We aim to create an artist led approach to promoting a diversity sea change across stage and screen in Scotland. We are exploring a range of grassroots solutions to facilitate the enfranchisement and skills development of the BAME members of our creative industries. We aim to reach out to existing organisations to help alleviate the barriers faced by BAME practitioners and further the dialogue bet
ween them and ‘job creators’ (the commissioners, producers, writers, directors, casting agents and production companies). We hope this project will work to connect the dots: creating partnership, collaboration and models of best practice across organisations and training institutions. During the pilot phase we will be promoting visibility and community of BAME practitioners. As well as regular networking events with panel discussions, we are working on fundraising for subsidised or part-subsidised masterclasses for BAME practitioners. In the longer term we have developed a more ambitious project plan that we are fundraising to support with the dual aim of supporting existing BAME talent in film, TV and Theatre, and overcoming the barriers in the recruitment of new BAME talent to the Creative Industries. We also aim to commission a thorough and Scotland specific piece of academic research into BAME representation on screen and stage in Scotland. BAME Boost was conceived by Raisah Ahmed and Maryam Hamidi. As Stage and Screen artist themselves, they have experienced a lot of these barriers first hand.
