Cultivating spaces for extraordinary artists

Curators of the future

Being disabled in the visual arts sector has presented galleries with serious challenges. But Mike Layward is optimistic about programmes which promote much needed change.

There is an anarchist saying – ‘we don’t want the crumbs from the loaf, we want the bakery’. So how do we as a sector implement real change around diversity so it is not just breadcrumbs but deeper structural change?

For decades this conversation has been discussed, dissected, consulted, implemented, started, stopped, swept under the carpet and then rediscovered after a few years and started again. This stop/start process has particularly frustrated diverse artists and activists and has left a bitter taste that deep change will never happen, will be tokenistic or will not happen in our lifetimes.

Read the full article in Arts Professional.

Anna Berry Exhibition at MAC, Birmingham. A white gallery space with people looking at the artworks on the walls and centrally placed display case. In the foreground, a man in a navy jumper and dark jeans photographs artist, Tanya Raabe-Webber.