The Birmingham Art Scene: Yasmyn Nettle The Birmingham arts scene is run and controlled by white people in positions of power and has been for decades. This is what white supremacy and neo-colonialism looks like.
A random pixel was chosen from the cheek or forehead of publicly available photographs of the white directors, curators and assistant curators who make up the arts institutions in Birmingham. The pixels were then assigned Hex Codes and the resulting palette is collected here.
Why are Birmingham's arts institutions refusing to hire Black curators in long term positions of employment and very occasionally hiring non-white curators? The contemporary arts scene in Birmingham is not for Black and Global Majority curators. With opportunities few and far between, we are asked instead to contribute for free as trustees or board members — our networks and ideas extracted from us; our communities used as testing grounds for saviour projects. We are often the lowest paid and the most precariously employed, if hired at all. We are told we are ‘difficult to work with’ and regularly hear talk about Black/Global Majority artists in the same vein.
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