Victoria D. Alexander, Professor of Sociology and Arts Management in ICCE has published an article on legitimation in artistic fields with colleague Ann Bowler (University of Delaware), in Poetics, a leading journal in the empirical study of culture, the media and the arts.

Alexander, Victoria D. and Anne E. Bowler (2020). ‘Aesthetic Fields and the Legitimation of Outsider Art: The Persistence of Contestation in Legitimated Fields,’ Poetics, online-first version, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304422X20302229?via%3Dihub

American artist William Edmondson (1874 – 1951) was born one of six children to formerly enslaved parents on a farm in Tennessee, he held jobs as a railroad worker, a farmhand, and after an injury, a janitor in Nashville. Edmondson began sculpting in the latter part of his life, in the early 1930s.

A recent cover of Poetics

His first carvings were tombstones for the local Black community. He worked in limestone, using salvaged material from discarded curbstones or demolished buildings to create religious statuary, animals, everyday characters (nurses, schoolteachers, and preachers), and famous personages (Eleanor Roosevelt and boxing champions Joe Lewis and Jack Johnson). Many of his sculptures have thick, rectangular blocks as a base because they were originally produced as funeral statuary. Initially considered a folk artist, then an Outsider artist, he is now recognised as one of the great masters of 20th century American sculpture. His story underpins the theoretical examination of legitimacy processes and legitimacy struggles in arts fields.

Abstract:
Legitimation is often theorized as a form of consensus and implicitly treated as an end-state that obtains after the unfolding of a process. Conflict and disagreement are recognized as part of legitimation processes; however, scholarship emphasizes consensus-building over contestation.

‘William Edmondson at work’ (1937). Photo by Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Archives of American Art

Moreover, as legitimacy processes are always ongoing and never final, such contestation can persist even in legitimated fields. We bring together Baumann’s (2007) general theory of artistic legitimation and filed theories (Bourdieu 1993; Fligstein and McAdam, 2012) in order to develop an approach to artistic legitimacy that accounts for conflict and contestation as much as consensus in legitimacy processes. We use a historical case study to build theory on legitimacy struggles in aesthetic fields. Specifically, we examine the legitimation of Outsider art, an aesthetic field defined as work by artists who produce outside established art worlds and who come from disadvantaged social worlds. Artist William Edmondson serves as an exemplar to ground our discussion of the Outsider field as we focus on resources, opportunity spaces, and legitimating discourses (Baumann, 2007) over time, to produce a multilevel and multifaceted approach to legitimation in aesthetic fields. In this way, our approach calls attention to ongoing legitimacy struggles in legitimated fields. We hypothesize that legitimacy struggles are more common in fields where judgement criteria are ambiguous, multiple players have a stake, and/or where resources are changing.

Why does copyright exist? What is the difference between a patent and a trade secret? Why do economists both love and hate Intellectual Property (IP)?

Our colleague Dr. Nicola Searle has created a series of online videos as a resource for students and researchers interested in the economics of IP. Three videos offer viewers insights into the economic justification and impacts of IP.

Introduction to Economics of Intellectual Property (50 minutes)
https://vimeo.com/463396616/20ff221961

Key words: economics, intellectual property, innovation

An introduction to the economics of intellectual property for students and researchers. The talk starts with the basics of IP rights, the economic justification of IP and finishes with a discussion on valuations. Viewers will have an understanding of how IP works, what it means for economies and be able to critique different philosophical and valuation approaches to IP.

Introduction to Economics of Trade Secrets (30 minutes)
https://vimeo.com/463396045/8f8a80b7c5

Key words: economics, trade secrets, innovation, confidential business information

An overview of the economics of trade secrets developed for researchers and students. Designed with for an audience with some, but limited understanding of economics and IP, the talk takes the viewer through examples of trade secrets, trends in their use and policy, key questions, their interaction with innovation policy and future considerations. Viewers will be able to better critique policy and use of trade secrets.

Business Models and Copyright Seminar (50 minutes)
https://vimeo.com/463397546/fd6c1d462a

Key words: business models, copyright, digital media

This presentation examines the relationship between copyright and business models in the digital media industry. Based on a research paper, the talk examines the context of business models in digital media, and the changing role of copyright. It also contains an in-depth analysis of the business-model-copyright narrative. Viewers will be able to critique policy debaters.

We hope you find them useful.

@DrNSearle

Amy Lamé

Amy Lamé, the night czar of London, was the special guest at the induction event for ICCE students. Taking place online, the Covid safe induction week was kicked off with a bang. Starting off with Amy addressing the serious effect the pandemic has had on London’s nightlife, it turned into an engaging discussion between the night czar and ICCE’s very international body of students and staff.

Sharing her passion for community activism and LGBTQ+ culture, Amy explained that the fight for equality and opportunities for all is what drives her on.

Questions ranged from museums contribution to the night time economy, night work, noise complaints and live music venues, drugs and women’s safety, to Amy’s background as a performer, runner of nightclubs, writer and broadcaster.

When asked by Director of ICCE, Gerald Lidstone, what has given her the most fun at night, Amy’s perhaps somewhat unexpected highlight was the opening of the night tube, when she was standing in the front cab with the driver picking up tipsy London revellers wearing their best Christmas jumpers, making their way back home on the Piccadilly line.

It was a wonderful welcoming to our ICCE students, many of them new to London. Amy, originally from the United States, explained that she moved to London as it was a place where she felt that she could truly be and express herself, and she hoped that students would find London to be that place for them, too. “our city has a world of possibilities”, she told the students, “The values of London and Londoners are of diversity and celebration of difference. Everybody can find a home here.”

Written by Sara Linden, Director, MA Events and Experience Management. 28th September, 2020

Dr Cecilia Dinardi, Senior Lecturer in ICCE, participated as a consultant in the research and writing of a new policy handbook, commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank and produced by BOP Consulting, in partnership with the Korean Poverty Fund.

The Handbook critically analyses what makes for ‘success’ in CCI-led urban revitalisation, examining what works and what does not, the key components, strategies and approaches of selected projects, and their context-specific challenges. It is a practical and accessible guide on how to use the cultural and creative industries within urban revitalisation projects, particularly those in downtown areas and those that incorporate built or intangible heritage. It is based on a thorough analysis of 35 international case studies – from Mexico, Brazil and Portugal, to Indonesia, Kenya and the UK – , as well as expert interviews, a policy workshop discussion, and a broad literature review of empirical evidence from projects around the world. It details how CCI-led revitalisation projects, such as Porto Digital in Recife, Mercado de Santa Caterina in Barcelona or the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, can address specific socio-economic needs related to declining historic city centre areas and analyses how projects have achieved their success (as well as outlining what issues they face, such as those relating to the exclusions generated by gentrification).

The Handbook distils the lessons from this extensive body of practice and policy development, to provide guiding principles and advice for policymakers interested in how to integrate cultural and creative development within wider urban sustainability efforts. It is intended particularly to those policymakers and urban practitioners working in Latin America and the Caribbean but will be of interest to a wider audience of students, scholars, and practitioners.

Creative and Cultural Industries in Urban Revitalization, a practice based handbook is available online for free in both English and Spanish.

All images taken from Creative and Cultural Industries in Urban Revitalization, a practice based handbook.

photo (c) John Cairns

On Wednesday 5th August at 7pm BST, there will be a screening of the documentary: “Decolonising Cultural Spaces: The Living Cultures Project”, followed by a live Medicine Festival Zoom Q&A and panel discussion.

The Q&A panel discussion will be hosted by Adrian Kawaley-Lathan, Creative Director of the Bertha Foundation, and will feature Maasai delegates Samewel Nangiria, Amos Leuka and Evelyn Paraboy Kanei, Nick Lunch, co-founder and director of InsightShare and Laura Van Broekhoven, Director of Pitt Rivers Museum.

Further details on how to register can be found here, via the Meeting Registration link.

The Living Cultures project started in 2017, when participatory video (PV) company InsightShare invited Maasai community community leader Samwel Nangiria, alongside other indigenous leaders from Nagaland and North West Mexico to a retreat in the UK to explore the potential for crating a movement, or network of autonomous indigenous media hubs. Objects that were not on display in the main collection from the regions from which the delegation originated were brought into the research visitor space at the museum for them to see. This was the point at which Samwel was shocked to find sacred objects from his community that should never have left the families from which they originated. Moreover, there was very little information about the objects, bar the names of the ‘collectors’ and the date at which they were collected or donated to the museum. There were vague guesses at what the objects were on some labels.

Rewinding to 2014: Samwel attended a participatory video workshop hosted by the United Nations in Zanzibar and facilitated by InsightShare. He was so inspired by the potential of PV that he got together with InsightShare and raised resources to run PC workshops in Tanzania with the Maasai community and to train indigenous facilitators, culminating in the establishment of Oltoilo le Maa (voice of the Maasai) video collective. Oltoilo le Maa used PV to document aspects of Maasai culture and record current living practices and Maasai traditions. PC was also used to reunite and engage an increasingly fractured community, ravaged by land rights struggles and abuses ad facing constant threat of displacement. They used PV to challenge policy at parliamentary level, with the community solidly behind them, having contributed their knowledge and their opinions through the PC process [1] .

These struggles continue now. Through Living Cultures, how can we ensure that the narratives of current struggles, as well as documenting past and present ways of life, can be represented and made visible, and the impact between the colonial past and the neoliberal present on the everyday lives of indigenous peoples – in this case the Maasai people – be foregrounded and confronted?

Back to 2017: on his return to Tanzania, Samwel emailed Laura Van Broekhoven, the Director of PRM his concerns and followed this with a participatory video made with Maasai traditional leaders to send to the museum. Subsequently, we raised funds to bring a delegation of five Maasai leaders in 2018 to work with the curators at PRM to begin to realign the narratives – or lack of them – and to discuss the next steps in terms of identifying sacred objects that should never have found their way to the museum, to determine what should be done.

Upon their return home, they united with Maasai leaders from Kenya, trained some more facilitators in participatory video (PV), consulted Maasai spiritual leader Makompo Ole Simel and, using participatory media – PV and radio – conducted a mass community consultation across different Maasai clans. A feedback video of the process was created with the community and screened during the 2020 visit. The video made clear to the UK partners the advice and directions from Makompo Ole Simel and his son, Lemaron Ole Parit joined the delegation to provide advice and guidance using traditional knowledge systems and conduct traditional ceremonies as appropriate.

Now there are aspirations to find the resources for a larger scale research project, potentially reaching other museums in the UK and across Europe, to begin the process of reparation and healing, acknowledge the impact of the colonial past, return particular sacred objects and update and correct the narratives and descriptions associated with museum collections of Maasai artefacts. Watch this space!

Tricia Jenkins is an Associate Lecturer in ICCE, Director of DigiTales, Associate (Portugal) InsightShare.

[1] Maasai Culture (2014): Maasai Culture in Loliondo, InsightShare
Maasai Women’s Rights (2014): Maasai Women’s Rights in Loliondo, Tanzania, InsightShare
Girls Rights to Education (2015): Esipata-e-Eselenkei (Girls’ Rights), InsightShare
Olosho (2015): Olosho / Maasai community land rights struggle in Loliondo, Tanzania, InsightShare
Pride Land (2018): Pride Land / Maasai, InsightShare

We’ve heard from speakers about the ability to respond to the conditions we’re working under – how they have developed in order to do so, or pulled on experiences or skills from the past.

Today is a day when overnight parts of the UK were put back in to Lockdown without notice, or support put in place.

We are postponing our final speaker – Ruth Ibeguna – until things become a little more secure, safe and stable again.

Not the end we’d planned, the end we have, and the end that is somehow fitting.

Although, this isn’t completely the finale of the festival – we will be filming a conversation with Ruth, creating an archive of this Festival and time and a report.

Friday afternoon brings our final two interventions. We’re privileged that they agreed to our invitation.

Two incredible speakers – must listen too-s for anyone interested in investment, the future of the creative economy and social innovation.

We know that these two speakers will carry us forward to create a sustainable, inclusive future.

And a reminder that we have our original art commission showing until the end of 31st July from Ian Gouldstone: Succour Process.

And The Nest Collective, Singing with Nightingales too,

2pm BST, George Gachara in conversation
George will bring his expert insights, humour and knowledge from supporting the creative economy in East Africa through HEVA Fund LLP and as part of the International Advisory Council, of the Policy and Evidence Center, established by the Arts and Humanities Research Council of United Kingdom.

George Gachara is a creative industries expert, arts manager, and the managing parter at HEVA Fund LLP. George is leading a development and business exploration of the creative industries in East Africa, and is providing leadership in creating long-term economic and cultural value in this dynamic sector.

As the managing partner at HEVA Fund, a finance and business support facility for creative industries in East Africa, George has raised and invested over USD 4 million in 40 creative industry businesses in film, music, fashion and gaming, and directly supported over 400 creative practitioners. His hands-on approach allows for intimate understanding of the creative sector and has helped to focus his efforts on proactive planning, analysis and client support.

George has a background in Communication from Daystar University (Kenya), Conflict prevention and Management from the International Peace and Security Institute (Italy), Design Thinking and Problem Solving from the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Private Equity and Venture Capital, Strathmore Business (Kenya). He brings to this role a unique blend of career experiences working in resource development and governance with particular focus in youth development, social innovation and arts management.

George has significantly contributed to the transformation of creative economy policy environment in Kenya and in the region, most notably spearheading the development and finalisation of Kenya’s first film policy white paper (2017). George was recently appointed the advisor on culture, to the Minister of Sports, Culture and Arts in Kenya. He also works closely with the Executive Office of the President to create and implement interventions for cultural, manufacturing and creative economy growth.

In addition to his work at HEVA, George is also a member of the International Advisory Council, of the Policy and Evidence Centre, established by the Arts and Humanities Research Council of United Kingdom, an advisor for the Africa region with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award for Young People, a Global Fellow for the International Youth Foundation and recipient of the International Development Committee’s Outstanding Leadership Award.

George is also an international speaker having addressed over 50 international conferences in 30 countries around the world. George is also a writer, film maker and thought leader.

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Meeting ID: 844 2498 8062
Password: 7FNMYi

Photograph: Christopher Thomond, The Guardian.

3:30pm, Ruth Ibeguana
Ruth will reflect on the work she has done to create new structures that support working-class young people and to ensure greater equality and remove the stigma faced by many.

She will bring her passion and incredible innovative approach to this session for us to hear how she is moving her work forward to areas of need.

After a successful teaching career in state schools in Bradford and Manchester, Ruth found RECLAI, a Manchester-based charity supporting working class young people into leadership positions. Ruth used her platform as RECLAIM CEO for 11 years to campaign nationally with young people and their communities for greater levels of equality and to remove the stigma faced by many disadvantaged communities.

She was named by Virgin as one of the top six women change-makers globally and is an Ashoka Fellow. She is the Founder of The Roots Programme, an initiative to bring influencers from vastly different communities together to learn from each other and increase levels of compassion in our leaders. Ruth is also the Founder of ReKindle, a new supplementary school opening in September 2021 in South Manchester focused around providing a soulful education to young defiant critical thinkers.

Ruth was recently named by British Airways as one of the 100 Modern Britons and runs a training consultancy called Northern Soul.

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Meeting ID: 875 4867 8184
Passcode: 5AgqZs

Succor Process by Ian Gouldstone continues.

Our morning sees two interventions from practitioner leaders in Uganda. Shedding light in to the contemporary art, hub and festival scene there. We gain insights in to the impact of the pandemic on the arts scene there and hear about the activism that has been in response to global issues.

10am, Rasheeda and Teesa in conversation: Arts in Uganda
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Meeting ID: 813 1583 0788
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Teesa Bahana is director of 32° East Ugandan Arts Trust, a not-for-profit that promotes the creation and exploration of contemporary art in Uganda. As director she has supported the development and execution of projects such as KLA ART Labs for research and critical thinking through public practice, the third edition of LKA ART, Kampala’s public art festival, and residency exchanges with partners such as Arts Collaboratory and the Triangle Network. She is also currently overseeing 32° East’s capital project, raising funds to build the first purpose-built art centre in the country. With an academic background in sociology and anthropology, she is particularly interested in the intersection between art and Ugandan society, and how artistic environments should be protected and nurtured.

Rasheeda Nalumoso is a Creative Producer living in Kampala with over ten years experience working across theatre, dance and the visual arts. Currently Arts Manager with the British Council East Africa Arts team in Uganda, Rasheeda was the Creative Producer for KLA ART 18 with visual arts organisation 32 Degrees East, Ugandan Arts Trust, a free public art festival that took place in August 2018 with and for the city of Kampala. Rasheeda has a strong interest in festivals, residencies, new collaborations and considering strategies to develop new participation and audience engagement.

2pm, Tech App Jam – in conversation
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Meeting ID: 884 2919 8678
Password: 2zLSrC

Four entrepreneurs come together to discuss their individual journeys from inspiration and idea to the process of building an app and establishing their new enterprise.

Each developer is at a vastly different stage of the process with some still in the research phase and others just about to launch. This conversation explores their journey, the lessons they have learned and the skills they have had to develop along the way.

A must have session for anyone who has ever through that they wanted to develop their own app.

Participants are some of our ICCE Entrepreneurs in Residence, supported by the Business Development Scheme – Sunny Kim, Irving Olvera, Gregory Lofthouse and Franziska Brandmeier

Heesun Sunny Kim as a founder of Arts:m LTD graduate from MA Brand, Communication & Culture from Goldsmiths, University of London

Arts:m LTD has one sole mission – to bring inspiration and innovation to catalyse the freedom of creativity in the Creative Industries. Project Matata!, based in London, is a unique platform crated by Arts:m that integrates two crucial but distinct elements: a forum to create a community of creatives, and a second-hand online makret place to facilitate peer-to-peer trade of materials.

TLMYRS – Tell me yours is an inclusive social app designed to connect, enhance the approach and the conversation around different topics we have a difficult time to share and tell someone else. Relationships, Post Trauma and wellbeing.

Links: www.timyrs.com , Instagram: @tlmyrs, facebook: /tlmyrs and Twitter: @TlmyrsApp

Gregory Lofthouse

Gregory Lofthouse is a recent grad of ICCE with a background in project management for art exhibitions at museums and galleries.

Franziska Brandmeier

Franziska Brandmeier has a passion for working with the newest tech, people, artists and wellbeing products. At the interplay of creativity, social impact, and strategy.

by Alastair Hall

Wednesday 29th July
11am, The Loss Project
2pm, Anna Meredith

11am, Carly Attridge and Steph Turner – The Loss Project: Holding Space: [_L_O_S_S_]

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Meeting ID: 818 2051 9056
Password: 8bUjiV

Join Steph and Carly for an interactive workshop that will allow you to explore grief and loss. We will hold the space for you to think about your hopes, fears and dreams in relation to the losses you may have experienced during this time of lockdown. We’ll be using some creative exercises, as well as some time for you to reflect with others. All are welcome, regardless of your experience, and it will be a relaxed and informal session, where you can share as much or as little as you would like to. You’ll need some paper and pens/pencils handy to fully participate. We hope that you’ll leave the session feeling uplifted after having some time out to have some collective and individual reflection.

Carly Attridge – Founder & Director of The Loss Project CIC, brings a wealth of expertise in the setting up, management and development of community-led programmes across London. More recently she was working in the hospice sector, leading Compassionate Neighbours, an award winning End of Life care and social isolation programme to scale with 11 hospices. She uses creativity to bring people together, and has a creative edge to all of her work.

Steph Turner – Creative Facilitator and Social Practitioner, has worked on a number of innovative social projects both centred in local communities and scaling nationally, including Compassionate Neighbours and GoodGym. She brings a wealth of experience facilitating groups and holding space for challenging themes, as well as co-creating creative community events with artists and local residents. She is also a practicing ceramicist.

The Loss Project connects people in local communities through the experience of loss, death, dying or trauma. We know that losses can come in various forms, the loss of independence, confidence, sense of self and of course, of loved ones.

Our mission is to generate a community response to loss which challenges the stigma and taboo, cuts through the barriers of having difficult conversations and subjects that can often remain unspoken, whilst providing opportunities for people to connect through their experiences and build capacity to be able to support each other.

We do this through training and workshops, bespoke creative community programmes.

Follow The Loss Project on Twitter

So many speakers have mentioned the place of Music, and we had already programmed 3 musicians in to the festival. We’re really excited to hear from Anna Meredith on this third week. We know that music is one of the areas that has been really hit hard, but also audiences crave it.

We’ll hear from Anna about her process and work – and we’re delighted with the news that her latest album has been shortlisted for the Hyundai Mercury Prize – hugely deserved.

Anna Meredith by Gem Harris

2pm, Anna Meredith in conversation

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Meeting ID: 872 6463 8845
Passcode: 0TSEFe

Described by Pitchfork as ‘one of the most innovative voices in British music’ Anna Meredith is a genre-crossing composer and producer whose work straddles the worlds of contemporary and classical, art pop, electronica and experimental rock.

After building an established career in the classical world and releasing two critically acclaimed EPs, se released her much-anticipated debut album, Varmints, on Moshi Moshi Records in 2016. The critical response saw 4 and 5 star reviews across the board from the likes of Wire, Sunday Times, Uncut, Q Magazine, The Line of Best Fit, DIY and the coveted Best New Music on Pitchfork. As well as being Loud & Quiet’s Album of the Year, Varmints also won the 2016 Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award. In 2019 she released the Mercury Prize shortlisted follow-up – FIBS – to critical acclaim once again, being crowned Electronic Sound’s Album of the Year, featuring in Pitchfork’s Best Experimental Albums of 2019 and the New York Times, alongside many other End of Year lists including Loud & Quiet, Paste, Stereogum and receiving 4 star reviews across the board.

Anna’s band of virtuosic musicians sees her joined by guitar, drums, cello and tuba. They have spent the last 4 years touring the globe including sold-out headline shows at EartH, ICA, The Scala, Oval Space and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London as well as appearances at Glastonbury, Latitude, Transmusicales, SXSW festivals.

Their live show has been described as ‘sheer exhilaration’ (New York Times), while NPR’s Bob Boilen described the show as ‘a stormy, ecstatic, endlessly danceable thrill to behold… the best artist I’ve seen at SXSW and one of the most creative bands I’ve seen in years. Music for the head, the heart, the ass and the feet’.

Her CV includes scoring her first TV show in 2019 – Paul Rudd’s dark comedy ‘Living With Yourself’ for Netflix, her first feature film in 2018 – Bo Burnham’s ‘Eighth Grade’ which won the Sundance Audience Award, opening the 2018 BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival, being Composer in Residence for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, a piece written for MRI scanner, soundtracking campaigns from PRASA, Fendi, Chloe & Christopher Kane, symphonies created for nursery children, music for park benches in Hong Kong and sleep-pods in Singapore. Her body-percussion piece HandsFree, Barbican Centre, Utah Youth Symphony and the new Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and even flash-mobbing the M6 motorway service station.

She is a regular presenter and guest on radio (Radio 3 and BBC 6Music) and television and her music is frequently broadcast on BBC 1, 2, 3, 4 & 6 as well as in films, installations and TV. She featured in the top 40 in BBC Radio4’s Women’s Hour Power List in 2018.

Recent projects include opening the 2018 Proms and Edinburgh International Festivals with Five Telegrams in collaboration with Tony award-winning 59 Productions – celebrating the centenary of the First World War, the VR version of which won a Raindance Award, installations for lifts for Manchester International Festival, arrangements for Sigur Ros and the LA Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA, and an installation for custom whirly tubes and UV lights for the Barbican Centre.

Singing with Nightingales: Live at Home Highlights, image taken from The Nest Collective, YouTube.

So many themes emerging from the festival.

We’ve been gifted with an hour of Singing with Nightingales from The Nest Collective and Sam Lee – please do listen in!

Cassie Robinson, taken from: medium.com/@cassierobinson

Ian Gouldstone has created Succor Process – watch through the week.

11am today, Tuesday 28th July, we have Cassie Robinson.

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Passcode: 8a1yCH

We’re truly grateful to all who are contributing to the SE Festival.

Adrian and Siân