Art

When Niru Ratnam, art historian, writer and co-director of contemporary art gallery Store, wrote a piece highlighting the dissatisfaction of visual arts practitioners with schemes promoting cultural diversity, the Arts Council responded by asking him to help plan a new two-year fellowship programme for London-based black and Asian art curators, entitled ‘Inspire’. Based on placements within London’s major museums and art galleries, Inspire now has 11 fellows working at venues including the V&A, Barbican, ICA and the Whitechapel; and plans are underway to recruit a further 11 to start in Sept 2007. The fellows are both learning from and contributing to the organisation of London’s public exhibitions. But is such a scheme necessary to the visual arts in London? Feature continues

‘Despite an estimate that by 2010, 40 per cent of Londoners will be from black or minority ethnic backgrounds, these groups account for less than 5 per cent of full-time curatorial staff at the first five Inspire partner museums,’ Ratnam explains. ‘And many of those work mainly on issues of diversity. It’s almost the equivalent of being a woman in the 1970s and working with feminist issues, or being gay in the 1980s and working with gay politics. And there are so few role models that although people may have the talent and, quite often, extensive arts experience, they also have a perception that they wouldn’t get public sector curatorial jobs, even if they applied for them.

’That certainly applies to Jonah Albert, on placement since October at the National Gallery. Originally from a TV background working in education and support, Albert was employed part-time at the V&A as a cultural diversity officer before he was accepted onto the Inspire programme. ‘My work at the V&A included turning the garden into an African Market and organising gospel singing, but it was very audience-focused,’ Albert explains. ‘I didn’t have access to art networks or an art history background, so was learning all my information from Google. At the National Gallery I’ve learnt how an exhibition is put together and am giving public talks on paintings in the gallery. Now I can combine the communication of factual information with my own style.’

Ratnam acknowledges that one important factor in curatorial success is the confidence to network, which can be affected by class as well as by race. ‘Because there are no statistics on class there’s nothing official to address,’ Ratnam says, ‘but what you can do to reduce disadvantage through race or class is to discourage unpaid or poorly paid internships which can only realistically be taken up by those with existing income or parental funding.’ The Inspire fellows are paid a tax-free annual salary equivalent to that of an assistant curator, funded jointly by the Arts Council and the partner institution.

The confidence to network, or indeed a visual education, weren’t issues for Eddie Otchere, on placement at the National Portrait Gallery. Trained as a photographer in the mid-1990s, Otchere has combined a successful career as a professional photographer, mainly in portraiture, with organising exhibitions and events. Among these is the annual Brixton Graffic Show which brings together work by international urban graphic artists who produce photography, screenprints, digital and aerosol spray imagery. ‘What I’m gaining from this is orthodoxy,’ Otchere explains. ‘I’m learning so much from senior curators here like Jacob Simon. For example, the gallery has a room full of portraits of Charles II’s mistresses which cuts across people, art, history and government. It’s like the Hello magazine of the portrait world.’

Although there are no guarantees of permanent jobs, both Albert and Otchere will be curating exhibitions at their partner institutions before the end of their placements next October. It’s easy to see how both fellows and institutions are gaining something from the experience – as will London’s gallery-going public. Albert is putting together an exhibition based around the bicentenary of the abolition of the British slave trade, while Otchere is working on projects that include portraits of black British women entertainers and compiling a list of nominees for portrait commissions of scientists. ‘And it would be great to commission a graffiti artist to paint one of them,’ he adds.