A Nottingham artist who was forced into homelessness for months overcame those struggles to create a nationwide organisation dedicated to helping black employees.
Jade Foster, who uses the gender-neutral pronouns they or them, is a Nottingham-based curator and founder of the national forum the Black Curator's Collective.
The collective, founded in June in the wake of global Black Lives Matter protests, is focused on improving working conditions for black workers in the creative and arts industry.
Its 20-plus members are a community of black curators and gallery directors from institutions across the UK, including the Tate in London and the National Museum Wales.
Jade, who works at the Nottingham Art Exchange and Primary in Nottingham, said: "I think there's not many black women or non-binary people who are taking senior positions within cultural organisations.
"There is a really high disparity between what black employees are getting paid compared to their white colleagues, there have been a lot of mass redundancies being made by large institutions that affects black and Asian employees particularly.
"A lot of us as well who are in cultural organisations are quite tokenised, we only really matter if organisations think race matters at that time, it's not a 'moment' to care about black people, it needs to be sustained."
While Jade has experienced success in their career - helping to curate exhibitions at galleries in Nottingham and further afield - it has not been an easy journey.
At 21-years-old, Jade was made homeless and was given only a few minutes to pack a bag and leave their home which at the time was near Birmingham.
Unable to secure a place to live, Jade spent months sofa hopping and staying in hostels wherever they could, sometimes moving between cities and grabbing part-time work.
Jade added: "I was going from city to city, from Birmingham to Derby and in Derby it would sometimes get to 11pm and I still wouldn't have found a place to live for the night.
"Sometimes I was wandering roads at 11pm trying to get into the YMCA but it was closed, all these things - rolling around with a suitcase - it's very vulnerable and it's dangerous to be doing that.
"I was lucky at the time that I had a friend or two that allowed me to stay with them for a week, but it was a temporary fix, sometimes I'd wake in the morning and have to call the council and tell them I was homeless.
"There was some accommodation available but those spaces weren't particularly safe because of some of the people living there and I really struggled because I had no money or a job."
The 24-year-old recalled doing job applications in pubs, cafés and on trains, using any free time and internet connection to try and get a form of income and a place to live.
Jade added: "I remember being homeless while I was applying for jobs and knowing that for someone who's black and queer, not only is it difficult to access the arts, it's going to be doubly as hard.
"You have to just be the best, meaning you can't afford to not get that job and the kind of things you have to do to get yourself into those positions, there's more to do."
After spending a few months living with their former partner, Jade acquired permanent accommodation in January and has been residing in Nottingham ever since.
"It has been really precarious and stressful, being estranged from your family and being pushed into that position at a young age, having to deal with that and try and create a career in the arts is difficult," Jade added.
"But that's what drives me, black and brown people are going through a lot and we can't afford to protect ourselves because we are still on the grind.
"We are still hustling, constantly hustling, you just have to continue and hope the community has got your back."
Through the Black Curator's Collective, Jade and other members lobby big institutions to change their approach to racial inequality, as well as providing a supportive network for black arts employees.
Jade said: "I have felt unable to achieve my potential because of institutional racism, you can have staff members who have the best of intentions but there's still a few micro-aggressions.
"On my first day at work at one gallery - I don't want to say which - I was told I was too confident and I came across as humble in the interview but they were concerned I thought I was better than I am, they needed to put me in my place.
"That set back my self confidence and my ambition, because you have to work three times harder than your white colleagues to get to the same place, and I'm not just saying that."
In a mission statement published online, Black Curator's Collective says it is working towards developing "one of the largest nationwide physical gatherings" of black curators in the UK.
Expected in 2020, the event will be part of a long-term initiative which Jade hopes will help to create space for black people in the creative and arts industries.
