Heart Lab 2026
Global Majority Future Leaders
Mandala Heart Lab aims to use imagination to inspire fresh perspectives and collaborative approaches to building better futures for early career Global Majority artists.
Based on 2025–2026 reporting, Global Majority (Black, Asian, and ethnically diverse) young people are highly engaged in the arts but face significant barriers to leadership, with industry representation stalled at around 22% in key sectors. Across the wider UK cultural sector, only 9.8% of managers and directors are from the Global Majority, significantly lower
than the 15.9% in the wider UK workforce.
Mandala Heart Lab Training is designed as an in-depth, practice-based opportunity exploring creativity and imagination through the lens of decolonisation, of storytelling and making, of ceremony, ritual, and ancestral connection. The young Future leaders will be immersed in experiential understanding and discovery of ancestral and historical civilisations. Through communal living, land-based learning, and cultural excursions, participants will engage in
transformative creative development rooted in cultural memory, identity, and place.
Empowerment and Ancestry
Empowering early career artists from global majority backgrounds—those of Black, Asian,
Arab, dual-heritage, and indigenous descent—is a critical, intentional, and transformative process. It involves shifting the narrative from one of "minority disadvantage" to recognizing their position as part of the 85% global majority, which helps challenge narratives and foster a sense of belonging and power. Connecting these young artists to their ancestry and
heritage is central to this empowerment, offering psychological benefits, building emotional resilience, and strengthening their identity.
Key Reasons for Empowerment & Ancestral Connection
• Building Stronger Identities, Self-Esteem & Mental Health
• Healing Generational Trauma: Exploring ancestry will help these young leaders understand their roots, disrupt cycles of generational trauma, and reframe negative histories into narratives of strength and resilience.
• Challenging Systemic Barriers: Empowering future young leaders is a strategic tool for fostering inclusion and overcoming systemic barriers, such as racism and limited representation.
• Cultural Identity as a Source of Strength: By acknowledging and celebrating their cultural heritage, these future leaders will develop a sense of pride in themselves and their histories.
"The only hope is in daring to redream one's place in the world - a beautiful act of imagination, and a sustained act of self-becoming."
Ben Okri
