Sundays with Wit (On Saturday!) - Building an Inclusive Arts Practice

Build an inclusive arts practise with Cessalee Stovall this Sundays with Wit (on Saturday!)

In this workshop, participants will:

• Examine their own relationship with bias
• Learn how to recognize and mitigate power imbalances
• Define three types of safety and assess personal needs
• Understand how to use this language to create and request brave and emboldened spaces for our work 
• Be equipped with tools, language, actions and considerations for ways to further both personal and organisational work, promoting a more inclusive, equitable and safer workplace. 

Topics covered in this session include:  

• Unconscious Bias
• Power
• Psychological and Cultural Safety
• Safe Spaces / Brave Spaces
• Bystander Intervention and Allyship
• Apologies, Accountability and Acknowledgement

This workshop is for arts workers of all kinds and anyone who is interested in learning tools and practices to make your work inclusive, equitable, accessible and anti-racist.

Book your spot here to confirm, but also feel free to just rock up on the date of the event.

DETAILS:

Where: Bluestone Church Arts Space, Footscray.
When: Saturday 8 April
Time: 10am-11:30pm, with an optional lunch hangout afterwards

Please bring what you use for note-taking, and a water bottle or flask (we have water and tea).

This venue is wheelchair accessible and has accessible toilets onsite.

If you have any questions, please get in touch at hello@witinc.com.au.

 

COST:

This workshop is free, or pay what you can. When booking, please choose a price that is right for you. We will also have a donation jar at the door.

Suggested prices are:

$8 (concession/unwaged/student) 

$20 (full)

$30 (solidarity - pay it forward)

Or choose your own amount. 

ABOUT THE COACH:

Cessalee Stovall is an artist, educator, and advocate who connects her theatre and performance practice, expertise as an educator, lived experience as a Black artist, and passion for engagement through the arts to deliver programming that serves artists and our industry on a global scale. She is the Founder and director of Stage A Change, and she works most frequently as a director, actor and intimacy professional. She holds a degree in theatre from Florida State University, an Arts Leadership Graduate certificate from University of Massachusetts, Amhurst, certificates in Diversity and Inclusion from Purdue University and Cornell University, and a Mental Health First Aid certification, she is uniquely qualified to support diversity, equity, inclusion and mental health in the performing arts sector. 

Known for her open-minded perspective and knack for understanding the larger picture, Cessalee has earned the respect and support of theatre industry professionals globally. In addition to providing access to training, Cessalee believes that by discussing and implementing both ground- and glass-breaking best practices, we will continue to diversify our industry, both onstage, offstage, and in the audiences, making space to hear more voices, understand more stories, and engage more authentically. 

ABOUT STAGE A CHANGE:

Founded in 2017, Stage A Change is an organisation working to create more professional theatre opportunities for aspiring artists of colour throughout Australia. Stage A Change focuses on their 3-Spoke Plan to initiate change; Artist Training, Community Engagement and Industry Standards. Since 2017, Stage A Change has hosted several industry roundtable discussions, launched a training program in partnership with VCA, offered consultancy in anti-racism, DEI, and strategic planning, engaged in community outreach with the Diversity in Theatre picnics, and collected audience data to understand external stakeholder attitudes in reference to diversity within the sector.

In 2021, Stage A Change developed an industry-focused consultancy program, specifically created for arts practitioners and theatre companies. This program enables independent artists, producers, creatives and organisations to initiate, develop, build and take action on best practices with regards to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, based on their project, vision, budget and goals.

In 2022, Stage A Change introduced the Changemakers, a cohort of arts organizations who are aligned with Stage A Change’s ABIDE principles, Access, Belonging, Inclusion, Diversity and Equity, and are actively seeking to implement them into their organisation's structure. ChangeMakers acknowledge their responsibility, specifically to communities who have been historically excluded from their practice, to listen, to be accountable, and to lead the way towards a more accessible, equitable and inclusive sector

For more information about Stage A Change and The ChangeMakers, please contact hello@stageachange.org.

ABOUT SUNDAYS WITH WIT:

Join Wit Incorporated for Sundays with Wit, a space for theatre-makers and creatives of all disciplines to come together to build creative skill through experimentation, collaboration and artistic discourse. Sundays with Wit are supported by Maribyrnong City Council Arts and Culture. Donations to Wit Incorporated are welcome and will help us extend this series. Learn more here: witinc.com.au/sundays

The artists of Wit Incorporated meet, work and create on the lands of the Kulin nation. We pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging.