Social Practice Social is a monthly peer support group for artists, programmers, community organisers, activists, and others working with participation, collaboration, public space, or social change.
For June’s session, art educator Jane Trowell shares some of her image-based research processes into Whiteness and coloniality in this field. Jane will share three European art historical images, on display in British institutions, of white privileged women in positions of racist power - as a starting point for discussion on how they are still embodied in contemporary oppressive structures within art, art engagement and art education. We will use breakout groups, as well as whole group discussion, to talk about ways to intervene in the reproduction of white privilege and work towards equity.
This event will take place online via Zoom, and live captioning is available. Please register here to receive the meeting information. Contact rebecca@weareprimary.org with any questions or access or to discuss access requirements.
This session is appropriate to people wishing to challenge their own racism and anti-blackness, or challenge how racism manifests itself in society, specifically in the arts and art engagement/education. The insights and testimony of those with lived experience of racism will be given priority if they wish to share.
Jane Trowell is a white art teacher, facilitator, curator and activist who has worked with arts-activist group Platform since the 1990s. She also works in teacher education in art and design and teaches /facilitates learning in schools, art college, museums and galleries, and on the street. Jane is currently doing a PhD on Whiteness and Coloniality in Art Education at the University of Nottingham.
The images that Jane will be discussing are:
Henrietta of Lorraine accompanied by a Page, Antony Van Dyck, 1634, Kenwood House London
The East Offering its Riches to Britannia, Roma Spiridione, 1778, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Whitehall, London
The Secret of England’s Greatness, Thomas Barker, 1853, National Portrait Gallery, London
Jane at her desk in 1984/5. Photo: Catherine Armstrong