Tonic Changemakers

A membership programme for people committed to making the arts and cultural sector more inclusive, accessible and welcoming

Tonic Changemakers is a community of likeminded professionals who are committed to strengthening inclusive practice and culture in the arts and cultural sector. It is also a first of its kind hub of upskilling, community and professional development opportunities designed specifically for these changemakers.

As a member of Tonic Changemakers you receive:

• Access to a rolling programme of practical upskilling, support and peer networking, delivered online and in person throughout the year
• Download a wide range of exclusive Tonic-built digital resources on the Changemakers online portal
• Regular trouble-shooting sessions. Got a challenge? Come and work it through with other Changemakers and a member of the Tonic team
• A 10% discount on Tonic training and consultancy for your organisation*
• A Changemakers logo for your organisation’s website and an email signature graphic for you
• Exclusive invitations to Tonic events & opportunities throughout the year

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If you’d like to have a conversation about whether Changemakers is right for you and your organisation, please contact Charlotte de Paeztron, charlotte@tonictheatre.co.uk to arrange a time for an informal chat with one of our team.

*Excludes Participate student sessions. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other discount.

Tonic Changemakers session. Photo by Tom Lovatt

“I absolutely love it! Definitely the highlight in my calendar.”
Aynsley cowan-young, newcastle theatre royal

“There’s something really powerful about feeling part of something – especially when dealing with the challenges that come up in EDI conversations. It’s helped me not feel alone in those moments.”
stephanie o’neil, art explora

Upcoming Events

NEW for 2026: Creating Equality Action Plans

Thursday 5 February 2026 (Part 1) | Wednesday 25 March 2026 (Part 2) | Thursday 7 May 2026 (Part 3) |
Online Project
Creating an equality action plan that works for you and what your organisation wants to achieve takes time. Over three online sessions, we will take a deep dive into laying the foundations for this work, look at the different ingredients you need to build a successful plan and support you to give your action plan the best chance for success.

NEW for 2026: Building High-Performing Working Groups

Thursday 12 March 2026
In-person Workshop
A staff Working Group can be a great tool for engaging your colleagues in your inclusion work, sharing the load, and ensuring a range of voices feed into your plans. However, if not handled effectively, there is also a risk they can generate more, not less, work for you, can suffer from a lack of direction, and lead to internal dissatisfaction. Tonic has supported many arts organisations to establish and maintain high-performing inclusion-focussed Working Groups over the years, and we’ll be passing on our practical guidance about what works while flagging common pitfalls to avoid.

NEW for 2026: A Menopause-Confident Approach

Thursday 23 April 2026
In-person Workshop
At Tonic we’ve noticed how frequently menopause gets missed out of arts organisations’ thinking about inclusion, in spite of it being something that impacts around half the population. In this session we’ll take a deep dive into the topic, examining what it is, how it can impact people in the workplace and will look at practical ways organisations can embed menopause confidence and awareness into their wider approach.

Facilitating Sensitive Conversations

Thursday 4 June 2026
In-person Workshop
Facilitating conversations about the different experiences, identities and perspectives that people in your organisation have can be challenging - the subject matter of these discussions can be personal, emotions can run high and, if not handled adeptly, there is the risk of pain being caused and division happening. When discussing these topics in relation to creative products and artistic processes, this can be even more complex. This practical session provides a range of tools and techniques so that Changemakers can facilitate group meetings with confidence and agility and build spaces that feel productive, energised, bold but mindful. 

NEW for 2026: Supporting the Employee Journey

Monday 6 July 2026
In-person Workshop
From seeing a job advertised, through to applying, interviewing, coming on board and developing in a role, what’s the journey that an employee takes through your organisation? This Changemakers session on recruitment will adapt models typically used to capture the ‘Customer Journey’, focusing on mapping the ‘Employee Journey’, examining the experience that employees – or potential employees – may have of your organisation and, crucially, where certain people are likely to either progress or fall away. The session is designed to complement your existing thinking on inclusive practice within recruitment and support you to attract, retain, and progress a broad range of talent.

Building and Delivering an EDI Strategy

Thursday 3 September 2026
In-person Workshop
Delivering a coherent EDI strategy as an individual within an organisation can feel overwhelming. In this session we will zoom out to take a look at the big picture. We’ll explore how your EDI work can align with your organisation’s broader goals, what you need to be aware of in relation to timing and priorities, and how you can communicate your plans clearly and compellingly.

Growing Your Confidence with Data

Thursday 24 September 2026 (Part 1) | Wednesday 11 November 2026 (Part 2) | Tuesday 8 December 2026 (Part 3) |
Online Project
Many of us will be required to capture and present data in relation to our work on inclusion and we are all likely to want to measure and demonstrate its impact. But gathering data and then analysing it to understand how we’re doing can be a daunting task. Where do we begin when it seems there’s so much that could be measured? How do we know whether we’re doing it right? What’s the best way to utilise data once we’ve captured it? Across three online sessions, we’ll be taking you through a series of straightforward frameworks you can adopt, approaches you can take, and tools you can use. We’ll be looking at the difference between quantitative and qualitative data, weighing up when your approach should be exploratory and when it should be evaluative. We’ll also be exploring how you can present data clearly and compellingly to your colleagues and stakeholders. There will be plenty of space for discussion and sharing, along with some practical activities.

NEW for 2026: Creating an EDI “User Manual”

Thursday 8 October 2026
In-person Workshop
At Tonic we’ve seen individuals do amazing work around EDI. But we’ve also seen that work dwindle and die as soon as they leave their organisation because the methodology for achieving it sat with them, rather than being baked into the processes of the wider organisation. In this session, we’ll explore how you can articulate and record the actions you’re taking around EDI so that, if necessary, it can carry on without you. We’ll create space for you to consider what an EDI ‘User Manual’ could look like for your organisation and reflect on how you can ensure your efforts have longevity and transferability.

NEW for 2026: Constructive and Collaborative Communication at Work

Wednesday 2 December 2026
In-person Workshop
In every workplace there will be moments of friction. How these moments are managed plays a key role in an inclusive environment. Everybody benefits from working in an environment where problems and disagreements are dealt with collaboratively and respectfully. Building on the popular model of Transactional Analysis, this session will help you identify destructive patterns of communication, and give you easy to use tools to build constructive and collaborative communication at work.

Online Sessions

Alternate months
Online Sessions
Online group collaboration sessions
Spaces to share ideas, work through challenges you’re experiencing and hear what’s working in other organisations. Leadership drop-ins
We know that navigating the complexities of a shifting arts sector and the evolving needs of its workforce can be particularly felt by those in leadership and senior roles. On alternate months we’ll host an online drop-in sessions for members of the Changemakers network that are in leadership and senior management roles to discuss, review and support one another on the issues of the moment.