Group Show:

Alternative Degree Show

June 2021

We, a group of final-year arts students, are removing our artworks and boycotting the institution's events, taking a stand against the racism and oppression it perpetuates.

We reject its racial violence, its targeting of POC staff within its employment and financial structures, and its active gentrification of the local area.

We stand in full solidarity with Evan Ifekoya, who withdrew their labour due to racism within the Department of Art, our peers in GARA, GUCU, and other activist groups fighting for greater justice and equality, and all marginalised peoples facing oppression and inaccessibility within the creative industries.

We are committed to a cultural and educational sector free from discrimination and violence and seek a redefining of arts education, in which social justice, the joy of community education, and total creative freedom are placed at its core.

The Alternative Degree Show manifests as an art trail across Lewisham Borough, including traditional art venues, public spaces, and community centres. It is a group project predicated on community building and the desire to allow art to breathe outside of the educational institution. It includes the dynamic and exciting work of graduating students on the BA Fine Art & History of Art programme at Goldsmiths, University of London. Our show will coincide with the traditional degree show at Goldsmiths, however it will differ in all other ways. We hope it becomes its own entity, pitched against the shortcomings we perceive in our institution, the commercialisation of art’s education, its deemed unimportance in the eyes of the Tory Government and the entrenched problematics (such as racism and competitiveness) within the art industry as a whole.

Particular micro and macro socio-political events birthed this idea in the minds of a group of socially conscious final year students. The global pandemic, and its impact on arts education allowed us to question what a degree show means and, more importantly, who it serves. The reinvigoration of the Black Lives Matter Movement coincided with allegations of institutional racism impacting an invaluable tutor on our course Evan Ifekoya, and leading to their withdrawal of labour. We are unsatisfied with Goldsmiths’ response to this incident, and their attempts at tackling institutional racism more widely.

Our show exists within Goldsmiths’ environs, and is conscious of this fact. We are working with cultural institutions such as London Community Video Archive, Women in Film SE15 and the Lewisham Migration Museum to create a public program alongside the exhibition, allowing us to work in and with our community to platform marginalised voices.

The recent Tory government initiative to halve funding for arts education, and our own Senior Management Team’s mismanagement of our university have led to extensive strikes by overworked and underpaid staff. These issues have impacted us directly, and are symptomatic of a wider disregard for the value of creative education. We recognise the precariousness of working class students on arts/creative university courses, and want to actively resist the notion that art education is either valueless or elitist. We will not be showing in the Goldsmiths Degree Show, in an effort to highlight these failings, and create a new space for reimagining.

Ultimately, these events and uncontrollable circumstances have presented us with a space for questioning. We want to reframe the meaning of a ‘degree show’ within a wider context of contemplating ‘what kind of artists we want to be?’ Collectively, we have realised that genuine community engagement, conscious practice, and transparent commitment to our peers and our politics is paramount. The ‘Alternative Degree Show’ lays bare questions regarding Institutional Art Education, gentrification and racial discourses which have often been suppressed within canonical ‘art world’ narratives. Our show is a celebration of community and an attempt to unearth the pressing issues of our time, taking a purposeful look towards the future of arts education, ourselves as creators and the industry we are entering.

The Alternative Degree Show partnered with the following organisations in the facilitation of the Alternative Degree Show. Generous contributions extend to use of venues, in-kind support, AV loans, curatorial/event management advice and promotion:

Art Hub

Artist in Residence (AiR)

Bold Tendencies

Collective Ending HQ

Deptford X

F.A.T. Studios

Hannah Barry Gallery

Harts Lane

Hill Station Community Cafe

Jupiter Woods Gallery

Lewisham Arthouse

No Format Gallery

People’s Heritage Museum of Deptford

SE Salon

The Albany/Deptford Lounge

Women in Film SE15

Goldsmiths Anti-Racist Action

Goldsmiths UCU

The Rights Collective

London Community Video Archive

SID Motion Gallery

EKO

Goldsmiths Star

Rainbow Collective

Featured artists:

Chantel Foo
Roo Amelia Gehring
Alec Heritier
Jack Holme
Isabel Lea
Marian Lee
Kurtis Lincoln
Rosanna Martin
Katerina Matheson
Niharika Pore
Meda Povilonyte
William Ritchie
Alba Schloessingk
James Southall-Ford
Itiya Stawski

Featured Venues:

Art Hub
Deptford X
HartsLane
Lewisham Arthouse
No Format Gallery