British Art Show engagement
Commissioned by
British Art Show 9, The Box, Barbican Theatre and Plymouth Culture
YEAR
2022
Consultancy: Creative Commission, Engagement, Co-design
TAGS
Young Creatives
Ant Lightfoot
Valentina Paz Huxley
Montell Brown
The British Art Show is the largest visual arts show touring the UK. It showcases a wide variety of leading contemporary artists from across Britain and in 2022 the tour concluded in Plymouth.
We worked with 8 young people (16 -25) from Plymouth to interrogate whether the show successfully represented their home town, whether it was accessible and whether people from Plymouth felt comfortable being there. The young people decided to go on a trip to the show together in their pyjamas to see if they could really get comfortable and break down the barriers that alienated other locals from giving the show a go.
The young people brought camping chairs, sleeping bags and dressing gowns to get into discussion of the work. Off the back of this visit they recorded a podcast that tackled: access, galleries’ political responsibility, representation and care. They then facilitated a session with the directors of the galleries involved, shared their findings, recommendations and demanded a commitment to their new movement #ComfortableGalleries.
impact
Radical intervention
Young people directly demanded more accessible exhibitions from the cultural sector leaders in Plymouth (and got them to sign their comfortable galleries manifesto!)
Got into an institution
The young people felt a sense of ownership and empowerment of the cultural spaces in their city which had at one point felt alienating.
New work
Young people were paid to creatively respond to the show in ways that felt good for them and engage new underrepresented audiences.
‘I feel like it’s demystified [galleries] for me in a good way and made them more approachable. Additionally it’s made me feel like being able to potentially have my own work in a gallery space is an achievable goal for myself.’
– Participant