Your support can help us continue our work with communities, strengthening voices and empowering people to improve their life-chances through innovation and creativity. Please help.
Our Communities
Community is at the heart of all we do. We work with communities across East Anglia, celebrating the unique culture, heritage and landscape of the region and ensuring this is reflected through our programme.
We are here to be for and of the British public – to do this we are finding new and radical ways to completely change the status quo.
Every aspect of our artistic programme is shared and co-authored with our partners and members of the community, and we use data and intelligence gathered from the region to inspire our activities.
We are also proud to provide venue space for many community events and meetings, from fairs and festivals to weekly prayer meetings and forums.
Equality in our community
John Ball preached at the site of Firstsite in the late 1300s and introduced the concept of equality to western thought. John Ball’s influence permeates all we do at Firstsite.
We collaborate with communities to deliver relevant projects, and amplify the voices of people who may not have a platform of their own.
We are working to confront and tackle racism within the art and culture sector by listening to our communities and addressing the issues within our own organisation and in wider society.
Our exhibitions feature artists who historically have been under represented in the art world – we want to show true diversity of voices and creativity across art and culture. 50% of our programme is dedicated to work and exhibitions by people who have been marginalised.
Image: Installation view, susan pui san lok: A COVEN A GROVE A STAND, Firstsite, 2019. Photograph by Douglas Atfield.
Firstsite partnered with the Arts Council Collection from 2019-2022 – collaborating with communities from across East Anglia to access the extraordinary Arts Council Collection established over 70 years of acquisitions and curate 9 exhibitions.
Exhibitions part of this partnership included Super Black, and Tell me the story of all these things.
