When

Where

Summary

A World Refugee Day Counterpoints Arts Learning Lab in association with the Migration Museum Project and the Migrants Rights Network, part of Counterpoints Arts’ dis/placed programme.

20 June 2015⎪1pm – 3pm⎪Free admission, book on Eventbrite
The Ditch, Shoreditch Town Hall, 380 Old Street, London EC1V 9LT

This Learning Lab will take the form of a moderated panel with short presentations and open discussion.

A recent article by Guardian journalist, Jonathan Jones, sets the agenda for this conversation when he declares that ‘art’s response to migrant drownings should be way more aggressive’. Jones suggests that ‘the scale of our cruelty, the true consequences of all the rhetoric that de-humanises migrants, have become so lethally clear, surely art on such a theme should be less equivocal, more angry?’

What might a creative arts response be and can it ever act alone?

This Learning Lab brings together a mix of people who are actively engaged and interested in making urgent interventions in the representation and communication of the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean. It will showcase examples from creative practitioners, commentators and researchers who are telling the story of the root causes of the migrant crisis through collaborative storytelling methods, media platforms and broadcasting channels.

The aim is to set up a network of interested artists, journalists, activists, advocates, academics and policymakers with a view to sharing ideas and charting potential collaborations and storytelling partnerships.

The Learning Lab threads its way through Counterpoints Arts’ dis/placed exhibition opening multiple spaces for interdisciplinary reflection, creative exchange, cross-sector learning and collaboration.

Full details of all Learning Labs

Speakers

Panel participants include (with more updates to come):

Preethi Nallu
Print and multimedia journalist who has reported from the Middle East, Asia and Europe. Focusing on human rights and development issues, she writes for Al Jazeera, TIME, Newsweek and other international outlets. Her most recent work for UNHCR highlights the plight of refugees and migrants at sea. She is currently working on a multimedia project called ‘Parallel Journeys: Seasons of Migration’ with photographer and writer, Iason Athanasiadis.

Ruben Anderson
Anthropologist/postdoctoral research fellow at the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, London School of Economics and author of Illegality Inc: Clandestine Migration and the Business of Bordering Europe, 2014

Benjamin Dix
Director of Positive Negatives Ltd, which uses multimedia and traditional forms of art to represent global conflict, humanitarian and migration issues to wide and diverse audiences – www.positivenegatives.org

Maurice Wren
Chief Executive at the British Refugee Council. Maurice was Director of Asylum Aid since 2002, having previously held senior management roles at Shelter and the Housing Associations Charitable Trust.