UPDATE: Voices will be re-shown in Morecambe, outside More Music, More Music, 13-17 Devonshire Rd, West End, Morecambe LA3 1QT

28th March – 18th April 2021

Supported by Lancashire Youth Challenge

Voices: Sparking Conversations in Art was an exhibition of work by three Black artists in outdoor locations across Lancaster city centre. It responds to Black Lives Matter and seeks to continue conversations about representation using art in our city.

This exhibition was curated by the Changemakers, a group of young people aged 13-17 who live in Lancaster. This group led the project, making all the really important decisions like selecting the artists, considering what forms the exhibition might take, and deciding on locations.

Here are some of the things the group did...

We got to know each other as a group, because even though we live in the same city, most of us hadn't met before.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

This is a group agreement we made in our first session.

This is a reworking of the Mona Lisa by the Changemakers group as we had a conversation about art

We looked for art works that we liked, and thought about where art and activism cross over.

We talked about the fact that most of the art we see in galleries in the UK is made by white artists, and that it is important to make sure this changes.

This picture shows protesters outside the National Gallery, who are drawing attention to the lack of representation of Black artists.

We looked at lots of artwork by different Black artists who are at the start of their careers across the UK. We decided that we wanted to work with Habib Hajallie, Herfa Thompson and Sumuyya Khader because we thought their work was interesting, powerful and beautiful.

How were we going to show the work when we have to stay safe and keep to lockdown rules?


Where would we put the artwork so that people would see it?


How would we make sure people knew about what we were doing?

We had to make a lot of important decisions:

We decided that it is important to us that people who live in our city see the artworks. This meant printing them and installing them in different locations across the city.

We had a go at drawing together

UPDATE: Voices will be re-shown in Morecambe, outside More Music, More Music, 13-17 Devonshire Rd, West End, Morecambe LA3 1QT

28th March – 18th April 2021

These are some posters and a map that some of the changemakers group designed for our first exhibition in Lancaster, December 2020.