Written by Ben Butcher, Head of Operations at Magic Me – July 2025
Tower Hamlets, our home borough, is the most densely populated place in the UK. It has the nation’s biggest Muslim population encompassing large Bangladeshi and Somali communities, as well as a heritage of other communities including Jewish and white English. More than 137 languages are spoken here and 43 per cent of residents were born in more than 200 different countries.
Our neighbourhood is the very definition of diverse: at Magic Me, we are committed to recognising the unique experiences of all our participants and people, to ensure that everyone has the support they need to engage with our work joyfully.
Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion action plan helps us embrace inclusivity in all its forms – not just as a fashion that comes and goes, but as a permanent strand throughout all our work. This plan gives guidance to our artists as they both serve participants in the community and consider the people we don’t yet cater for. It helps the staff in the office, and assists our dedicated Trustees with the governance of the organisation.
This past year, we’ve made great progress with our plan. Highlights include:
- Embedding Our Values: Our values are Creativity, Collaboration, Inclusivity and Thoughtfulness. From co-creating projects to working on staff reviews, we ask ourselves how we’re embedding these values in our day to day work.
- Wellbeing: We hold regular wellbeing staff 1-2-1s and offer coaching, and we encourage walking meetings and time out in nature. We’re lucky to have a flower and fruit-filled backyard at the office!
- Anti Racism: We held anti-racism training for staff and artists, and our monthly Anti-Racism Book Club provides a vital space for reflection on assumptions and biases. We talk about all art forms: recently we’ve discussed a documentary on the history of Banglatown, and a study of Black and South Asian experimental electronic musicians.
- Reviewing and Renewing Arts Practice: We’ve embedded EDI principles into the way we design our projects. Our Associate Artists take part in quarterly Learning & Development Days where they hone and share skills in the best way to run anti-racist, anti-ageist sessions alongside swapping the latest techniques in community puppet making and poetry writing.
There’s more to come. We’re planning a language review – i.e., making sure we agree and use the appropriate terms for talking about race, age and other characteristics – and we will also continue to work on improving representation across the organisation. We’ll be taking a look at our recruitment processes, and also continuing to offer our Associate Artists the training they want to help them work with an ever-changing diverse group of older and younger participants.
You can read more about our future plans here, and talk to Ben Butcher, our Head of Operations, if you’d like a more detailed conversation about them. We look forward to sharing our continued progress with you.