The Centre for the Cultural History of War, University of Manchester

About The Centre for the Cultural History of War

The Centre for the Cultural History of War (University of Manchester) brings together academics, early career researchers and research-led teaching. Research focuses on cultural responses to war, conflict and the Holocaust; humanitarianism; memory and commemoration; childhood and youth; heroes and heroism; refugees; exhibitions, visual artists and cultural representations.

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About the project

The project aimed to understand how and in what forms ‘displacement aesthetics’ emerged in response to the Second World War and its aftermath, especially in art and craft practices, exhibitions and museums, and UN-sponsored cultural work. Challenging the patterns and practices of ‘displacement aesthetics’, the project also turned to work with artists in the contemporary art sphere. It sought to amplify the voices of creative people from backgrounds of displacement. It also examined how they offer new ways of seeing not necessarily defined by or confined to the performance of refugeedom or the experience of displacement. An important feature of this work was to apprehend the intersectional and career barriers that many artists encounter in their new home. The project generated collaborative and co-curatorial opportunities for practitioners to have a stronger presence and creative impact in the arts industry and in shaping the interpretation of collections that would have a long-term legacy in the artworld.

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Project context

The project had 3 strands that connected the past:

1. Historical and Contemporary Forms of ‘Displacement Aesthetics’ with present day contexts in the art industry and in artists’ careers. Visualisations of forced displacement, the cultural figure of ‘the refugee’ as it emerged in the first half of the 20th century, and conditions of refugeedom lasting into the present-day.
2. Art-Making and Art Galleries – examining local and international art collections and artistic practices, and their interventions into ‘displacement aesthetics’. By partnering with Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth Art Gallery, the project sought to make curatorial and infrastructural changes in the art institution by collaborating with artists from backgrounds of displacement and creating opportunities for career development and decision-making.
3. Artists Careers – as leaders and experts but not as participants – increasing opportunities for careers, and for their expertise to be heard and meaningfully impacting in an institutional setting. E.g. a creative and social entrepreneur programme for artists and curators (delivered by arts NGO In Place of War (IPOW)); leading to collaborative work on collections research and developing a suite of activities with artists and producers, including art-making, co-curation, advisory and leadership roles, and major and permanent intervention in a gallery space as well as a temporary exhibition. The project recognised lived experience as expertise and integrated that knowledge into museum infrastructures for future users of collections.

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Goals: Rethinking the Grand Tour & Traces of Displacement

• Create a platform for artists from backgrounds of refugeedom to actively engage with historical and contemporary artworks.
• Enable artists to challenge dominant narratives and contribute new interpretations of displacement and migration.
• Empowerment Through Artistic Expression and Leadership
• Led by four facilitators, guiding artists to develop creative responses that were exhibited alongside existing collections.
• Support agency by enabling artists to control and shape how their experiences and perspectives were represented in the gallery space eg language used; design.
• Encouraged artistic autonomy, empowering individuals to see their lived experiences as valuable contributions to the art world.
• Rethinking the Grand Tour – Manchester Art Gallery
• Examined colonial and exclusionary histories within the Grand Tour concept through a critical lens.
• Enable artists to reinterpret and reconstruct narratives, adding personal and collective histories to the conversation.
• Resulted in the exhibition of newly created expressions that directly responded to existing works in the collection.
• Traces of Displacement – Whitworth Art Gallery
• Established a focus group of community leaders from diverse backgrounds to explore the representations of displacement in art.
• Developed multi-layered responses to artworks, providing visitors with deeper, more nuanced ways to engage with the exhibition.
• Shifted audience perception by integrating reflections from the displaced communities, making the exhibition more interactive and thought-provoking.
• Transforming Gallery Engagement & Audience Experience
• Redefined how visitors interact with exhibitions—moving beyond passive viewing to immersive engagement.
• Encouraged audiences to not only see the artwork but also reflect on the lived experiences that shaped responses to them.
• Introduced a new curatorial approach where exhibitions evolve through dialogue with the communities they represent.
• Created legacies that integrate new knowledge of experts into the gallery infrastructure such as databases, where that knowledge is now freely available to the public and to future curators.

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Participatory considerations and practices

In both Rethinking the Grand Tour and Traces of Displacement, the projects were deeply rooted in lived experience, ensuring that voices from forced migration backgrounds shaped their narratives.

For Rethinking the Grand Tour, four lead artists, all from forced migration backgrounds, worked collaboratively to reinterpret the historical Grand Tour through the lens of displacement and migration. Their lived experiences played a vital role in shaping the exhibition, bringing new perspectives to the collection and challenging traditional narratives. The project actively involved refugee and asylum seeker artists, who contributed their own interpretations and responses, ensuring their voices were heard throughout the process. The exhibition was not just a reconsideration of history but a powerful act of reclaiming space within Manchester Art Gallery’s collection.

In Traces of Displacement at the Whitworth Art Gallery, a focus group of creative artists and community leaders from diverse backgrounds of displacement conducted collections research, provided reinterpretation narratives of the objects selected for display, and also generated new information that augmented the database for future users and curatorial projects. In workshops, their discussions extended beyond analyzing existing works; they actively created responses, offering new ways of understanding displacement from personal and wider perspectives. Through collaboration and co-curation processes over a long period of time, where genuine trust and relationship-building is created, the groups agreed that even using the term participation or ‘participant’ underscores inequalities and power differentials that need to be overcome and challenged. Therefore, the language and approach shifted from the initial ‘focus group’ in an advisory role to emphasise the agency of co-curators. Power-sharing, we learned, needs to advance opportunities for artists and producers to undertake more responsibility in leadership roles, which also requires flexibility across institutions. The role of the cultural producers with lived experience was essential in the two exhibition projects. The diversity of researchers and co-curators ensured that when visitors experienced the exhibition, they encountered multiple perspectives, prompting them to reflect on their own interpretations of displacement and its historical and contemporary significance.

Both projects centred the voices of those with lived experience, ensuring that forced migration narratives were not only included but integral to shaping the exhibitions’ meaning and impact. Making artistic responses to the collection was also a major way of artistic voices providing new ways of understanding the historic tropes of displacement that lurk in the collection.

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Project outcomes

For the artists, several outcomes included being issued a Certificate of the CASE Programme, which is validated by Manchester University. Registering CICs e.g. DIPACT and Black Futures. Building Confidence to take the next steps in career paths. Gaining more opportunities; having work publicised and elevated in a major gallery space.

Other artists were inspired by the work – there were also public programmes associated with both projects including with schools, disability groups, and migrant groups, and open-call public education events led by the artists in the gallery space. Creating a model of collaboration that connects artists to institutions and enables them to have their voices embedded in a research project. Bringing often marginalised and isolated displaced artists into a system that frequently only wants to engage with them in Refugee Week, and for the rest of the time relegates them to the margins. Both galleries – Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth Art Gallery – were awarded City of Sanctuary Awards due to a body of work including these collaborations, which recognises organisations that go above and beyond to welcome people seeking sanctuary.

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Reflections

The success of the collaborative work (we do not use the term participatory or participant as our diverse group rejected that term) in Rethinking the Grand Tour and Traces of Displacement was evident in how deeply the lived experiences of people from forced migration backgrounds shaped the exhibitions. The engagement of lead artists with forced migration backgrounds ensured that the narratives presented were not only authentic but also challenged traditional perspectives. The involvement of art leaders in the interpretation process created a layered, evolving dialogue that extended beyond the exhibitions themselves.

However, challenges emerged, particularly in terms of access to collections and the time and resources that conservation require to make mining the collection work for both the institution and the co-curators. The depth of engagement required for such collaborative work often exceeded the available project timelines and staffing needs, making it difficult to explore certain narratives and objects as fully as they deserved. However this very problematic became the source of two artistic interventions, which remain on the gallery wall. This enabled a legacy and public discussion to engage with issues of colonialism and extractivist histories as well as wider issues of who collections are for and how they should be made available in the future, thus enabling a conversation around the globally, nationally and locally recognised attempt to decolonise collections and museums. Additionally, sustained funding and institutional support are crucial for ensuring that projects like these are not one-off initiatives but ongoing efforts to engage refugees and asylum seekers in cultural spaces.

Funding is also needed for artists to be able to educate the gallery going public on how and why change is made in the gallery system, but also in how the redisplay and reinterpretation of the canon of European art history through the lens of migration will enhance their knowledge of history and the present day.

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Looking to the future

Looking ahead, the continuation of such projects is vital. Providing more opportunities for artists and collaborators from forced migration backgrounds to lead and shape cultural narratives will not only enrich public understanding but also create real change. If more time and resources were available, further development of these collaborative models—through extended workshops, deeper community engagement, and long-term collaborations—would enhance their impact and ensure a lasting shift in representation within galleries and museums.

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Additional reflections

Both Rethinking the Grand Tour and Traces of Displacement were groundbreaking in their approach, not only engaging creatives and communities from forced migration backgrounds but also positioning them as leaders in shaping institutional narratives. These projects went beyond participation but involved real and genuine collaboration—they actively shifted power dynamics, placing artists with lived experience in leadership roles where they could influence the way history and displacement are represented in cultural spaces.

One of the most significant outcomes was the impact on institutional structures. By centering forced migration narratives within Manchester Art Gallery and Whitworth Art Gallery, these projects contributed to a deeper and more meaningful shift in how institutions engage with communities. This wasn’t just about representation; it was about structural change—creating spaces where refugees and asylum seekers are not just subjects of exhibitions but are the ones leading, curating, and driving the discourse.

Furthermore, these projects demonstrated the power of visual art as a tool for reinterpreting history and amplifying voices that have often been marginalized. They fostered meaningful collaborations between artists, institutions, and communities, proving that collaboration when done with intentionality and leadership from those with lived experience, can create lasting change.

The success of these projects highlights the need for more sustained opportunities of this kind. Moving forward, it is essential that cultural institutions continue to create leadership roles for artists from forced migration backgrounds, such as in being hired as consultants, producers, and community curators, ensuring that their voices are not only included but are central to shaping the future of arts and heritage.

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Learn more 

https://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/history/research/centres/cultural-history-of-war/displacement-aesthetics/

www.dipact.co.uk

Writer and artist: Mahboobeh Rajabi

See also: case study – Afrocats and the Whitworth