A week of taking time, a rethink, a few changes
Had a useful and positive meeting last week with Rashmi Sudhir the Arts Enagagement Officer at Bradford Council , to talk over my ACE application. Rashmi was very positive about my proposal and the support/partners I have, in the involvement of Fabric, Caroline Hick as mentor, and Anne McNeill from Impressions Gallery contributing. She is happy to support my application with ACE and suggested She suggested that I read the Arts Council Plan document to gain a clear understanding of their 3 year plan and priorities, which could then inform how I artculate the rest of my application. I came away from the meeting feeling positive but also thinking that I need to crack on with the form – which is still only partially complete. Still a lot of work to do..
After the meeting I went straight up to Gallery II at Bradford University to meet with Caroline Hick and artist Jez Coram (http://www.jezcoram.co.uk/)/ Caroline had been in touch to say that she and Jez were developing some collaborative work (after working together on Jez’s ‘Corners’ project at Gallery II Late 2012/early 2013 http://www.jezcoram.co.uk/) and to invite me to talk about the possibilities of working with them.
Caroline and Jez explained their collaboration, called ‘For the Love of People’ – as an application, a set of projects, some small, some big, bringing together different artists and non-artists, exploring participatory work and actions in the wider community. Caroline and Jez’s concerns very much chime with my own – exploring ways of working meaningful projects towards social change – and having known and worked with Caroline on various different projects over the years ( most recently her as one of my Re:view artists) I am very keen to work further with her. I am also very interested in Jez’s participatory practice from having seen the ‘Corners’ show.. I’ve also heard good things about him from people I know and trust, so altogether it feels like a very good time to be having this conversation with both artists.
Caroline and Jez were interested in possibly collaborating with me on the family photography project. They are looking at working on and with film archives of local areas at the moment and thought that my work on family archives/material would work as a good parallel to this.I explained my over- riding concern at the moment upcoming deadline for ACE application (I had set myself the 9th August as submission day).
Talking around the progress of the project for the ACE application over past weeks, it became clear that this self imposed deadline might not be helpful: I haven’t yet managed to identify potential collaborators and some of the specialists I want to involve in the project, and also conversations which I have been having along the way are causing me to question and rethink some of the collaborations I had envisioned for the project. For example, a speculative conversation with a worker from a refugee support group last week revealed that working one to one with someone from a refugee/asylum seeking background on family photographic materials may not be appropriate or possible – as this is a hugely sensitive and potentially painful area for many who have had to flee their countries with nothing. I had been aware of the potential sensitivities involved in working with someone from this background, but also of the potential power of the possibility making/exploring ‘new’ images through creative collaboration. Talking to the worker over the phone and via email in more depth however made me realise that for an organisation with a duty of acre and ethical responsibility to protect their vulnerable clients, this is too much of a risk. The worker, after discussing possible involvement with her colleagues, came back and said no. This conversation has been good learning for me and I’m see it very much as part of the research process. Documenting it here, too, feels important – saying what doesn’t work, as well as what does, is equally, if not more useful.
continued next post..
