Five years goes fast…
Where have the years gone? As I move into 2023, I reflect on an aspect of my career so far.
Even though I have been actively developing a curatorial and art practice for ten years, five years ago this month, my freelance career officially began when I started working for Derby Museums’ learning team. Notably, that year, in June 2018, I was a speaker at Battersea Arts Centre for their ‘Town Hall Talks’ event titled The Growth of the British Black Arts Movement, invited on recommendation by Blk Art Group founding member and British artist-curator Marlene Smith. The inspiration for the series of talks was the remarkable history of the old town hall building, which is Battersea Arts Centre’s home, and the local area, covering subjects from radical politics to art and architecture. The talk I participated in was in dialogue with the history of the British black arts movement and its timeliness, drawing on the Black Women Time Now, an exhibition in 1983 and other exhibitions in the early 80s from the Blk Art Group held at Battersea Arts Centre.
From that moment, public scholarship and public speaking became pivotal practices within my career. Highlights include Contemporary Melanin Narratives in Sound and Music at The Tetley, supported by The Centre for Practice Research in the Arts (CePRA), University of Leeds (2019); Concrete Jungle, In conversation with d’bi.young anitafrika at Nottingham Contemporary (2019); Jennifer Martin | TEETH: Artist in Conversation at Primary, Nottingham (2019); There is (No) Time, performingbordersLIVE2020, supported by the Live Art Development Agency, London (2020); Moving From Talk into Action, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast (2020); Art History Careers Day 2021, Association for Art History; In conversation with Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Derby QUAD (2022); ‘It's about handing over power’, report launch produced by Black Curatorial and Art Fund held at the V&A, London (2022).
In recent years I have been a visiting lecturer, speaker and facilitator in conjunction with universities across the country, including the University of Birmingham, Coventry University, Sheffield Hallam University, and the University of Northampton. This year, I will be visiting Liverpool John Moores University.
I have had the privilege to be involved in several intergenerational conversations with those I admire, respect, and learnt from over the years. Thank you to all those who have been a part of developing my thinking, personal philosophy and practice. I look forward to forming new connections across the UK and internationally over the next five years.
Watch this space.
Image credit: Eoin Carey. Courtesy of Black Curators Collective.