University Women In The Arts Announces Partnerships With Leading Arts And Education Organisations On Project To Tackle Abuse In The Arts

University Women in the Arts, the mentoring scheme to improve the transition from women studying the arts to working in the arts, has announced a series of new partnerships with leading arts and education organisations to help tackle abuse in the arts.

The year long project will help female arts students and recent graduates have their voices, experiences and views heard in the current discussions around bullying, abuse and harassment in the arts.

University Women In the Arts will also work with GenPol, the gender equality think tank based at the University of Cambridge, to produce a toolkit to help drama schools and university arts courses and departments equip their female and male students to deal with, tackle and help eradicate bullying, abuse and harassment in the arts as they make their way into the arts industry.

The five initial partners being announced for the writing workshop series are Sphinx Theatre Company, one of the UK's leading female theatre companies; Actor Awareness, which is leading the way campaigning for and supporting working class actors and writers; Kings College London in partnership with Pokfulam RD Productions, which recently produced the anthology "Foreign Goods" of work by British East Asian playwrights published by Oberon Books, one of the UK's leading performing arts publishers, and Papergang Theatre; the University of Cambridge via the Arts and Creativities Research Group and GenPol, the gender equality think tank based at the University of Cambridge; and Brush Stroke Order, which was developed in the North West of England via the National Theatres' Step Change Programme. The overall project will be supported by the Creative Industries Federation and 5 more leading arts and education partners will be announced later this year.

The project will be overseen by Titilola Dawudu, who has recently edited the important forthcoming book of audition monologues created by and for diverse actors, "Hear Me Now", to be published shortly by Oberon Books, Jingan Young, who was a BBC New Talent Hot List Writer in 2017, editor of the "Foreign Goods" anthology published by Oberon Books and is Artistic Director of Pokfulam RD Productions, and Jennifer Tuckett, Director of University Women in the Arts and Co-Director of Art School, which manages the University Women in the Arts programme amongst other work.

Jennifer Tuckett, Director of University Women in the Arts, said: "In the last year, there has been a lot of discussion about abuse in the arts, which has been brilliant to see. However, female arts students and recent graduates have so far perhaps not had as accessible an opportunity to share their views. We hope this project will provide female arts students and recent graduates with the opportunity to share their views and experiences on abuse in the arts which will provide an important collection of work which can be used by policymakers and arts organisations and education organisations in the future to reflect on and develop their current practice in terms of this area and/or could be performed or read by female arts students and recent graduates. One immediate and direct result of the writing workshops will be to help lead to a toolkit for drama schools and arts courses to use to help teach and equip their students to deal with, tackle and help eradicate bullying, abuse and harassment in the arts as the next generation going in the arts."

More information on the project and how to get involved can be found on the University Women In the Arts website at www.univeritywomeninthearts.com