This post was originally written by Dr Photini Vrikki and published on the website.
Creative Interruptions PI, Sarita Malik, gave a talk at an event on Arts and Inequality at Tate Modern on 20 June. The talk was part of a workshop developed through a new partnership between Tate and The Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (AFSEE) based at the LSE’s International Inequality Institute. Sarita’s talk focused on issues of racialised inequality and art and the ways in which the Creative Interruptions team is addressing the issue.
The workshop featured short presentations by artists, curators, activists and academics as prompts for wider discussions amongst participants. Other contributors included David A. Bailey (curator and photographer), Teresa Cisneros (curator and educator), Jeannette Ehlers (artist), Adam Kaasa (Royal College of Art), Amal Khalaf (Serpentine Galleries).
The worksop dealt with questions regarding the struggles for equality and how they continue to engage with issues of class, race, gender, sexuality, and ability. It explored the specific roles that art might play in tackling inequalities, the ways in which artists document or make visible forms of inequality and what impact might their work have in shaping political and economic debates in these areas. Other questions focused on the ways in which artists and institutions might be able work with communities and activists to reduce inequalities and in what ways might art and its institutions perpetuate inequalities.