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So what are the barriers facing people coming from a working-class background? “How long have you got?” asks David Loumgair, Creative Director of COMMON. “I could spend hours listing the challenges, which would make a pretty depressing read”.
David’s ‘highlights reel’ includes “coming from a community where I had no understanding of where to begin building a creative career; a deeply-rooted imposter syndrome from being surrounded by those who were better connected in the industry, able to access opportunities more easily, with greater self-confidence and an ability to make their voices not only heard, but valid.”
Coming from a household or community where the adults around you haven’t gone to university and hold ‘blue-collar’ jobs, or aren’t able to work at all, can put you at a considerable disadvantage when trying to carve out a creative career.
“You limit your own imagination because no one around you is doing anything apart from manual labour or cleaning jobs”
Artist educator Cina Aissa works at several museums and galleries trying to secure a permanent role and says she’s witnessed a lot of nepotism. Despite being 45 years old, possessing a rich life experience and skills, she’s been kept on low wages and less-secure contracts while “watching helplessly as the same 25 year old white middle-class Goldsmith graduates get the jobs”.
In contrast, “the closest contact my family could offer me would mean working for the same construction firm as my Dad or helping my Mum look after elders in day centres” says artist and writer Scottee.
Despite being removed from the education system aged 14, Scottee says he was repeatedly told to go to university by arts organisations set up to support emerging artists. “The system and structures support those whose trajectory fits the mould”, he concludes.
“Whilst I did end up going to university, solely because of grants available at the time, the support to then transition from an academic environment to a professional one was relatively limited”, says David. Without having parents or others around you who have been in the same position, it can be incredibly difficult to find a foothold or to know where to start.
“I had zero creative networks or personal contacts who could give me a steer on how to begin accessing opportunities, or where to even look for them. It was a landscape which was entirely alien to me.”
“If it’s a choice of a roof over your head or your art, the roof usually wins, and your artistic life can be cut short”
Kelly Johnson, an Interim Director at the Arts Council, describes the huge change she encountered leaving Middlesbrough to study Fine Art on an overwhelmingly middle-class course at the University of Sheffield
“I still remember very vividly the day I finished putting up my final exhibition and handing my portfolios in to be marked and I sat in the park with a sense of relief. This was very quickly followed by a sense of panic and sickness as I realised, I only had 3 weeks of my student loan left and I wasn’t sure how I was going to pay my rent.”
With going home no longer an option, Kelly says that moment marked the last time she did any artistic practice, as she called the factory where she worked and took on extra night shifts.
That lack of financial support is a major barrier to many.
“I am being told to wait for my turn or stop being so greedy whenever I request a rise”
While doing an unpaid internship at a high-profile arts organisation, David describes being told by his manager and the Artistic Director that he wasn’t making the most of the opportunity and taking it from somebody who would be more committed. The manager in question was unaware David was working three part-time jobs to fund the role. “They interpreted the reality of what someone from my background had to do in order to not only survive, but to access these opportunities, and instead read them as a lack of passion, commitment and professionalism.
With such barriers standing in the way of people from working-class backgrounds, we risk missing out on art not only drawn from, but also reflecting, a much truer representation of our whole society.
Despite being told to soften his accent for the radio and having his voice “literally edited to make it sit inline with how everyone else talks” in the past, Scottee’s show ‘Class’ recently took centre stage at Manchester’s HOME. “On opening night, I asked how many people in that room were common – they roared back at me”. It didn’t matter that Scottee had written the show with a middle class audience in mind, “night after night people came to see themselves reflected.”
Connecting with those communities often labelled ‘hard to reach’ is a lot easier when you’ve shared the same spaces and sound similar to them, says Scottee. “We don’t suffer fools gladly” he adds, “and so with ease we’re able to talk about the elephant in the room.”
For Cina, her lived experience means she truly knows how to engage and attract those who face barriers in accessing museums and galleries. “I make it relevant to them because they relate to me and I then become a mediator between the art/artefact and the participant.”
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