Meandering Networks, Mapping Nations

Black Curators Collective (BCC)  facilitated a two-day gathering as part of the 2021 GI events programme with a celebratory DJ set by Plantainchipps on Saturday 19 June. BCC are considering the idea of ‘meandering networks’ as a starting point to think through how we connect and come together as cultural workers across the four nations.
The first day was closed-door for Black practitioners with a curatorial practice and the second day was open to the public. Day two featured a keynote address by Melanie Keen, director of Wellcome Collection; an offline workshop by artist and researcher Ashanti Harris; and roundtable discussions led by Briana Pegado, Gaëtane Verna, Khadea Kuchenmeister and Lola Olufemi.

BCC’s programme is based on the principles of collectivity, resource building, and regionalism. They are inviting Black practitioners working with contemporary art based across Scotland and the UK to share a moment of peace, rest, and reinforcement between each other on an international platform. They are not striving for ‘newness’ but to shift attention and form connections between what already exists/is emerging, with the aim of moving Black practitioners from the peripheries by sharing and decentralising resources and knowledge. They view stories as oral archives, experiences as resources and aim to voice and share this as a national resource.

Meandering Networks, Mapping Nations embodies slowness as a state of mind through doing less better, taking comfort in the unknown, and focusing on a process-driven approach to public programming.