Migrant Artists Mutual Aid

Proximity: New Directions in Art and Social Repair

MaMa is happy to announce that we have an exiting new event coming up in the Summer with some co-collaborators at the Bluecoat.

Saturday 13 June 10:30 – 4:30pm

Migrant Artists’ Mutual Aid joins with artists mayfield brooks, Mary Pearson and Jennifer Verson to host a day long symposium which brings together important networks in the UK and across the Atlantic of artists, academics, arts organisations and the public sector to create a space for critical and exciting new thinking about the role of socially engaged artistic practices at an important historic moment.

The symposium shares transatlantic artistic approaches to the joint history of slavery, using as a starting point the practice and theory from Migrant Artists Mutual Aid’s recent National Lottery Heritage Funded work creating new music based on the exhibitions and archives of the International Slavery Museum, alongside duet collaboration ‘How to Be Afraid?’ which continues from its beginnings in Liverpool in 2017, funded by Arts Council England.

Inspired by the German practice of Vergangenheitsbewältigung or ‘working through the past’, critically, Proximity is a space for the creation and sharing innovative practices in peace building through performance.

We look forward to seeing many of you there.

The 29th of April was the final performance of our new song writing project, which ran over the last year, made possible with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The Choir wrote new songs on the themes of migration and asylum using the archives of the International Slavery Museum to develop their work. 6 new songs were written and performed over the year with the help of the MAMA team and Meika Holzman providing artistic support. The songs Brave and Strong, No Sugar in our Tea, We Are Human, First Poets, Valobashi and Remember Your Name. Remember Your Name was inspired by the work of Turner prize winning artist Lubaina Himid, work looking at the experiences of slavery and memory. It has been a pleasure for the group to work with our partners in National Museums Liverpool on this project and our thanks go out to the Heritage Lottery Fund for making this project happen. More new work and recordings will be coming soon so, watch this space…