of cultural diversity and representation

Where we’ve identified areas of under-representation and engagement , we will work together to redress the balance

We will make sure that all artists and personnel support schemes are open to everyone, with video and other non-text based options with which to communicate with us

We will review and refresh our marketing and promotional strategies to ensure that we are reaching and engaging with a wider more diverse audience

We are working to ensure that our event spaces are as accessible and wheelchair friendly as possible

We will be rigorous in collecting and analysing our data to get to know our audiences better in order to inform and improve our strategy

The Directors are responsible for promoting FolkEast’s approach to continually improving all aspects of diversity in regards to staff, artists, contributors , participants and audiences but it is up to all of us, for everyone to work together, to create a truly inclusive culture.