Abstract

Special collections at UAL support learning and teaching through direct engagement with material culture. There is ample evidence to suggest how ‘object-based learning’ (Paris, 2002) generates conversations, addresses troublesome knowledge and develops skills and critical thinking. But what – and who – is on the table is all important. This hands-on workshop explores how objects can be mobilised to challenge, expand and decolonise the curriculum and generate a sense of community and belonging.

Session and activities

This hands-on, practical session will draw on a recent research project exploring representation in UAL’s contemporary collections and equitable ways of gathering a more diverse body of material culture for mobilisation in our classrooms in support of learning and teaching. The project was developed and delivered in conjunction with a paid advisory board of BIPOC graduates who challenged our historical inequities, lack of transparency and collecting practices, and suggested new approaches for the future. Participants in this session will undertake an object-based learning activity centred on recent acquisitions made by and chosen for the collection by UAL graduates who represent marginalised voices in our community, from race to neurodiversity via queerness and class. The activity will be led by those impacted by these intersectional issues and used to generate a conversation around belonging, representation, and diversification of the curriculum. Participants should take away from the session a visceral understanding of the difficulties experienced by marginalised students at UAL and an understanding of how objects can be used to platform a diverse range of artists and makers and generate a sense of community, respect and belonging at UAL. We anticipate that the session will be stimulating and potentially challenging, as many of our students still experience issues of racism, classism and heteronormativity while studying at UAL. Participants should come with broad shoulders, an open mind and a willingness to listen and change. The workshop will be limited to 18 participants and will take place in the CSM Museum & Study Collection’s teaching space.