In November 2018 SWAP’ra invited senior representatives from the major UK opera houses to the Southbank Centre to discuss gender parity in senior leadership and creative roles. The day was facilitated by Laura Collier and was attended by individuals from British Youth Opera, English Touring Opera, Grange Festival, Opera Holland Park, Opera North, Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera. 

Members of the SWAP’ra team have been invited to speak at various events, sit on discussion panels, and run workshop days for students at the Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Southbank Centre, Royal College of Music, YPIA (Young People in Arts) and Opera Europa. If you would like someone to speak at your event or contribute to a panel discussion, please get in touch with us via email below.

Several opera companies, inspired by the work of SWAP’ra, have been trialing new scheduling practices in order to support those with caring responsibilities. This has of course had a great beneficial impact on everyone involved in these productions, not just the parents. We are dedicated to helping opera companies to continue to review and develop working practices including scheduling.

Annual data collection enables SWAP’ra to build an argument and monitor the rate of change each year. Not only does this put pressure on organisations to diversify their workforces, but it enables us set progress benchmarks and map the impact that advocacy from organisations like SWAP'ra and PiPA has on the industry. We're collecting data for the current season.  Please contact us for more information.

We’re now working in partnership with Parents and Carers in Performing Arts (PiPA) as their Advocacy and Campaign Partner for opera. PiPA was established in 2016 to promote best practice employment and support for parents and carers in the performing arts sector through data collection, research, lobbying and working collaboratively with companies across many performing disciplines.