Last week, we set out the Whitworth’s plan to foreground our ongoing work to operate as an anti-racist institution. On Monday, we had an all-staff meeting to listen to the many voices in the gallery team and discuss ways to accelerate our work towards implementing the changes to policies and programming that are required for embedded and sustained change. Together, we identified staffing, education, staff-training, the Collections Development Policy and the programme as key areas of focus.
This week we are sharing some resources that we have found useful. This is not an exhaustive list of everything that we are reading, as we are aware that there are many resources being shared at the moment. These are a selection of those that we feel are particularly relevant to an art gallery in Manchester, now.
To Read
Create London report into inequality in the creative industries, 2019
Museums Association report on power and privilege in museums and galleries, 2019
Contemporary Art Society Study Day Report by Dr Anjalie Dalal-Clayton, Imperfect Past, Contested Futures: Working with public collections in the 21st century, Manchester Art Gallery, 2018
Museums Association report reflecting on the Diversify scheme, 2013
On Curating, Issue 35, Decolonising Art Institutions
L’Internationale Online, Decolonising Practices, collection of essays on power, resistance and the critical potential of art.
ROOT-ED ZINE: The self-published zine started by Amber Akaunu and Fauziya Johnson promoting and supporting creative people of colour in North West England.
Books
Eddie Chambers, Black Artists in British Art since 1950. 2014
Eddie Chambers, Things done change: the cultural politics of recent Black artists in Britain. 2011
Lubaina Himid in conversation, A post-slavery reading of cotton, Jessica Hemmings (ed.), Cultural Threads. 2015
Sophie Orlando, British Black Art: Debates on the Western Art History. 2016
David Bailey, Ian Baucom and Sonia Boyce (eds), Shades of Black: Assembling Black arts in 1980s Britain. 2005
Gus John, Moss Side 1981: More than Just a Riot. 2011
Iniva reading list: Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) is an evolving, radical visual arts organisation dedicated to developing an artistic programme that reflects on the social and political impact of globalisation.
To Watch
John Akomfrah, Handsworth Songs, available to view until 21 June 2020
Dr Christine Checinska, Curator of African & African Diaspora Fashion, V&A. Associate Research Fellow, University of Johannesburg, Disobedient Dress: Fashion as Everyday Activism
To Listen
Reni Eddo-Lodge podcast featuring key voices from the last few decades of anti-racist activity
Somerset House podcast series exploring discourse around black experience and creativity
More Resources
National Caribbean Heritage Museum
National Heritage Centre dedicated to collecting, preserving and celebrating the histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain.
Resource created by Sociologists at The University of Manchester for UK educators to support the decolonisation of the curriculum in British schools.
The University of Manchester research centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity
Race Relations Resource Centre and Education Trust based at Manchester Central Library.
PILAA (Pre-Image Learning And Action): A visual-arts content producing agency and educational consultancy specialising in equality, diversity and inclusion.
Black Women Radicals: A Black feminist advocacy organisation dedicated to uplifting and cultivating black women’s radical political activism.
Image: Althea McNish (1933-2020), Golden Harvest, 1959, screen-printed cotton satin. The Whitworth, The University of Manchester