About the project
Part of The University of Manchester, the Whitworth gallery, its park and gardens are home to a collection of over 60,000 works of art, textiles, sculptures and wallpapers. The institution seeks connections between art, creativity, and developing a more resilient and caring society through exhibitions and civic engagement. In 2023, the Whitworth was the first gallery in the North West to receive a Gallery of Sanctuary status.
Project context
The Whitworth’s engagement and education programmes include free workshops and activities promoting outdoor health and wellbeing alongside family activities, age-friendly programmes and art and education through volunteering.
In 2019 Bukky Baldwin, an artist employed through its Whitworth Young Contemporary Programme, became the first resident of the Whitworth’s workshop, showcasing emerging creatives selling handmade ceramics, jewellery and embroidered goods produced in weekly workshops with refugees. The refugees were referred via Manchester City of Sanctuary and were enrolled for three months with all the profits to be reinvested into further training and language workshops.
In 2020 conversations between the Whitworth and local charity Afrocats started, aiming to encourage a more inclusive social environment for those seeking sanctuary. The new partnership brought accessible, cultural and creative activities to the gallery during the school holidays.
In 2023 the institution opened Traces of Displacement, an exhibition stemming from the three-year Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) project Understanding Displacement Aesthetics and Making Change in the Art Gallery with Refugees, Migrants and Host Communities led by the Centre for the Cultural History of War, at the University of Manchester. This project was developed in partnership with the University of Melbourne, Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth Art Gallery. Traces of Displacement uncovered stories of persecution, creativity, and resilience, and the experiences of displaced artists and makers, forming part of a major AHRC-funded research project: Understanding Displacement Aesthetics, led by Professor Ana Carden Coyne with Dr. Chrisoula Lionis and Dr. Angeliki Roussou (see separate case study here).
Goals
Afrocats x Whitworth formally launched in February 2022 to reimagine how the Whitworth connects with local families in a more accessible, inclusive and equitable way. Using creative engagement to tackle social exclusion in Greater Manchester, this partnership aims to ensure that the gallery is a space of sanctuary.
Afrocats, like the Whitworth, is driven by a mission to use art and creative experiences to drive positive social change. All gallery staff and volunteers have been given the opportunity to attend Refugee and Asylum Seeker Awareness training with Manchester City of Sanctuary, part of a city-wide programme hosted at the gallery and attended by engagement staff, the visitor team and volunteers.
The institution has provided training with Afrocats for all of the front of house visitor team alongside key members of each team across the gallery. Notably this has included providing signage in different languages, volunteers wearing badges to share the different languages they speak, providing petty cash for volunteers and participants to claim back travel receipts, increasing staff awareness around people’s cultural needs and forming an access group to progress its offer with audio guides, QR codes, ear loops, British Sign Language (BSL) and exhibition accessibility.
In addition, free training has been made available to staff and volunteers through the Manchester Metropolitan University RISE Programme using a self-study pack for working with people seeking asylum, and this is now part of all new starter training. This sits alongside Stand with Refugees Healing Spaces, trauma-informed training.
“Healing Spaces Training was highly insightful and very well delivered. It was easy to follow and to take out actionable points. As a volunteer, I’m grateful for this opportunity offered by the Whitworth.” (volunteer who has taken part in the training)
The institution continues to organise regular training and learning activities for staff, volunteers, partners and freelancers to inform them about the process of seeking sanctuary.
Participatory considerations and practices
The gallery has had sanctuary-seeker volunteers as part of its programme since engaging with Safety for Sisters in 2017. Through its New North New South exhibition it has had regular volunteers with the organisation and some who it has supported through Leave to Remain. It has worked with many sanctuary seekers who have volunteered through Afrocats, Manchester City of Sanctuary and Community Arts North West programmes, who it continues to support across its programmes and create opportunities appropriate to their interests, with references and job applications. Through the Afrocats programme it has supported young people to train and learn through the work of artists.
Project outcomes
During the Summer of 2023, the Whitworth was funded by Art Fund and NESTA to run a pilot project to explore how playful museum interventions can enhance and increase parent-child interactions to support early years development goals for families living in disadvantage. It worked with Afrocats to engage 24 families from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds as recent new arrivals to the city who have had a really positive experience, with one dad commenting “being in this environment will broaden my sons’ horizons.” Other feedback includes:
“Sometimes we don’t have time for ourselves, but it’s made a difference to me because I don’t say I’m good or bad – it’s made me realise I can create something.”
“Loved it. We rely on things like this during half term and to learn about different cultures”
“I enjoyed the atmosphere in todays class. Lovely open space and it invites childrens participation. Fun and friendly staff make it a lovely experience”
“Enjoyed how fun and active the session was. Loved that everyone was invited to get involved. Gave the children so much confidence to join in and be free.”
“Our experience today has been wonderful and that is all down to the staff here. Afrocats have been wonderful in showing us lots of different thing from dance to drumming to arts and crafts inspired by the amazing Barbara Walker and spent time telling us just how amazing this lady is and what inspired her work and how she came to make and want to change through her art! Wonderful exhibition and will definitely be returning in the future to see what else you guys have”
“Volunteering for the first time with the Manchester-based charity Afrocats at the Whitworth Art Gallery on their half-term collaboration was both a memorable and impactful experience. From the start, I felt welcomed and part of the group, and we began with an arts and crafts session where children and families took part in activities on the theme of ‘home’ inspired by Thai artist Jakkai Siributr’s current exhibition ‘There’s No Place’” “the theme of ‘home’, central to our identities, resonated with me and in my view created a shared space of understanding.”
The institution organised a takeover of the gallery to celebrate Refugee Week with previous events including performances from Sanctuary Sounds Choir, Music Action International, cultural dance with Afrocats, artists’ tours of its Traces of Displacement exhibition, and a film showing of Samos on Fire, about a group of musicians in a refugee camp in Samos.
The Whitworth is part of the University of Sanctuary Network who meet regularly to share opportunities for sanctuary seekers in the city. Its Volunteering and Civic Engagement Manager recently presented during one of these meetings about the various offers it has made to sanctuary seekers at the gallery and the training it has provided to staff and volunteers.
The organisation is committed to work with Manchester City of Sanctuary – offering space in kind, supporting their volunteers and events like the Big Conversations and Refugee Week events. They provide a Prayer room space, quiet rooms and spaces plus snacks, drinks and out of pocket expenses for volunteers. It continues to offer ongoing volunteer roles and opportunities to all sanctuary seekers through its regular partners Manchester City of Sanctuary, Afrocats and Community Arts North West.
Reflections
The institution has a responsibility to interrogate its collective history, and to seek the continuous structural change necessary to address inequalities based on identity including class, disability, gender, race, religion and sexual orientation. The Whitworth is an anti-racist institution committed to using its resources to address both historic and current racial inequality and violence.
Looking to the future
The Whitworth have has recently received funding from Youth Music and ACE to support a three-year project celebrating and championing creative practice with two-to-four-year-olds. It is partnering with Afrocats once again to invite families, referred by them, to nurture language development, social-emotional growth and confidence in young children who have faced barriers or experiences of displacement.
It has continued its partnership with Afrocats for over two years now and have has recently been successful in applying for Arts Council England (ACE) funding to be able to extend its family activities alongside Afrocats.
“I am delighted that Afrocats secured Arts Council England funding to continue our impactful work in collaboration with Whitworth. It will allow us to keep offering this exciting programme. But the benefits go much further. “This project fosters impressive growth for our organisations and the facilitators we train. By working in an intergenerational setting with diverse backgrounds, these facilitators gain valuable skills to propel their careers. “In times of austerity, we need families to have access to welcoming and enriching spaces. As the cost-of-living crisis continues, the people we work with have even less opportunities to get out of their homes and experience the world. I am delighted that this partnership with the Whitworth has enabled us to raise the aspirations of the people we work with and provide opportunities for them that all too often feel out of reach”” – Magdalen Bartlett, chief executive officer of Afrocats
The institution’s work will continue to support in raising awareness, providing volunteer placements, and training for staff and learning through its partnerships, to work with its collections, exhibitions, programming, and building. Collaborating with local charities and organisations such as Manchester City of Sanctuary, Afrocats, Community Arts North West, Community Arts NK and artists through our its Traces of Displacement exhibition, it aims to create a place of care, consideration and community.
It will continue to work with and alongside its partners Manchester City of Sanctuary to provide a safe environment and lasting opportunities for the sanctuary seekers in its city. Providing workshops, space, time, resources, and care as a sanctuary for those who need it most. It realises that the arts play a vital role in creating a culture of welcome and shaping the kind of society we hope to live in. It is committed as a whole gallery, from our its operation team to collections team and engagement teams, to use the power of art, and creativity and celebrate the contribution of people seeking sanctuary.
Learn more
https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=71034
https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=70986
https://gatheringofstrangers.co.uk/2023/04/19/afrocats-x-wild-whitworth/
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLTBmgutAIf
https://www.familyarts.co.uk/shortlist-the-whitworth-afrocats-x-whitworth/
See also: Case study – The Cultural History of War, University of Manchester
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