Accountability
Transform is a registered charity and a recipient of public funding. We are a festival and producing company focused on reflecting society and supporting a wide range of people from different walks of life to explore their creativity and experience performance. We are committed to critiquing our own practises and procedures and being accountable across our work. We see this as an ongoing process which will never be ‘complete’. However, at this moment, more than ever, we think there is much value in arts organisations like Transform being transparent about their approaches to accountability artistically and organisationally.
Our Commitments
At Transform we are committed to:
1
Contributing to thinking and innovation around what a festival of the future can look like and represent, with consideration for environmental sustainability, access and inclusion
2
Embracing and promoting equity and inclusion as fundamental to our core ethos, artistic programme and organisational/governance structure
3
Taking an equity-centred and inclusive approach to the way we engage with, support and collaborate with creative people, audiences and collaborators, backed-up with evolving best practice and up to date policies
4
Ensuring an intersectional focus in the development of our programme, with consideration of ‘protected characteristics’ such as age, gender, race, disability, sexual orientation and considering marginalised positions and their barriers
5
Holding ourselves accountable for representation within the organisation, our partnerships, collaborations and programme and seeking to redress imbalances of power and representation across our work
6
Supporting and amplifying artists and creatives from a range of backgrounds; including those from the Global Majority and who experience racism, those who are LGBTQI+, and who identify as disabled. As an international festival, we pay attention to global representation across our programme, with particular consideration of artist representation from the Global South
Environment
We recognise the conflict between international festivals and the climate emergency and we are taking action to understand and reduce our environmental impact and to develop climate-focused new ways of thinking and working. We are working to ensure that both our organisational operations and artistic programme are data-informed and environmentally risk assessed. We ensure our programme is climate justice informed, recognising the connections between exploitation of people and of the planet. We are committed to working in partnership and collaboration to ensure that incoming international work is done so in partnership wherever possible in order to reduce carbon footprint. We are a member of SAIL (Sustainable Arts in Leeds).
Access
Transform is committed to being an accessible festival and exploring accessible and relaxed methodologies across our work. Our festival includes a number of captioned, BSL interpreted and audio described performances and we work with commissioned artists to creatively integrate access into their shows. All our venues are wheelchair accessible and we facilitate chill out spaces across multiple locations. You can find access information for the upcoming festival here. Outside of our festival we are committed to information exchange and resource sharing to ensure that the arts is a less ableist environment. Thanks to a Micro-Capital Access Grant from Unlimited x WYCA, we have a brand new set of captioning equipment which we share on a Pay What You Can basis through an informal access-focused network. More info here.
Anti-racism
Transform commits to being an anti-racist organisation, working to disrupt white normative approaches and entrenched racism within theatre, the wider arts sector and society more broadly. We commit to this as a practice, taking the approach of Accomplices; working to create change, treating this work as focused and ongoing, finding ways to relinquish power. This work is an ongoing process and will never be ‘complete’.
Financial access
Transform is maintaining a Pay What You Can ticket model for our festivals. Audiences can select from a range of ticket options, making a choice based on their individual financial circumstances. This approach, inspired by some fantastic organisations in our home city and across the world, means a greater number of people can have access to the performances and events we present, with finance being less of a barrier. We hope this approach will enable more people to take risks on discovering extraordinary, unusual and international performance. We also want to ensure this approach means we are able to have more of a transparent conversation around the costs that go into realising the festival and the kinds of projects Transform is known for. More info here.
Policies & Listening
As a registered charity, Transform is required to hold a number of active organisational policies which guide and inform our work. Our current policies include Equality & Diversity, Safeguarding, Health and Safety are available on request: [email protected].
We want to think about accountability less as a destination, more as an ongoing practice, and make sure we are creating ongoing space for listening, reflection and transformation as a team and organisation. Anybody working with Transform or accessing Transform’s work can offer feedback, make a suggestion, raise an issue, question or provocation. We want to challenge ourselves and actively listen, to understand how we can evolve our practices for the better. Please get in touch if you’d like to speak to a member of the team or board: [email protected].
Key information
Transform receives regular funding from Arts Council England and Leeds City Council, with the majority of further funding coming from grant applications, partnerships and earned income.
Following each festival, we produce and share a detailed evaluation report including a financial breakdown of our income and expenditure. Please access our last festival report here.
You can also access our annual accounts, containing financial, governance and organisational information, publicly via the Charities Commission website.