BE IT set out to improve and repair relationships between young people and leadership within the cultural sector. By interrogating traditional models of leadership (hierarchical, patriarchal, colonialist, ego driven etc.) and exploring what new radical and transformational leadership structures could look like (co-leadership, collective, co-created and collaborative).
MARIA, Cohort 2
Within these structures we explored how harmful practices of gatekeeping, exclusion and hegemony within the sector could be challenged and what models could replace the current status quo. By working with young people who are often most harmed by those structures we – by the very nature of who was at the table – had a different take on what the future of the cultural sector could look like.
Rhona Oughton, Cohort 2
Daisy Hunter, Cohort 2
I think and hope it will make a huge amount of difference that moves us away from the awful competitive culture, where organisations compete against each other, which is the result of competitive funding processes that revolve around a weird sense of excellence. I can see that happening, that there is now more co-operation and other values are emerging like care and diversity of voice and thought, and how that really enriches a project and the sector.
sector partner
Ella Trudgeon, Cohort 1
You don’t have to have worked with the Be It cohort to be aware of how Be It is part, along with OnBoard, a way that Rising is putting young people’s voices higher on the agenda, so it has raised Rising’s profile but it also means that it now feels rude to not involve a young person as a leader or in governance in cultural organisations in Bristol.
sector partner
Amber-Ruth Watson, Cohort 1
It is and it will make a huge contribution because there were very few of us trying to go up a steep hill and it feels as if there is now a critical mass of believers who realise it is not just a ‘nice thing to do’, but is an essential thing to do, to ensure the thriving of the cultural industries, so it will make a huge difference.
sector partner
Malizah, Cohort 1