Four artists explored the barriers within the Creative Industries in Dundee through research and an artistic response, presented here.

Jaimini Jethwa’s project explored the opportunities for women of colour, from working class backgrounds, as writers and artists. In interviews ranging from threatre producers and commissioners to writers and diversity strategists, her research looked into the the process that leads to the decisions around representation to be made – as well as the issues that arise in it.

She explains: “What I learnt from being part of ‘Full Picture’ is that there is a strong momentum for change, and people do want to become part of that, organisations and individuals. The power to commission stories is another challenge because then businesses are involved and it comes down to what they perceives sells. I believe that we can tell our stories and they an have broad appeal, however having the opportunity to demonstrate that is rare.“

As a result, her piece in collaboration with Dundee Rep Theatre and filmmaker Allison DecLercq-Matthas (which you can watch at the top of this page) brought the poem Jaimini wrote for her play The Last Queen of Scotland to the stage. Not a ‘marginalised’ being made to discuss ‘marginalised issues’, but instead just a voice allowed to speak. The second part of Jaimini Jethwa’s work was about providing a platform to that variety of voices, in a compilation of conversations from previous projects, weaving a tapestry of humanity that is both not contrained to one key issue and given a visible space to express themselves.

On The Full Picture project, Jaimini explains: “The process of doing this project with Creative Dundee has allowed me to have more strength in my writing and confidence in my approach to future projects… Full Picture has given me the incredible opportunity to be involved in a process of innovation, I have never been asked to represent this before, and it gave me a sense of purpose in knowing I had something valuable to contribute towards the future.“

You can follow Jaimini on @jaiminijethwa and read more about the other artists here.