Are culturally diverse arts featuring prominently enough in the UK? A new initiative from the Arts Council of England, decibel, aims to provide more opportunities and funding for Britain’s culturally diverse communities to display their artistic talent. The initiative will run until March 2004, with a campaign to get artists on board, commencing this Autumn. Two showcase events, one for performing arts and one for visual arts, will form part of decibel’s initiative. The performing arts showcase is scheduled to take place in Manchester, May 2-5, 2003, while the visual arts showcase will be a three-day event in Bristol, October 16-18, 2003. The program also aims to raise the profile of culturally diverse arts through an extensive press and marketing campaign, debates, and funding schemes. Meanwhile, decibel programme director Sita Ramamurthy will be giving a number of talks on cultural diversity in the arts in upcoming months. Ms Ramamurthy will make a special presentation on September 17 as part of the Creativity and Cultural Diversity international conference in Brighton. A series of seminars throughout September and October, for senior Managers and Board members of regional subsidised theatres, will address racism in theatre. Regional Positive Action and Equality of Opportunity seminars will assist theatres in reviewing their equal opportunity policies and developing action plans. More information on the decibel showcase events and how to apply for funding can be found by emailing enquiries to [email protected]