Our approach
When you work with Tonic, you will be gaining expert guides and fellow travellers on your journey. We’ve been doing this for over a decade and so can map out the best route for you, be there to help you navigate tricky terrain and make sure you don’t miss the most fascinating and inspiring bits along the way.
Collaborative rather than judgemental, and placing a high premium on listening, the approach we take with our colleagues across the arts is always: ‘how can we help?’ Whether you want to make your organisation, your team, or the entire sector more equitable, diverse and inclusive – great. We’re here to roll up our sleeves alongside you and get to work. And because every member of our team has a background working in the arts prior to joining Tonic, we understand the nuance of the change you’re seeking to make and the context in which you’re making it.
At Tonic we know that change is something that can feel scary or unwelcome to some people for a whole range of reasons. Because of this we are sensitive, patient and empathetic to everyone we engage with in the course of our work – not just those whose worldview happens to match our own. We speak in plain English, avoid terminology that can make some people feel excluded from conversations about diversity, and work hard to respond to people on their level, whatever that may be.
Integrity is the value by which we seek to govern all our decisions and actions. We will politely decline involvement in work that is tokenistic, and are always committed to dedicating our resources to making change that is deep and long lasting, not fleeting or surface-level. As a small organisation, we can’t commit to all of the many projects or areas of focus we would like to. Instead, we endeavour to choose wisely what our time and energy is spent on and always seek to make the maximum positive change within the inevitably limited resources we have.
“Our work with Tonic has been thought provoking and ultimately supportive in exactly the way it needs to be. It has offered us insights about policy, thinking, benchmarking and language which have helped us evolve as an organisation. We can’t recommend Tonic highly enough.”
Andrew burke, chief executive & Artistic Director, london sinfonietta