Can we talk about class in the arts? 

3 March 2025

On Thursday 16 January 2025, we kicked off the new year with an online Masterclass exploring how we can create a more inclusive environment in arts and culture for children and young people from low socio-economic or ‘working-class’ backgrounds. The event was hosted by Creative Consultant and practitioner, Dr. Chrissie Tiller, who has extensive experience in participatory and community arts projects, and guided the speakers and attendees through the two-hour event.

The Masterclass consisted of a panel discussion, and we heard from the following speakers:

• Rhiannon White (Co-Artistic Director, Common Wealth) who spoke about theatre her practice staged on-site within communities.
• Bianca A. Manu (Writer and Curator of Public Programmes, Culture&) who spoke about her experience of barriers young people face in the industry.
• Michelle McGrath (Founder of Museum as Muck) who told us about how they work to address structural change in the industry, and the intersectionality of social class.

This packed online session gave us the chance to reflect on:

• What we mean by working-class or low socio-economic status

• Best practice when working with local communities in arts and culture
• The barriers young people from low socio-economic backgrounds face when engaging with the arts and culture industry

Dr. Chrissie Tiller's Top Take-Aways from the Masterclass:

• The number of working-class young people engaged in the arts and cultural sectors has shrunk by a half since 1970s. Social and economic barriers, including the absence of safety nets, lack of access to the ‘right’ contacts and networks are increasing while access to arts and cultural education is decreasing. We need to find ways to respond to this inequity of opportunity by creating possibilities that empower and give voice to young people from these backgrounds.

• The lack of representation influences whose stories are told, and by whom, and whose cultural capital continues to dominate. It is crucial young people from working-class backgrounds are enabled to challenge existing deficit models by giving them the confidence uncover the strengths of their own networks, identify their allies and accomplices and draw on their own social and cultural capital to share their own narratives.

• Understanding intersectionality and the ways in which the oppressions of social class intersect with gender, class, race, sexuality and disability in creating a matrix of domination and privilege can help us understand the structural nature of inequality in the arts sector.. But, even more importantly, as a practice it can provide us with the tools to take action, address social injustices, imagine alternatives and transform existing power structures.
• We need to engage with change at a personal, hegemonic, disciplinary and structural level. Undoing the harms created by privileging a small elite requires us to work towards the cultural democracy Raymond Williams speaks of. This means creating spaces where young people from working-class backgrounds not only have the possibility to move ‘from silence into speech’ (bell hooks) but own ‘the means of cultural production’ (Owen Kelly). It is only in doing so that we can begin to redress the balance of whose narratives are shared and valued.

Bianca’s top takeaways:

• The importance of intergenerational and intersectional panels to have varied and dynamic conversations. Dynamic panels allow us to move through different positions, like a dance, and leverage collective knowledge.

• We should take inspiration from the Arabic phrase that knowledge is transferred through conversations, “yunbit 'al eilm 'iilaa bayna 'iithnayn, ينبت أل علم إلى بينا إثنين’

• yunbit ' refers to a process of germination and growth; 'al eilm refers to knowledge and knowing, bayna 'iithnayn translates as between two, as in two people in conversation.

• The diligence in programming the conversation and attention to detail made it a success

• There is a need for more sessions like this, ideally in person, with follow-up or workshops to build on the conversations and translate them into action.

• Instead of relating to Class as a fixed position, people should adopt an understanding of class elasticity and a comprehension that an individual's socio-economic background oscillates depending on social, cultural, educational and e conomic capital as well as ethnicity and geographical context.

Rhiannon’s top takeaways:

• It's all about proximity - proximity to opportunities, education, cities, wealth, power - what we are closest to is what we know and what we can build with. If we're an isolated council estate on the edge of the city, we don't have the same in-person opportunities. People don't come here and its costly to travel - and the bus services are shit.

• Who are your friends - what are your networks? I wasn't babysat by the kids of the director of the National Portrait Gallery - I didn't grow up knowing people who had jobs in the arts/ politics/ media. That matters. But also I do have my networks that are different, which are powerful too. How do you get young people to recognise the power of their networks and introduce them to networks they have not met yet? How do we get working-class kids into positions of power and influence?

• The arts agenda is run and set by the middle class - that's the truth. A profession in the arts is too precious for working-class people - doesn't mean we give up, it just means there's a whole industry to navigate that doesn't support, understand or recognise YET.

Michelle’s top takeaways:

• Class is complex, and the working-class experience is not a monolith. Being working-class is not just about poverty; it is also about the deprivation of social and cultural capital. Individuals from low socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to intersect with protected characteristics—such as being a woman, part of the global majority, or living with a disability. They are also more likely to have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences. When working with children and young people from low socio-economic backgrounds, we should implement a trauma-informed approached.

• It's the systems and structures on which the arts sector is built—and continues to operate— that create barriers for working-class young people. We need to demystify our sector and empower young people to challenge and disrupt these systems. More individuals from low socio-economic backgrounds must be in leadership and decision-making positions. Find accomplices through Museum as Muck.

• Look outside of your organisation for the answers. It’s not about how we give access to people to culture already produced. As cultural workers, can we hold responsibility whilst giving away the power to those from low-socio-economic backgrounds to lead, programme and produce creative outcomes? What is the social and cultural capital that they bring? What is the intersectional wealth they bring?

Resources

‘Power Up’ was shared with those that attended the Masterclass and is a text provides a comprehensive guide to the debate around issues of creating equity in the context of community engagement and cultural development, focusing on power dynamics, reciprocity, cultural capital, privilege, participation, values, ethics, collaboration, and politics. It touches on much of the theory and literature referenced during the Masterclass, including Raymond Williams on cultural democracy and Tara Yosso on who has cultural capital. There is an extensive bibliography.

The conversation also referenced Paulo Freire: Pedagogy of the Oppressed and bell hooks: Teaching to Transgress in the context of radical pedagogy as that came up as an important topic in the chat too.

Chrissie’s PhD thesis looks at class and gender in the arts, and discusses cultural democracy, critical pedagogy and intersectionality in depth is now available as part of the commons (though she says it’s probably a bit long for general reading!)

Here are two Guardian articles which talk about the subject of Working Class in the Arts:

• Nine working-class creatives on class in the arts – and how they made it
• Working-class creatives don’t stand a chance in UK today, leading artists warn

Actions for after – moving forward:

We need to look for ways to continue and expand this important conversation and work collectively to find the means to explore alternative models and pathways for working-class artists and creatives to disrupt the existing system, create new pathways and refuse to merely seek acceptance within existing structures.