Impact case study database

Instigating change within Tate’s S&T programme through raising awareness

Having commissioned Offeh’s ‘Live Art Salon’ and ‘Call and Response Dinner’, Tate’s Schools and Teachers (S&T) team commissioned Offeh to curate their 2013 Summer School, a learning platform attended by 30 teachers and artist-educators. Offeh’s project was the catalyst which ‘… set in motion a series of changes’, in S&T, Curator Leanne Turvey stating that it raised awareness of the lack of diversity amongst S&T’s staff and audiences, who ‘ were unable to talk about anything around race at all’. (5.1) An S&T report states: ‘ Summer School 2013 highlighted a significant lack of take- up from BAME teachers, made all the more stark by the fact that many of the artists contributing to the school were black and all the participants white. This circumstance has reinforced our resolve to address the issue.’ (5.2)

Initiating new research and training within S&T

This new awareness prompted an internal review; S&T approached Professor Uvanney Maylor to conduct research with Tate Learning on three areas for improvement identified following Offeh’s project:

• ‘a need to attract more diverse candidates to the team.

• a need to ensure we are inviting and attracting a more diverse range of teachers into the programme

• the need to support and explore difficult conversations about race and cultural difference – both in the gallery and in the classroom.’ (5.2)

New practice-as-research on race and language has been undertaken at Tate and in 2016 a new Collaborative Doctoral Partnership was formed ‘… to improve access to and participation in programme activity by BAME teachers, [raising] awareness of race and cultural difference with teachers more widely.’ (5.2) Since Offeh’s project, S&T have undertaken additional training from specialists: Gendered Intelligence, Rape Crisis and Xtend UK.

New programming and resources to explore race and cultural difference

To address the third area, S&T began programming more practitioners concerned with relevant issues, including Evan Ifekoya and Professor Maylor’s ‘Art and Language’ Study Day for 30 teachers (2015) (5.3); and ‘Reconstructing the Black Image: An evening with Gordon de la Mothe’ (2016), to ‘ improve the experience of Black and minority ethnic students.’ (5.2) These events were supported by new online and print resources on race and language at Tate Modern and Britain. (5.4; 5.5)

New S&T Audience Action Plan

In 2014, to address the first and second areas, S&T developed an Audience Action Plan ‘ to increase BAME artists and teachers to access the programme,’ committing to undertake further, ‘ demographic research to ascertain BAME representation within the arts/learning at university level, trainee and qualified teachers’ and within gallery education; implement diversity training for the Schools and Teachers team; action a recruitment policy to research and attract applications from BAME candidates with a view to diversifying workforce; broaden diversity of artists commissioned and recruited to the programme’. (5.2) Thus, all S&T areas – communications, recruitment, staff retention – were reviewed to avoid unintended exclusion of individuals.

Staff recruitment changes

S&T reviewed all areas of recruitment practice, including: advertising, language, unconscious bias, staff support, retention and BAME staff experience. (5.2) Consequently, a Recruitment Working Group was formed and a new action plan devised to promote diversity across all areas of recruitment – this is now policy across all six teams in Tate’s Learning department. (5.1) A new Terms of Reference document (5.6) and a Commitments Document were created establishing principles for positive action – now part of the induction pack for all Learning staff. Its first section states: ‘ ACT NOW We will employ more BAME, non-binary, queer, trans** and disabled artists’. (5.7)

Changes to recruitment for workshop artists

S&T ‘ totally changed the way that we recruit new artists into the programme’ (5.9), [taking] positive action to encourage applications from black, ethnic minority, and disabled applicants as these groups are currently underrepresented in the cultural sector.’ (5.2) Since 2016, working with HR, the diversity manager, and Tate’s BAME network, S&T have used a nomination process to recruit workshop artists, ‘ to better welcome, support and include BAME and disabled artists when at Tate.’ (5.2) Due to increased recruitment of BAME and disabled artists, 150,000 teachers and students (5.9) now work directly with, or receive resources created by, a more diverse range of practitioners. Curator Amy McKelvie says this has enriched the experience of hundreds of thousands of teacher/student-visitors, expanding ideas of what art is and who can be an artist. (5.9)

Reflecting on the impact of Offeh’s 2013 Summer School on Tate’s S&T’s policies, Turvey said: ‘ it really has transformed our team practice, from recruitment of staff, to how we programme, who we work with, how we can diversify what artists we share, which artists we work with … he did have a real impact.’ (5.1) In 2019 Offeh’s contribution to society was recognised with a £60,000 Paul Hamlyn Visual Arts Award. (5.9)

Hafeda’s projects bestowed long-term benefits to diverse communities in London (2014-present), Portugal (2017-present), Brazil (2019-present) and Lebanon (2019-present), developing social and creative skills amongst 696 children, young people and adults, encouraging them to assert their rights and opinions about public space by building permanent social infrastructures. Hafeda’s work influenced decision-making of council authorities in London and Braga, Portugal; UK housing developers; South London Gallery and MK Gallery (UK); and curator Amanda Abi Khalil.

Informing estate planning and development in Southwark

The SoP galvanised SLG’s presence on Sceaux Gardens Estate. Originally temporary, SoP became permanent, with the Tenants and Residents Association insisting it was incorporated into Sceaux’s 2017 redevelopment. John McGrath explained: ‘ every time we have a meeting we always highlight the Shop of Possibilities because we don’t want it to go.’ The result was ‘Art Block’, a purpose-designed space based on SoP, with improved facilities for higher numbers of children and young people attracted by the provision. Dr Sim’s report observed: ‘ It is no small achievement (and a clear indicator of local endorsement) that the Shop of Possibilities has been incorporated into planned architectural developments on the estate.’(5.1) Hafeda was invited as guest of honour to launch Art Block in 2017.

Influencing surrounding communities

Sim’s observation that SoP’s ‘ influence stretches far beyond its immediate location’ echoes Jack James, SLG’s Children and Families Coordinator, who says it ‘ caused an expansion of the direct delivery the gallery was doing’. Instrumental in expanding off-site projects on 6 neighbouring estates (5.2), since 2016 the Freelands Foundation has supported SoP with £306,146 (5.3), the Art Block team playing ‘ a pivotal role in designing and defining the space’ at nearby Cezanne House in 2019.(5.1)

SoP was presented as best-practice for estate development in an independent report, shared with housing developers, London’s councils and the Greater London Authority, informing the investment of £873,299 for new programmes for the London Cultural Education Challenge (2015-18).(5.4) SoP also influenced MK Gallery’s Learning Team’s Learning Programme.(5.5)

Building confidence and skills in young people and children

Hafeda’s methods have had long-term benefits on participants’ confidence, wellbeing and social skills, as three independent reports, based on interviews with sessional workers, parents and children (5.1; 5.6), testify: “ The programme has benefited hundreds of children from vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds … supporting their social development and increasing confidence. It has also created training and paid employment opportunities for local young people between ages 16–25 … raising their ambitions and career goals whilst acting as positive role models for younger children.” (5.6). Hafeda’s work at Serpentine Galleries with struggling schoolchildren was a catalyst for improving confidence and creative skills. Alex Thorpe, Serpentine’s Education Curator, observed that Hafeda’s methods ‘ definitely [build] confidence. Confidence in articulating and sharing opinions and being confident to agree and disagree with people … giving them [the participants] some tools to think and reflect on their experiences.’(5.7)

New employment/training opportunities

SoP created employment for 20 sessional workers, 1 manager and 1 coordinator. Art Block employed 17 sessional workers, 1 manager, 1 coordinator and 3 trainees. According to James, estate residents ‘ gained employment, responsibility and income through this opportunity’ (5.2), many securing their first job since attending SoP as children. Dr Sim noted that SoP positively ‘ affected the aspirations and resilience’ of employees. (5.1)

Improving civic relations in Braga

When invited by Space Transcribers to mentor professionals on Santa Tecla housing estate in Braga, 2017, Hafeda used his innovative participatory methods to produce art events and a film, facilitating community discussions on social unity. Following Hafeda’s work with the Roma community, the community was ‘ incited… to take action over the future of their own social housing estate’, establishing ‘Gabinete de Mediação Roma’ in 2018, described by Fernando Ferreira, co-founder of Space Transcribers, as a ‘ resonance of Mohamad and [the] student’s project .. this mediation group continues to act as a bridge of communication and mediation between Santa Tecla’s residents and Braga’s City Council,’ moreover, ‘ This mediation process became essential for reducing the conflicts of communication transmitted during the entire regeneration process of the social housing estate.’(5.8)

Informing curatorial commissioning

Struck by Hafeda’s ‘ rare’ approach to socially engaged practice and his ability to give it a permanence through film, curator Amanda Abi Khalil selected ‘Sewing Borders’ for the exhibition ‘Living Room UIT (Use It Together)’ at ISCP, New York, 2019. The film changed how Khalil commissions social art: ‘ Mohamad’s video did influence and impact my practice as a curator, especially when it came to commissioning and the process of commissioning.’(5.9) Hafeda’s parlaying of social projects into further artworks was a key influence on Khalil’s commissioning for ‘A casa é sua’, at the Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro (2020): five social art projects Khalil commissioned, involving hundreds of children and adults from the Favela of Maré; an Arab community living in Rio de Janeiro; and refugees stranded between Lebanon and Syria.

Gibbon’s research highlights how weapons sales in the arms trade are normalised through cultural rituals and sponsorship of events. Her research informed a play on the arms trade and resulted in BAE Systems’ withdrawal as sponsor of two national cultural events.

Influencing public awareness of arms trade cultural sponsorship

Gibbon’s research enhances understanding of how weapons manufacturers appropriate cultural rituals to ‘artwash’ products. New insights from her exhibitions on arms fairs were shared with combined audiences of 2,114,442 (Source: Kantar), attracting international press coverage from Al Jazeera (2014), BBC Radio Four (2018), The Guardian (2014; 2018), Folket i Bilt (2019), Frieze (2019), and BBC World Service (2014, 2018), who introduced Gibbon as ‘ lifting the lid on the murky world of arms sales’. (5.1)

Exhibitions at Bradford Peace Museum (BPM) and Royal West Academy (2014) attracted high audience numbers.(5.2) Alison Bevan described the 8,046 visitors to Royal West Academy as the ‘ highest ever visitor numbers for the period’(5.3), resulting in an 8-month extension of the exhibition in an off-site gallery, attracting 899 visitors (5.2). The exhibition changed people’s understanding of the arms industry. For example, audiences ‘ did not know that the UK makes arms that are sold around the world and that are responsible for harming civilians’, and also thought that Gibbon’s ‘eye-opening exhibition unpicks the mystique of the arms trade’. (5.3)

Raising artists’ awareness of arms trade and reshaping arts production

Gibbon’s BPM exhibition was instrumental to the development of Common Wealth Theatre Company’s play I Have Met the Enemy, a scene depicting an arms fair was based on Gibbon’s drawings, which revealed a world previously inaccessible to the actors. Co-Director Evie Manning: ‘The exhibition's observations and depictions of the 'performance of respectability' has informed our play in such a way that we have built a significant opening scene around this idea and the characters, action and gestures that The Etiquette of the Arms Trade explored’. (5.4) Audiences of 980 people saw the play in Bradford and Newcastle. The play travelled to Cardiff (2019); and will tour Edinburgh and London in 2021 (delayed by COVID-19). Artists involved with GEON were previously unaware of the arms trade’s ‘art washing’ strategies. Artist Emily Hesse said that Gibbon’s work, ‘gives us an insight into something that we are not shown, this is a world which is hidden from us, and that’s how I really feel that her work was very beneficial to me at that time because it allowed me to see what was really going on behind the scenes in these arms fairs that I would have never otherwise seen.’ (5.5) Hesse documented this experience in an article for the book Black Birds Born from Invisible Stars (2018).

Influencing collective action

Gibbon’s research made a distinct and material contribution to the campaign that resulted in GEON dropping BAE Systems’ sponsorship in three ways. First, Gibbon co-founded ‘Art Not Arms’ and wrote the petition garnering 2,366 signatures and national press coverage. (5.6) Second, Gibbon’s drawings persuaded headliners the Commoners Choir to pull out of GEON, re-joining after BAE’s withdrawal. Choir leader Boff Whalley’s assertion that Gibbon’s work ‘alerted me to a side of the international trade in weapons that I hadn’t understood – that arms dealing is normalized with music, entertainment, and wine’, (5.7) is echoed by Hesse’s view that ‘the campaign did definitely make a lot of artists aware of it [the arms trade’s use of art washing]’. (5.5) Third, Gibbon’s research was used by artists Joanne Tatham and Tom O’Sullivan’s in their installation at BALTIC during GEON (seen by 166,851.(5.8)), which featured a history of anti-power stances, with Gibbon’s research an important reference. According to Tatham, the installation ‘included a description of Gibbon going undercover into arms fairs, her drawings revealing a world, which, with its string quartets and champagne seeks to create an impression that weapons are no different from any other object of exchange…[her] project provided both a resource for our own exhibition and demonstrated how the forms and approaches of contemporary art practice can enact political enquiry. ’ (5.9).

Art Not Arms demonstrably influenced the cultural sector, highlighting arts organisations’ responsibility to check sponsors’ backgrounds. The BBC cited its impact on Turner Prize sponsorship, stating, ‘What has also become absolutely clear over the past 12 months is that arts organisations have to up their game when it comes to basic due diligence before accepting a sponsor’s money’ (5.10). Following Gibbon’s second Art Not Arms petition against BAE’s sponsorship of The National Festival of Making (23/04/2019), BAE was dropped after two days. (5.6)

An ARTnews article ‘The Year in Protest’ identified activism as a key influence on the art world, especially ‘protests and petitions that called attention to abuses of power, inequity, and privilege in the cultural sector’, citing Gibbon’s campaign as example of ‘[one of] the year’s notable art-world disruptions’. (5.10)