Collecting Cultures

 

Curated and lead by Adi Lerer

 

A project that engages with refugees and asylum seekers through art programme via Zoom and was delivered in collaboration with the British Red Cross Merseyside & Manchester. The initial impetus was to decrease isolation, enable connection with each other and with art and culture, and to give a sense of place during the first lockdown in 2020.

 

We explore the historical narrative of a particular Liverpool gallery or museum, its collection and a specific exhibition. We find one or two artworks/objects as a trigger for a wider exploration of the effect of cultural narratives on art and vice versa and how it relates to us now. We also have creative output as a response– for instance submitting photographs to “Open Eye Stories”: http://openeyestories.org.uk/portfolio_page/we-share-our-colours-by-collecting-cultures-and-british-red-cross-merseyside

 

I invited local artists and participants who are artists in there own right to lead an art workshop online during the project. This enabled participants to create art and connect with local artists. For the artists/participants it was an opportunity to practice leading an art workshop to their pears in English or their native language.

 

At the Manchester office a fruitful collaboration betwee a local artist and the service useres imereged and classes continued beyond the timeframe of Collecting Cultures programme.

 

The aspiration was that once institutions reopened, class members were hopefully have the confidence to visit, have sense of ownership of the place, and a feeling that it is relevant to them. And if not, we should ask why.