BARRIERS

- Affordability: a culture of working for free; low paid work.

- Impact on mental health of balancing 2 or 3 jobs to support your work. The impact that this split focus has on the work you make. Impact this has on developing your craft. Needing a "money" job that isn't necessarily compatible with progressing your art.

- Working-class as a title is not definable or immediately visible. It is considered unfashionable to be working class.

- The level of risk is greater for working-class artists without the safety net of family and social support.

- Lack of confidence in conversations with those who have a certain entitlement.

- A sense of being behind - when peers have had access to arts from a younger age or been immersed in cultural conversations. The exhaustion that comes from feeling out of sync.

- Engagement in culture being seen as a middle-class act, isolating working-class people who participate or creating a barrier for them to ever get involved.

- Application processes being biased towards certain groups.

- Working class artists likely to have less of a network to reach out to, get advice and experience from.

QUESTIONS THAT AROSE

- In the current government and economic climate is higher education still a step to transcending class barriers?

- How do we ensure that young people still have access to the theatre now that schools are reducing trips and drama classes?

- How do you allow different ways of engaging with a performance that aren't as intimidating to new audiences?

- Does it take longer to build a career as a working-class artist? Does this then mean working-class artists miss out on opportunities open for under 25's?

- How do we continue to build more diverse audiences in light of Tory changes?

- How do we open up application processes to working-class artists?

- How do we monitor how we are dealing with class? How do we ensure that middle-class in management structures are aware of barriers to working-class artists? How do we get more middle-class people involved in this conversation?


SOLUTIONS

- More discussions about class. Better definitions of class. Visibility of working-class artists - claiming that identity.

- Using arts as a tool for breaking down barriers.

- Representations of class: performing class - committing to subverting stereotypes.

- Participation: Audience engagement after productions; involving the whole family, not just children, so families can have discussions.

- We should consider more what working-class theatre professionals can make that others can't, rather than emulating middle-class perceptions of art.

- Ownership of mainstream - for example, Harry Potter could be considered to have changed the audience demographic.

- Providing platforms for peoples work - so we can legitimize them.

- Talking with venues about providing more flexible opportunities for companies and artists, that would be more compatible with people trying to work other jobs alongside their art.

ORGANISATIONS TO ENGAGE WITH

Arts Emergency - http://arts-emergency.org
Working Class Artists Group - @WCArtistGroup
UK Theatre - Acting Up report - https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/campaigncountdown/pages/1157/attachments/original/1502725031/Acting-Up-Report.pdf?1502725031
Arts Council consultation