VMDO announce Fair Play Program with Diversity Arts Australia
Published 31 August, 2020
Fair Play: Equity, Inclusion and the Victorian Music Industry
In partnership with Diversity Arts Australia, we are excited to announce the Fair Play Program, a 3-month tailored training program to promote greater equity and inclusion in the Victorian music industry.
Open to four small-to-medium sized commercial music businesses in Victoria, the Fair Play program will focus on developing each business’s skills and capacity in working with First Nations people and people from underrepresented cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
This program is not about box ticking, but systemic change within this sector. In Fair Play, commercial music businesses will learn how to change their structures and practices to genuinely improve accessibility, respect and inclusion of marginalised communities.
Participants will undertake both educational and practical workshops across the 12-week program. With the support of expert trainers and a mentor, businesses will be given the tools and support to critically asses and dismantle existing barriers to participation in their workplaces. Participants will work to set realistic goals for creating organisational change and will complete the program with an Equity Action Plan tailored to their business.
VMDO Acting General Manager, Katie Stewart, spoke to her experience undertaking the original Fair Play program, which was developed for arts organisations in Victoria.
“The VMDO and Music Victoria completed the Fair Play program earlier this year, which led to the VMDO developing a 4-part workshop series with Diversity Arts Australia titled ‘Working with CALD Creatives and Communities’. We recognised the need to go one step further, which led to launching a version of the program specifically for commercial music industry businesses. Fair Play: Equity Inclusion and the Victorian Music Industry is structured in a way that allows participants to learn from a variety of diverse trainers and presenters, whilst unpacking the invisible parts that make up organisational culture. The practical nature of this program means the steps moving forward are absolutely clear and achievable. Businesses will come away with a clear action plan and the process is considered, structured and most importantly, aims to challenge the status quo.”
EOIs for Fair Play are open now.