How We Work
At LADA, we are committed to:
- working collaboratively based on shared values
- showing respect to artists and arts workers, their labour and ideas
- responding to the needs of a diverse society
- ensuring equality of access and opportunity
- maintaining financial transparency and ethics
- reducing our impact on the planet and its climate
- creating the conditions in which innovation, experimentation and risk can thrive
Working with artists
Artists are involved in every part of our structure at LADA, and all our projects and programmes are delivered with their input.
We are committed to paying artists promptly and fairly for their work, and ensuring that they receive appropriate acknowledgement and respect.
We respond to all communications we receive in an appropriate, timely and courteous manner.
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STACY MAKISHI, IMAGE BY HOLLY REVELL
Working with others
At LADA, we work collaboratively with organisations and collectives from a range of cultural contexts and artistic disciplines, pooling resources and expertise to create low cost, high impact projects and initiatives.
We are responsible to a Board of Trustees, but we also enjoy the support and advice of an independent Publishing Committee, Finance Committee, and Fundraising & Marketing Committee.
As well as coordinating the Live Art UK network, LADA is a member of Visual Arts UK, an alliance of national bodies working collectively to be a powerful voice for the visual arts in the UK.
LADA is also a member of East End Trades Guild, a community of small independent businesses, providing social spaces, sustaining relationships between neighbours and making our streets safer and better places to be.
Weathering the Storm, Live Art UK Gathering, 2015.
Braver Spaces Policy
LADA is committed to actively redressing historical imbalances of power and representation, ensuring access to material and non-material resources for those who experience marginalisation on the basis of race, gender, class, sexuality, age, ability and other identity subject positions.
Download Pamphlet Download PolicyDigital Braver Spaces Policy
LADA’s Digital Braver Spaces Policy is an extension of our Braver Spaces Policy, designed to support LADA’s staff and those we work with to enact our organisational aims and activities online.
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Access
Our office, Study Room and event space at The Garrett Centre, Bethnal Green, is DDA compliant and accessible to wheelchair users (via lift), and provides gender-inclusive bathrooms.
We operate a policy of reasonable adjustment and will endeavour to meet any access requirements communicated to us. You can do this by emailing.
Our resources, such as the Study Room and all our online materials, are free to use, and all our professional development opportunities, such as DIY, are free to participate in.
All events at our Garrett Centre home are also free of charge, and we ensure that any ticketed events and publications we produce are affordable to those on no or low wages.
We make open calls for participation in our projects and initiatives.
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Equality
LADA is committed to responding to the complex needs of a diverse society and aims to enhance the involvement of artists, arts professionals and the public when considering ‘protected characteristics’ such as age, gender, race, disability, sexual orientation and other marginalised identity subject positions that the government or Arts Council England does not outline such as class and educational backgrounds. LADA will not disregard these characteristics, but will hold itself accountable for the constituency of its organisation, partners and other stakeholders, continuously and actively seeking to reject and redress imbalances of power, representation and resource distribution in its work. This commitment is underpinned by LADA’s core values in relation to issues of difference and diversity.
LADA is committed to creating the conditions in which innovation, experimentation and risk can thrive, and developing new forms of public engagement and new discourses around the nature, role and value of contemporary culture. LADA particularly supports the most challenging artists, practices and ideas of contemporary culture, including emerging artists, artists from culturally diverse backgrounds, and artists working around issues of social and environmental justice.
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Finance and Fundraising
We monitor the financial institutions we bank and invest with to ensure that our financial resources are entrusted to institutions who demonstrate and promote ethical standards.
We will not knowingly apply to, or accept funding from, companies, organisations or individuals who are directly involved in activities that run contrary to our values. These include companies, organisations or individuals who directly block or actively work against social justice; whose activities directly harm the environment; or who directly block or work against community empowerment.
We operate an Ethical Fundraising Policy, and encourage our partners to follow its guidance too.
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Scottee image by Holly Revell
Your Data
To help us monitor our commitment to equality of opportunity and access, whenever possible we collect the general demographics of our Study Room users, respondents to calls for proposals or participation, and attendees at public events.
This data gathering is for statistical information and confidential use, and is stored in compliance both with GDPR legislation, and our own Privacy Policy.
If you have any questions, please email [email protected]
Reducing our Environmental Impact
We work with Arts Council England and Julie’s Bicycle to monitor and reduce our carbon footprint.
LADA is delighted to announce that our proposal on behalf of LADA & Live Art UK and Gasworks & Triangle Network has been accepted into the second cohort of The Accelerator Programme, a partnership between Julies Bicycle and Arts Council England. This is a great opportunity for us all of to think strategically about, and continue to act on issues of Climate Justice. The programme runs until September 2021.
We are also part of an international line-up of individuals and organisations dedicated to the Oil Sponsorship Free Commitment, indicating that we do not take any oil, coal, or gas corporate sponsorship for our cultural work. We call on our peers and institutional partners to refuse fossil fuel funding too.
We operate an Environmental Policy, and encourage our partners to follow its guidance too.
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Our Declaration on Climate and Ecological Emergency
LADA recognises that, in pursuing its objectives, it shares with all organisations a responsibility to protect and nurture the environment. By exercising proper control over its activities, LADA will promote the use of sustainable resources and discourage practices that are wasteful or damaging to the environment. LADA also recognises that the effects of climate change impact individuals and communities that are marginalised more than those in power; with this in mind, LADA is committed to working with those individuals and/or communities towards a fairer Climate Justice.
Liberate Tate. Image by Amy Scaife.
Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures
LADA’s Grievance & Disciplinary Procedures have been created to promote respectful and dignified working conditions, to protect everyone, and especially those with marginalised identity subject positions, from harassment, bullying and other discriminatory behaviours, whilst ensuring that LADA acts swiftly and appropriately if such behaviours arise.
Everyone in the United Kingdom is protected by equality laws. The “protected characteristics” under the 2010 Equality Act are (in alphabetical order):
- Age
- Disability
- Gender reassignment
- Marriage and civil partnership
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Race
- Religion and belief
- Sex
- Sexual orientation
LADA is committed to going beyond these ‘protected characteristics’ and to protect those with a marginalised identity subject position, such as their class and educational backgrounds, against any oppressive or anti-emancipatory behaviour.
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