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I'm Helen Brown and I've been working on a 3-month contract for the South West Museums, Libraries & Archives Council to introduce and promote the diversity festival next year. This has involved developing information and a questionnaire to be sent out to museums, libraries and archives and arranging a seminar to introduce the Festival. The questionnaire was sent out to all the organisations on the SWMLAC mailing list. It asked whether they were likely to take part in the Festival, what they might do and what they might need help with.The response has been good with replies from 74 organisations. Of these 21 are definitely planning to take part, 26 said they would possibly take part and a further 27 said they would not. For many the questionnaire was the first they had heard of the Festival and understandably several commented that although they were likely to do something as they had only just heard it was too early to provide full details. A seminar was held to introduce the Festival on 6th September. Thisr included a presentation by South West Arts about the Decibel project and funding (through RALP bids, etc) and a taster session on marketing to culturally diverse audiences by South West Arts Marketing. Some of the issues raised by the questionnaire such as training needs, ideas for cross-domain working and Œhow can small community museums/libraries or archives in rural areas tackle issues of cultural diversity?¹ were also explored. Many of the organisations keen to participate were interested in finding out more about writing a cultural diversity strategy. I would be interested to hear of anyone who has come across a good trainer to facilitate such a session, or hearing of museums, libraries or archives who have good examples themselves. During the course of last year and early this year research was undertaken by Lucy MacKeith and Kate Osborne with a view to preparing a report. That report, 'Embracing Cultural & Social Diversity in South West Museums' wil be published by SWMLAC later this autumn. Alison James has joined SWMLAC on a part-time contract [from now until December] to see the document through to publication. Please contact Martin Thomas at SWMLAC (01823 259696) if you want further details of this. Helen Brown Cultural Diversity Programme Organiser for SWMLAC 01242 516438