Call out: Breaking Down Barriers for Artists

Are you an emerging artist with a story to tell? We want to hear from you!

 

Photo by Lamar Francois.

 

UKNA's Creative ThinkTank are inviting you to share your stories of overcoming challenges on your creative path. From navigating the intricacies of parenthood, race, gender, age, and geography, to funding hurdles and evolving cultural landscapes, we're eager to hear it all. Your unique experiences are the heart of our mission, inspiring change and shaping the future of the creative sector.

Leading up to UKNA's forthcoming symposium, 'Navigating the Journey for New Artists,' taking place in Lincoln as part of UKNA’s ‘Weekend Celebration of Creativity’ from 19 – 21 October 2023, SLQS, Hannaa Hamdache, Ana Silvério, Hoyee Tse, and Gaynor Tutani from UKNA Creative ThinkTank are collecting these anonymous narratives to create an online publication and facilitate discussions during the symposium. This research is centred on identifying the real and diverse barriers that emerging artists face and, together as a community, forging innovative solutions that will propel us towards a more inclusive and vibrant creative landscape.

We encourage artists to share:

  • The barriers you've encountered as an emerging artist.

  • Any solutions or support you've discovered to overcome these challenges.

  • Practical insights you'd like to receive to assist you in dismantling these barriers as an emerging artist.

Please share your experiences with us by 7 October 2023. All stories are anonymous.

Hear from our Creative ThinkTank

 

Photo by Jonathan Turner.

Hannaa Hamdache

I'm Hannaa, an artist and curator, part of the UKNA New Artist Creative ThinkTank. Having the time, space and resource to develop creative ideas and my own practice is a barrier I face - one that I know is not uncommon for emerging artists. This, alongside the geography of where you live, and what opportunities are available where, has created roadblocks in my artistic development. With this information gathering, we hope to crowdsource potential solutions to age old problems for artists.

Photo by Sophie Lavender.

SLQS

I'm SLQS, an interdisciplinary artist part of the UKNA New Artist Collective and Creative Think Tank.  As an artist and a mother, I find that my parental status can stop me from accessing artist opportunities such as residencies.  Lack of funding for childcare, communication and flexibility are the barriers that I often face and I wonder how other artists with caring responsibilities overcome these challenges.

 
 

Ana Silvério

I am Ana Silvério, a dance artist and choreographer. I am a UK New Artist alumni and part of the UKNA Creative ThinkTank. I moved 7 years ago and was not trained in the UK. The first barrier was the lack of knowledge about the dance field in England. People and organisations helped to get started. The biggest barriers I face now are Communication & funding. Communication in many ways is due to language and cultural differences. The majority of my working time as an artist is unpaid.

Gaynor Tutani

My name is Gaynor and creatively I go by the name, Art Adlib. I am a curator, producer and writer, part of UKNA New Artist Creative ThinkTank. As an independent curator, one of the many challenges I find is funding opportunities that are beneficial for my curating partner @artmaroon and I, as well as help in supporting the artists we work with to promote their work and make a living out of their art.

There is also a lack of space and platforms for unknown artists to showcase their work and develop, especially those of the older generation. I find it unfortunate that their pioneering aspect is often lost or rather forgotten as essential to contemporary practice.

Hoyee Tse

I'm Hoyee, a researcher, part of the UKNA New Artist Creative ThinkTank. As an immigrant from the global majority, the challenges for me always lay on the hierarchy and tensions of cultural appropriation and about cultural identity. These institutional barriers affect cultural practitioners as much as artists by limiting the space to express their voices and explore their potential. So, it is important for us to look for possible solutions together.

 
Madara Vimba