Stand Up For Diversity is a series of events bringing together those wanting to champion diversity in arts and heritage. They provide regular opportunities for those representing and working with diverse and hard-to-reach communities, audiences and participants, to come together with peers to discuss and promote diversity on a public platform.

Events engender partnership working and mutual sector support focused on diversity,  delivered in collaboration with strategic partners across the region. The series was first initiated in close partnership with Essex Book Festival in 2016, as part of their Diversity Matters project funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

We have organised 14 Stand Up For Diversity events so far, with more in the pipeline. Here’s an overview:

• SU4D#14: Jun 2023 – The Human Library, Chelmsford
• SU4D#13: Jun 2023 – Gibberd Gallery, Harlow
• SU4D#12: Mar 2023 – Hear Me Roar, Mercury Bar, Colchester
• SU4D#11: Nov 2022 – Mercury Theatre in Colchester
• SU4D#10: Jun 2022 – The Human Library, Colchester
• SU4D#09: Mar 2022 – Metal’s Essex Writers House, Southend
  
• SU4D#08: May 2021 – Snapping the Stiletto Special: celebrating women and campaigning for equality, Online
• SU4D#07: Oct 2020 – re:Defining Legacies, Online
• SU4D#06: Jun 2020 – Stand Up For Diversity, Online
• SU4D#05: Nov 2019 – The Cultural Assembly, Southend
  
• SU4D#04: Sept 2018 – The Transition, Chelmsford
• SU4D#03: Sept 2017 – The Mercury, Colchester
• SU4D#02: Feb 2017 – Claim Your Space, Harlow Library
• SU4D#01: Sept 2016 – Ideas Hub, Chelmsford

In photos: Events in the Stand Up For Diversity Series

SU4D#2: Claim Your Space, Harlow Library (February 2017)
An invitation for Essex based communities to meet each other and be part of a large scale artwork for Harlow. Polish street artist Yola (Jola Kudela) creates beautiful murals, claiming public space to celebrate communities around the world. Her work recreates old masters, with locally based people taking the place of those in the paintings. Yola set up a photographic studio in the first floor of Harlow Library, and Storyteller Glenys Newton was on hand to capture participants’ voices, personal stories and opinions about Harlow. The mural was revealed later in March, as part of Essex Book Festival 2017