Research: Creative Margins
Tackling marginalisation in the UK’s arts and culture sectors.
Research summary
- June 2018 to February 2019
Creative Margins is a network of arts organisations, youth workers and artists who came together in 2018 to help tackle marginalisation across the UK. The impetus for the project was the publication of the Cultural White Paper by the Department for Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS), which set the expectation that all museums, theatres, galleries, opera houses or arts groups that receive government money ‘should reach out to everyone, regardless of their background’.
The project aimed to develop new models for effective partnerships in specific local communities that would move beyond performative acts of accountability and genuinely reach groups who would not usually gain access to arts and art institutions. To achieve this, participants worked to identify the current conflicts of interest for marginalised groups and the arts, seeking to recommend minor changes art organisations could implement to make them less intimidating.
Manchester Met ran the network alongside official partners including the Tate, National Museum Wales, Common Wealth Theatre, the UK Federation for Detached Youth and Arts Council England. The network facilitated five regional meetings across England and Wales where participants worked together to tackle issues including class, building trust and the politics of space.
These meetings resulted in the publication of the Creative Margins scrapbook, designed to share knowledge across the fields and disciplines of art and youth/community work by opening spaces for discussion and critical debate.
We know that young people can feel disconnected and struggle to find their place in an adult world that is changing constantly. It is up to us to provide young people with space; space to be safe, space to be themselves, space to own and lead.
Creative Margins Scrapbook
A collection of reflections from the Creative Margins conferences.Are there enough seats at the table for me?
Or am I going to have to awkwardly squeeze myself into the corner again? Make myself smaller again, and more palatable?
Not having an automatic seat at the table does not mean I expect you to feed me from a silver spoon.
You can disrupt the table!
Quoted in the Creative Margins scrapbook
Are there enough seats at the table for me?
Or am I going to have to awkwardly squeeze myself into the corner again? Make myself smaller again, and more palatable?
Not having an automatic seat at the table does not mean I expect you to feed me from a silver spoon.
You can disrupt the table!
Quoted in the Creative Margins scrapbook
Research team
Lead researcher
Co-researchers
Collaborating with:
- Tate Britain
- National Museum Wales
- Common Wealth Theatre
- UK Federation for Detached Youth
- Arts Council England
With funding from
Arts & Humanities Research Council
Contact us
For general enquiries about this project and the Education and Social Research Institute’s youth and community group, you can contact research group lead Prof Gabrielle Ivinson.