Transformative Justice Policy

Black Curators Collective CIC: membership, programmes, publishing, consultancy and events

Last reviewed: October 2026 · Next review: October 2027

Why this policy is called what it is

Most equality policies describe how an organisation will avoid discriminating. This policy starts from a different question: what conditions produce harm in the first place, and what would it take to change them?

Equity, diversity and inclusion frameworks tend to treat racism and ableism as problems of representation and attitude: who is in the room, and how people behave once there. That work matters, and parts of it appear below. But representation can be achieved without power moving, and good behaviour can coexist with structures that exhaust, underpay and push out the very people they claim to include. Transformative justice addresses harm by changing the conditions that make harm predictable. It treats accountability as repair rather than punishment, and it refuses the idea that anyone is disposable.

This policy combines three traditions that are usually kept in separate documents. Anti-racism is the active practice of identifying and dismantling racism in structures, decisions and habits. Disability justice is the framework developed by disabled queer people of colour, including through the performance project Sins Invalid. It understands ableism as inseparable from racism, capitalism and other systems, centres the leadership of those most affected, and treats access as a collective responsibility. Environmental justice began with Black and Indigenous communities organising against the placement of toxic industry in their neighbourhoods. It understands environmental harm as routed, deliberately, toward racialised, disabled and poor communities. We combine them because these systems produce exclusion together in the cultural sector. They shape who is commissioned, who is believed, whose pace is accepted, whose communication is treated as professional, and whose air, land and futures are treated as an acceptable cost. A policy that addresses one while ignoring the others will fail at all of them. For a collective of Black women and non-binary curators, these systems shape our members' working conditions every day.

Scope

This policy governs the work of Black Curators Collective CIC. That includes our membership and peer network; our programmes, residencies, bursaries and commissions; our exhibitions, events and broadcasts; the journal Voice ≠ Speech and the imprint Soul Choice Editions; and our consultancy. It applies to how we work with members, artists, authors, peer reviewers, partners, clients, suppliers, participants and audiences, and to anyone acting on BCC's behalf. Where members work inside other organisations as employees, trustees or board members, those organisations' policies apply. The commitments here describe the standards we hope members carry with them and will advocate for.

The legal floor

The Equality Act 2010 prohibits direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation on the basis of the protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. It requires reasonable adjustments for disabled people. We comply with the Act in full, including as an engager of freelancers and, should it arise, as an employer.

The law tells us what we must not do. It says almost nothing about what we should build. Everything below goes further than the law requires, deliberately.

Principles

Access is a condition, not a favour. Access is planned and budgeted from the beginning of every project, at a minimum of 15% of the overall project budget. A project that cannot afford access cannot afford to happen.

Leadership of those most affected. Decisions about work concerning racialised and disabled communities are made with, and wherever possible led by, people from those communities. They are paid for their expertise.

The right to opacity. No one owes us disclosure, diagnosis, proof or explanation. Access needs are met as stated, identity is not interrogated, and people are not required to translate their experience into terms comfortable for institutions.

Interdependence. Everyone has access needs; some are simply treated as the default. Naming needs is normal professional practice in our work, and meeting them is shared labour.

Care is collective. BCC exists so that Black women and non-binary curators can support one another across regions. Support between members is reciprocal and voluntary, and no member is expected to carry the collective's work unpaid.

Pace is an access issue. Deadlines, response times and meeting cultures are designed, and they are reciprocal. We will not demand turnaround speeds from others that we do not hold ourselves to.

Environmental harm is a justice issue. Climate breakdown and ecological damage land first and hardest on the communities this policy centres, who have contributed least to causing them. We measure environmental practice by who it protects as well as what it saves. Environmental measures must never become new access barriers.

Language is structural. We write in plain language, name racism and ableism specifically, and work to remove ableist framing from our writing, including casual sensory metaphors that equate disability with deficiency.

Money is where values become real. Pay, payment terms, credit and budgets are the primary evidence of this policy.

Commitments in practice

Working with artists and collaborators. Access riders are requested, honoured and budgeted as standard. Where a collaborator doesn't have one, we offer to develop it together. Agreements are written in plain language, with key terms summarised. Fees meet or exceed recognised sector rates (a-n and Artists' Union England guidance for artists; CIEP and NUJ guidance for editorial work). Invoices are paid promptly: our target is fourteen days, and never longer than thirty. Credit is agreed explicitly and honoured in all formats.

Publishing. Voice ≠ Speech is open access, with no submission fees, article charges or paywalls. Writing can take experimental and creative-critical forms, and the whole submission process can be done in writing. Editors and peer reviewers declare conflicts of interest and step back under our recusal protocol. Image descriptions accompany plates and figures, and we work toward full coverage in every issue.

Communication. Written communication is treated as fully professional participation, never a lesser substitute for meetings. Materials are shared in advance as standard. Interpretation (including BSL and other signed and spoken languages), communication support and translation are budgeted where needed. Interpreters, translators and communication support workers are booked and credited as skilled professionals.

Events, programmes and residencies. Every budget includes an access line from the first draft. Formats include relaxed options where possible. Documentation is produced with captions, alt text and, where feasible, audio description. Venues are assessed for physical, sensory and financial access before confirmation. Barriers that cannot be removed are stated publicly in advance so no one discovers them on arrival.

Commissioning and procurement. When we commission or recommend suppliers, photographers, writers, designers, facilitators and technicians, we actively seek out and prioritise Black practitioners, disabled practitioners, and others structurally excluded from sector pipelines. We see this as building the sector's future workforce.

Environmental practice. The environmental cost of a project is on the table from the first budget, alongside access. In practice:

  • we travel by rail before air, reserve flights for journeys with no workable alternative, and combine trips where we can;

  • we ship artworks by sea rather than air wherever timelines allow, and prefer hire, reuse and local fabrication;

  • we design exhibition builds to be reused, passed on or returned;

  • we choose suppliers with environmental practice as a criterion, favouring those aligned with Gallery Climate Coalition targets.

Where environmental and access considerations pull against each other, access takes precedence over symbolic carbon savings, and we do the work of finding a route that serves both. We do not buy offsets as a substitute for reduction. Our public claims will match what actually happened.

Digital practice. This website, the journal and the documents we produce work toward WCAG 2.2 AA. That means alt text, meaningful heading structure, sufficient contrast, captioned media, and formats compatible with assistive technology. Accessibility problems reported to us are treated as defects to fix.

Data, disclosure and confidentiality. Access information shared with us is held confidentially, used only for the purpose it was shared, and deleted when no longer needed, as set out in our Privacy Notice. We never require diagnosis or documentation to meet a stated need.

When harm happens

Harm will sometimes happen, including by us. What matters is how we respond to it.

If you experience or witness racism, ableism, environmental harm or other harm in work connected to BCC, you can raise it with us at info@blackcuratorscollective.org, in writing or in conversation, in whatever format is accessible to you, including through an advocate or third party. BCC currently has one director, Jade Foster. If your concern is about the director, or you would prefer not to raise it with them, you can contact Laura Hesketh, a member of the collective who is not a director, at safeguarding@blackcuratorscollective.org. She will hold the process with you independently.

We commit to:

  • acknowledging what you raise without defensiveness;

  • taking your account of the harm's impact seriously, without adjudicating intent;

  • acting first to stop any ongoing harm;

  • working out what repair looks like with the person harmed, instead of deciding it for them;

  • identifying the condition that allowed the harm (a process, a budget, an assumption or a habit) and changing it, so that the response outlives the incident.

Where BCC has caused harm, the same process applies to us. If the person affected prefers, we will ask an appropriate third party to hold it, in a way that meets everyone's access needs.

Transformative justice is not the absence of consequences. Where behaviour is harmful and unaccounted for, we will end membership or working relationships. Nothing in this policy restricts anyone's right to pursue formal routes, instead of or alongside this process. These include contractual remedies, Acas, legal action, and complaints to the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies, the Information Commissioner's Office or any relevant funder. This policy adds options; it removes none.

This process does not apply to safeguarding concerns, which follow our Safeguarding Policy.

Accountability and review

This policy is reviewed annually, and the review is public. We will publish what changed and why, including where we fell short. We welcome challenge at any time at info@blackcuratorscollective.org and treat it as a contribution. Members are invited to take part in each review. As the collective's membership and organisational form change, the policy will be renegotiated with the people it covers.

Lineage

This policy is informed by, and in dialogue with: the founding propositions of Voice ≠ Speech; Sins Invalid's Ten Principles of Disability Justice; the access-centred practice developed by Unlimited; the transformative justice organising of adrienne maree brown, Mia Mingus and Mariame Kaba; the Principles of Environmental Justice adopted at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit (1991); the sector work of the Gallery Climate Coalition and Julie's Bicycle; Édouard Glissant's right to opacity; and the institutional EDI work of organisations including Nottingham Contemporary, whose published action plan shows its working honestly.