Cultural Shift was a three year disabled-led strategic project funded by Spirit of 2012 and delivered by Little Cog in partnership with ARC between 2015-2018.
This project changed ARC and the way we work. It transformed our organisation, it touched everyone we worked with, disabled people and non-disabled people alike. The journey we went on wasn’t always easy but the change we have achieved made every challenge worthwhile.
Before Cultural Shift, there was a massive gap in our work: the voices and stories of disabled people were not being included. As an organisation, we were missing out on the creativity, skills and perspectives held by disabled people, and our audiences were missing out too. In the North East of England 25% of people identify as disabled, that is a huge proportion of our communities and it was an absolute priority for us to ensure they were represented in our programme, audiences and workforce.
Our learning from Cultural Shift continues to develop and we have written a guide that details our journey and offers useful advice on how other venues and organisations can start their journey too.