Chittagong, Makerere, and York Application for Follow-on Funding
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Centre for Applied Human Rights
Abstract
This FoF proposal builds on two University of York research streams: a network grant, 'Creative Activism, Art and Development Alternatives' (AHRC/GCRF, AH/P006078/1), and an internal research strand on 'Political Forms' (Centre for Modern Studies). This work has developed a strong network of activists, artists and researchers in Bangladesh and Uganda; theoretical insights into the ways development alternatives and political ideas are revealed and contested in cultural forms; and methodological innovations in participatory arts practice and models for engaging artists in development work.
The current proposal builds on the unexpected success, in the Creative Activism project, of street happenings/performances, public screenings and arts-based workshops for generating open discussion among diverse audiences on political issues and alternative approaches to development. A theory of change emerging from this work suggests that the arts can make space for critical thinking and exploration of political issues and alternative approaches to development in a way that somewhat mitigates the high levels of risk often associated with direct political speech, and contributes to building active citizenship and enhancing development outcomes. As such it aids in meeting the challenge spelt out in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16.7 on the need for responsible, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making.
This proposal involves collaboration with the development organisation ActionAid and LMIC-based cultural organisations. Workshops supported by the AHRC/GCRF award and subsequent discussions revealed a strong local desire to take collaboration with artists and researchers in new directions and test methodological innovations in the research with new audiences. We have worked closely with partners in developing this proposal to create a theory of change, shape activities, and highlight the following priorities:
1) To further dissemination of the project's methodological innovations, and to test the methods with grassroots organisations and community groups.
2) To build on a commitment from the ActionAid training centre TCDC (Arusha, Tanzania) to integrate creative pedagogies in its new training programme and to run an artist-in-residence scheme.
3) To test ideas emerging from the research, specifically relating to the impact of arts-based interventions such as residencies and public happenings.
4) To support requests for training and advice on establishment of archives of art and politics in both Makerere and Chittagong.
5) To extend the reach of the project to audiences/users who do not speak fluent English, running events in Bangla and local languages in Uganda.
To deliver on these priorities activities include support for the establishment of two interactive public archives; a cross-cultural creative labs initiative supporting artist exchanges; and local creative labs initiatives in Chittagong and Uganda. We will also adapt and test the innovative arts-based methodologies developed in the Creative Activism project in ActionAid local rights programmes, in collaboration with ActionAid's training centre (TCDC) in Arusha, Tanzania. Public engagement includes two public, interactive street art happenings - in Chittagong and Kampala. Dissemination will target relevant websites and toolkits, including revised versions of the ActionAid human rights-based approach handbook and the ActionAid web-based networked toolbox. This dissemination will reach the development sector beyond those involved in this project.
These activities will produce a rich variety of outputs, including two funding proposals for archive development; two street art happenings; documentation of activities and process of collaboration; and a training programme and embeddable digital resources on using innovative arts-based methodologies with communities and activists.
The current proposal builds on the unexpected success, in the Creative Activism project, of street happenings/performances, public screenings and arts-based workshops for generating open discussion among diverse audiences on political issues and alternative approaches to development. A theory of change emerging from this work suggests that the arts can make space for critical thinking and exploration of political issues and alternative approaches to development in a way that somewhat mitigates the high levels of risk often associated with direct political speech, and contributes to building active citizenship and enhancing development outcomes. As such it aids in meeting the challenge spelt out in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16.7 on the need for responsible, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making.
This proposal involves collaboration with the development organisation ActionAid and LMIC-based cultural organisations. Workshops supported by the AHRC/GCRF award and subsequent discussions revealed a strong local desire to take collaboration with artists and researchers in new directions and test methodological innovations in the research with new audiences. We have worked closely with partners in developing this proposal to create a theory of change, shape activities, and highlight the following priorities:
1) To further dissemination of the project's methodological innovations, and to test the methods with grassroots organisations and community groups.
2) To build on a commitment from the ActionAid training centre TCDC (Arusha, Tanzania) to integrate creative pedagogies in its new training programme and to run an artist-in-residence scheme.
3) To test ideas emerging from the research, specifically relating to the impact of arts-based interventions such as residencies and public happenings.
4) To support requests for training and advice on establishment of archives of art and politics in both Makerere and Chittagong.
5) To extend the reach of the project to audiences/users who do not speak fluent English, running events in Bangla and local languages in Uganda.
To deliver on these priorities activities include support for the establishment of two interactive public archives; a cross-cultural creative labs initiative supporting artist exchanges; and local creative labs initiatives in Chittagong and Uganda. We will also adapt and test the innovative arts-based methodologies developed in the Creative Activism project in ActionAid local rights programmes, in collaboration with ActionAid's training centre (TCDC) in Arusha, Tanzania. Public engagement includes two public, interactive street art happenings - in Chittagong and Kampala. Dissemination will target relevant websites and toolkits, including revised versions of the ActionAid human rights-based approach handbook and the ActionAid web-based networked toolbox. This dissemination will reach the development sector beyond those involved in this project.
These activities will produce a rich variety of outputs, including two funding proposals for archive development; two street art happenings; documentation of activities and process of collaboration; and a training programme and embeddable digital resources on using innovative arts-based methodologies with communities and activists.
Planned Impact
Close collaboration with ActionAid and national-level partners, activists and artists will provide the following routes to impact:
1) National-level impact: Consolidation of collaboration between artistic and activist communities in Bangladesh and Uganda and extension of the network beyond middle-class, English-speaking colleagues, resulting in national-level impact on development debates, and active citizenship.
2) Public impact: Richer understanding of how art can be experienced by the public in Uganda and Bangladesh, and hence how arts-based interventions can enhance development debates and outcomes through public engagement.
3) Organisational impact: Greater sophistication in cultural dimensions of ActionAid activism and community-level interventions. This will be done through proof of concept interventions and the creation and dissemination of materials for internal dissemination e.g. toolkits, human rights-based approach handbook.
4) Sectoral impact: More sophisticated use of participatory arts-based methodologies with a critical edge among development practitioners, both in community-level interventions and in activist training as a result of accessing training and ActionAid's broader influence on the sector.
These pathways indicate both the new audiences which will benefit from this follow-on funding, and how they will benefit. Cross-cultural artistic production will be brought into bustling public spaces, reaching residents of Chittagong and Kampala who don't usually have access to such work; while local creative labs in Chittagong and Kampala will allow groups usually excluded from artistic and development debates to work directly with practising artists on development-related issues. Grassroots community and activist groups will benefit from the project's transformative power and methodological innovations. Development practitioners and activists beyond extant partner organisations will benefit from digital resources embedded in popular websites and from training at ActionAid's TCDC (which caters for practitioners and activists across the world). Students, activists, researchers and interested members of the public will benefit from being able to use the interactive digital resources.
1) National-level impact: Consolidation of collaboration between artistic and activist communities in Bangladesh and Uganda and extension of the network beyond middle-class, English-speaking colleagues, resulting in national-level impact on development debates, and active citizenship.
2) Public impact: Richer understanding of how art can be experienced by the public in Uganda and Bangladesh, and hence how arts-based interventions can enhance development debates and outcomes through public engagement.
3) Organisational impact: Greater sophistication in cultural dimensions of ActionAid activism and community-level interventions. This will be done through proof of concept interventions and the creation and dissemination of materials for internal dissemination e.g. toolkits, human rights-based approach handbook.
4) Sectoral impact: More sophisticated use of participatory arts-based methodologies with a critical edge among development practitioners, both in community-level interventions and in activist training as a result of accessing training and ActionAid's broader influence on the sector.
These pathways indicate both the new audiences which will benefit from this follow-on funding, and how they will benefit. Cross-cultural artistic production will be brought into bustling public spaces, reaching residents of Chittagong and Kampala who don't usually have access to such work; while local creative labs in Chittagong and Kampala will allow groups usually excluded from artistic and development debates to work directly with practising artists on development-related issues. Grassroots community and activist groups will benefit from the project's transformative power and methodological innovations. Development practitioners and activists beyond extant partner organisations will benefit from digital resources embedded in popular websites and from training at ActionAid's TCDC (which caters for practitioners and activists across the world). Students, activists, researchers and interested members of the public will benefit from being able to use the interactive digital resources.
Organisations
Publications
Kelly R
(2022)
Re-membering Red Riding Hood: situated solidarities between Ireland and Uganda
in Feminist Theory
| Title | Creative activism artwork |
| Description | Live exhibits: Kampala Walkscapes (Photo exhibit, Jim Joel), 200 people; Archive Alive (Installation, Film and photographs, Shohrab Jahan/ Emilie Flower/ Jim Joel) Estimated 250 people visited in central market/eating area; Cheragi Art Show (Film of the exhibition, Emilie Flower). Central Chittagong newspaper and trades area. An estimated 1500 people attended. Art works available online: Collection of Texts from Bangladesh, Uganda and the UK, 'Placing the imagination', Ed. Emilie Morin; Set of poems to accompany the project activities, Ruth Kelly; Images, films and audio of the artworks; Films of the installations, exhibitions and artist/ activist/ academic interviews, by Emilie Flower; Digital audience as yet unknown - linked to global network of activists through Action Aid Bangladesh, UK, Uganda and International Network, TCDC Network Hub, Beautiful Rising Global activist toolkit, CAHR network of Human Rights activist and Human Rights Hub, and partner organisations and networks. Book: Dummy Book of 'Placing the imagination', Designed by Shohrab Jahan, if published in Bangladesh, the book will reach a Bangladeshi, Ugandan and English audience. A 500 print run. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | Engagement with artists, academics and activists - public outreach. |
| URL | https://www.developmentalternatives.net |
| Description | The following are the key insights from the follow-on funding: - Archival research revealed useful questions about the construction and accessibility of an archive, for example the tension between the archive as keeper versus sharer of knowledge. This led to further questions about the kinds of logics embedded in traditional archive protocols and expectations, and the questioning of these conventions and the consideration of alternative archiving techniques/post-colonial archiving and arts-based archives. Shaela Sharmin in Chittagong Fine Arts Institute initiated the process of constructing a working archive at Chittagong University. - The project strengthened collaborations between artistic and activist communities in Bangladesh and Uganda through the production of real-world collaborative exhibitions, team research, and overlapping artistic residencies and team led workshops and talks. Extension of networks beyond middle-class, English-speaking colleagues was achieved through workshops, creative labs, street art and continuing work. Collaborations with artists and researchers were taken in new directions through the artist responses and open grants. - Methodological innovations to address power dynamics included extending the artistic response by supporting local artists to research the research itself and produce an artistic response to this. This process expanded the project's local networks, opened the work to creative and critical appraisal, and extended the reach of the research and work produced. - Increased public access to art (online, events) was achieved; as was a richer understanding of how art can be experienced by the public in Bangladesh and Uganda. Researchers carried out innovative creative labs; residential arts-based knowledge exchanges and community activities; and produced academic, artistic, and practitioner-led texts, artworks/performances, video documentation and a digital online archive of resources that, when presented within the framing and contexts of development work and traditional institutions, trouble development narratives and historical narratives within Uganda, Bangladesh and within international development practice. - A toolkit was produced that provides an outline of how activists can use some of the project methods to integrate cultural expertise and arts-based approaches into their development practice (https://www.developmentalternatives.net/#/toolkit-1/). This provides support for more sophisticated use of participatory arts-based methodologies with a critical edge among development practitioners, both in community-level interventions and in activist training, including the cultural dimensions of ActionAid's activism and community-level interventions. - Assumptions about traditional institutions being averse to change were challenged - actually they may be open to change e.g. individuals within traditional institutions including archives, museums, and university departments in York, Chittagong and Kampala were open to innovative research methods, exchanges, and exhibitions that challenged existing protocols and to inviting activists, artists and audiences into their spaces. It was important to acknowledge the role that traditional institutions play as public spaces - that are open to change - alongside more obvious street-side public spaces. Using these spaces for arts activities was seen as a part of a broader trajectory of activities that hold those spaces open, diversify existing practice and generate public debate. - Transnational collaborations can distract from the focus of research and practice, requiring a response to power relations and identity. Acknowledging this issue is not adequate to address it. The project used several methods to address these concerns, mainly by working together as teams in team ethnographies, interchanging leadership roles, supporting independent residencies, and developing collaborative exhibitions. Producing and working together for different audiences and in different environments refocused the work on the subject of the research. |
| Exploitation Route | The activities and insights could be take forward/used by others in the following ways: - Follow up exhibition between collaborating artists in Kampala modeled on the Cheragi Art Show in Chittagong, this could include a skills exchange residency for Shohrab Jahan with students in the Makerere University School of Fine Arts. - The production of a book from the collection of texts about the political imagination, published in Bangladesh. - The production of a documentary research film from the film documentation, to describe the process of working in transnational artist/activist/archivist collaborations and disseminate the project approach - highlighting artists responses and collaborations that make use of ambiguity and public space to expand civic space. - Research with participants about their experience of the project and related activities - and the philosophies, theories of change and impacts that have or could result from this. - Further collaborative team based / applied research with artist / activist collaborations - to expand activist agendas and possibilities. - Further support for activities in public spaces to strengthen and reveal / expand civic space and support the production and publication of alternative histories and political imaginations. - Further locally situated artist responses to research workshops, processes, and findings to embed research, invite locally situated critical voices to monitor and challenge the research process (research the research), broaden research reach, and disseminate research findings to different audiences. |
| Sectors | Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://www.developmentalternatives.net |
| Description | Used to inform the Arctivism project, supporting artist-activist collaborations to respond to COVID-19: see https://www.hrdhub.org/arctivism. Insights from this project provided a theoretical framework for follow on Arctivism collaborations and informed expectations of artist-activist collaborations and objectives for these projects. The project has also informed a new AHRC project, Can the Arts Save Human Rights? Human Rights Truth-claims in a Post Truth Era (2022-25). |
| First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
| Sector | Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | Creative activism impacts |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | 1) Expanding space for developing development alternatives by questioning the theories behind arts based methods, testing the strength of revealing the cultural archive for imagining alternatives with different publics, and testing the use of understanding the findings from participatory arts based work in the context of local history. This working examples used in project will help policy makers, development practitioners and funders with practice based models for extending their responses to shrinking civic space through the arts. 2) Extending collaborative activist engagement practices and protocols with arts based research methods and artists, and capacity to work with artists and artistic mediums effectively for reflexion and to extend their ideas about development alternatives. 3) Supporting open ended conversation and deliberation about development alternatives in public spaces with artists, activists and academics and new audiences- including in public squares, markets, museums, studios, universities and book shops, using text based, oral and visual arts to prompt conversation. Translated through a diversity of different mediums including texts, films, poetry, sculpture and interactive conceptual art. 4) Furthering understanding through examples for the role of ambiguous art pieces, and their strength in public spaces, to prompt questioning and shared learning between academics, activists, students and artists through research screenings, conferences, papers and presentations. 5) Producing embeddable material from the web platform which will be available for sharing with IDS participation webpages and Beautiful Rising/Solutions webpages (toolkits) as part of pre-existing AA collaboration, and to the revised versions of the AA human rights-based approach handbook and the AA web-based networked toolbox, both widely used by AA staff and partners around the world, leveraging the marketing and dissemination strategies associated with those resources to maximise user uptake. |
| Description | Can the Arts Save Human Rights? Human Rights Truth-Claims in a Post-Truth Era |
| Amount | £822,573 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/W003155/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2022 |
| End | 05/2025 |
| Description | Archive training |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Professional development training for fundable proposals for two interactive public archives of politically significant art, including archive training week, London/ Newcastle/ York and 1 collaborative archive symposium, York. 6 team research trips to archives for proposal research ; Director of the Chittagong Fine Arts Institute and sensual artist, Sheala Sharmin, joined the team for the archive research and symposium. Unfortunately Makerere Archivist, Hasifa Mukyala, was unable to secure a visa. Jim Joel, Ruth Kelly and Emilie Flower visited the Oury and South African collection at the Borthwick Institute for Archives, with the University Archivist, Charles Fonge and archive assistant Alexandra Medcalf as well as the Railway Museum Archive with Oli Betts. The whole team visited the Black Cultural Archive in Brixton, led be Hannah Ismael, and the Feminist Archive at Bishopsgate, followed by a tour of the Bloodaxe Archive at Newcastle University by Ian Johnson and the Borthwick at the University of York. The Art, Archives and Political Imagination Symposium was attended by external participants curator Helen Pheby from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, author Daisy Hildyard, from York St John/ PICA Studios, Dr Mathilde Maîtrot from the University of Bath and Oli Betts from the Yorkshire Railway Archive. Participants from the University of York included Paul Gready (Politics/ CAHR), Ruth Kelly (Politics/ CAHR), Emilie Flower (CAHR/PICA) Kyveli Lignou-Tsamantani (Art History), Gez McCann (History), Catherine Law (Music) and Emilie Morin (English). A proposal for archive development in development at the Chittagong fine Arts Institute, led by Sheala Sharmin, proposing to document several art collections that trace the history of the arts in Chittagong as reflected through the artworks |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.developmentalternatives.net/#/art-activism-and-archive/ |
| Description | Creative activism website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The website features material from all aspects of the development alternatives/creative activism project. It is designed to be interactive and engaging. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020 |
| URL | https://www.developmentalternatives.net/ |
| Description | Cross-cultural creative labs |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The cross-cultural creative labs had several elements. 5 art residencies ; 2 in York, Shohrab Jahan, lecturer and sculptor from the Chittagong Fine Art Institute at Pica Studios and photographer Jim Joel from 32 degrees in Kampala, Uganda at the York Railway Museum; 1 art residency in Chittagong, Emilie Flower film maker from Pica Studios in Cheragi Street Art Festival, including exhibits of work by Jim Joel Nyakaana (Jim's visa was refused) and poetry from Ruth Kelly. 2 art residencies in Kampala, Uganda, Shohrab Jahan and Emilie Flower. Emilie and Jim also carried out a training in photographic developing, using the darkroom with the University Photographic Society, and contributed to a photo studio workshop for White Ribbon Alliance UK and The Refugee Council at the Leeds Playhouse. 2 collaborative public interactive street art happenings: Cheragi Art Show 7, Chittagong, Bangladesh in collaboration with Jog Art Space, Mansul, Pora Para and Chittagong University Fine Art Institute Staff Shohrab Jahan, Zihan Karim, Shaela Sharmin, Zahed Ali Chowdhury, Sharad Daz, Nusrat Shaown and Pora Para and Mansul artists Joydev Roaja, Rayhan Ahned Rafi and Kauser Haider, Tanim Ibni Yusof and Emilie Flower/ Ruth Kelly amongst others. Attended by an estimated 1500 people; Shohrab Jahan/Emilie Flower/Jim Joel/ Susan Kiguli/ Ruth Kelly, Kampala National Museum 'Walking into Clay' March 2020. 2 additional public exhibitions; Jim Joel, 'Walking Kampala', National Museum of Kampala, May 2019; a collaborative installation 'Archive Alive' by Emilie Flower, Shohrab Jahan and Jim Joel held at the Social Design Exhibit of York Design Week at Spark Market, curated by Rebecca Carr, and assisted by sound designer Lynette Queck. 3 artist response grants; Local creative labs initiatives in Chittagong and Uganda, involving extended periods of interaction between artists and community groups, wider public and activists led by Kampalan artists Pamela Enyonu, Matt Keyem, and Njola Impressions.TBC Community artist response at Your Space Kampala. 1 paper; ECAS2019. Africa: Connections and Disruptions, Edinburgh, June 11-14 2019. Title; Heritage narratives and the political imagination in Uganda by Emilie Flower and Ruth Kelly. 3 public talks; Public art - a conversation, with artists and curators from Bangladesh and Uganda, Shohrab Jahan, Shaela Sharmin, Jim Joel, York University, October 2019; Practise based research at the Chittagong Fine Arts Institute, Ruth Kelly and Emilie Flower; Seminar by Ruth Kelly at the Makerere Literature Department, Makerere University (TBC). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020 |
| URL | https://www.developmentalternatives.net/#/creative-activism/ |