TOPICS the network explores

• Rights, social justice and activism in arts engagement

• Institutional and social power structures, which create conditions of privilege and marginalisation

• Coalitions and partnerships as a force for social change

• Community campaigns achieving a scale of change in their work

• The politics of representation and engagement



• How a rights-focussed approach can address power imbalances in the relationships between participants and arts engagement practitioners

• Creating access for the most marginalised

• Ethics and instrumentalisation

• Building non-transactional relationships with participants

• Radical approaches, methods, and pedagogy for engagement

guest speaker Charlotte Weinberg

Charlotte Weinberg  joined Safe Ground as Executive Director in 2010. Safe Ground is responsible for a range of therapeutic group work programmes across 20 prisons and a series of arts and identity interventions inside and outside of prisons across the UK.

Charlotte has spent 15 years as a frontline youth and community activist. Her work involved large scale group work using the arts to challenge stigma and inequalities with diverse communities and young people in libraries, car-parks, youth clubs, parks and open spaces. In 1995, Charlotte began work in a hostel for homeless 16-17 year olds where she was a senior worker for 5 years.

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network speaker Shaista Chishty

Shai is a London based  documentary photographer & visual artist exploring identity, representation and notions of ‘otherness’, particularly of Muslims in Britain. Shai uses news and mainstream media along with humour to challenge narratives which often serve to de-humanise, over simplify and reinforce a ‘them and us’ in society.

At the heart of Shai’s practice is seeking to understand the ways in which mainstream representations of Muslims in Britain contribute to the rise in hate crime and Islamophobia. Shai began her career working as a photojournalist on humanitarian projects with global organisations including UN Women, Christian Aid, CARE International and Islamic Relief. Shai has been developing her conceptual practice since embarking on an MA in Documentary Photography at the University of the Arts- London. 

network speaker Fleur Donnelly-Jackson

As a Volunteers Manager at Tate  I work to bring underrepresented groups into the gallery at Tate, to encourage them to volunteer, engage with our collections, and to take part in community events. In this role I have been exploring innovative art engagement techniques (Sensory Collection Conversations, Image Theatre, and Art Journaling) with our volunteers. For the past year I have acted as chair of Tate’s staff disABILITY Network.

The role of the network is to advocate within Tate for the social model of disability, to promote understanding about the needs of staff and volunteers, and our visitors with disabilities, through conversations, discussion, feedback, and acting as consultees to new policies.

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