In October 2017, students from Westminster Academy worked in collaboration with Collective Creativity (artists Jay Bernard, Evan Ifekoya, Raisa Kabir and Raju Rage).
Over two weeks the group carried out research in the Church Street neighbourhood, asking questions about surveillance, police brutality and the future of policing. Together the group produced a soundscape called Dear Police: The Sound of the People, which explores the central question: Why do the police treat us differently?
Recorded at Red Bus Studios, this track features personal reflections, archival material and original music. The group presented the piece at a final two hour event with activist groups Black Lives Matter UK, Green and Black Cross and Sisters Uncut, who answered questions and offered advice, solidarity and support.
The Serpentine Galleries Youth Forum is run in partnership with Westminster Academy, located on Harrow Road in West London, and commissioned artists. The project forms part of the school’s Year 10 internship programme. Young people aged 14–15 years old work collaboratively with artists to identify issues and create a platform for change.
In autumn 2017, the Serpentine Youth Forum were: Abdellah, Abderraouf, Alex, Ashraf, Jay, Jo, Jordan, Evan, Maram, Mustafa, Naseem, Omar, Pharrell, Raisa, Raju, Tibebe, Tykeze, Urva, Wawa and Waleed.
Collective Creativity
Collective Creativity (Queer, Trans* Intersex People of Colour) is an artist collective based in London which aims to create radical, grass roots space for QTIPOC to interrogate the politics of art in relation to queer identity, institutional racism, and anti-colonialism. CC is dedicated to creating space for conversations that challenge institutional racism and white supremacy within a cultural framework. We are concerned with decolonising our art educations, unlearning the histories that replicate the colonial gaze, re-formatting our own art educations and a re-positioning of this canon by re-centring artists and cultural producers of colour.
Curated by:
Alex Thorp, Curator, Education
Joanna Slusarczyk, Assistant Curator, Education
