We are sharing a list of practices that are inspired by the learning of the curatorial team of Room to Bloom. This list – which may sound basic to many is more complex than it appears at first read. It builds on the several exchanges and workshops led with the amazing artists who are or have been members (link to the database: https://www.roomtobloom.eu/artists/ ) of the Room to Bloom network and with curators of art-events engaged in realizing deep changes in their practices, who are working relentlessly to bring them as close as possible to the principles of feminism and decolonial practice.
This list is in no way a manual (hence the title “anti-manual”). It is not a recipe for success. It does not either pretend to come as an example. We do not claim to have perfected a practice. The “spaces” of Room to Bloom have been filled in with asperities, frictions and errors that will not be contested. These spaces have also been filled with shared learning and emotions that made us grow towards a more feminist and a more decolonial practice. For many of us personally and organizationally, Room to Bloom has been a life-changing process. By sharing these short learnings, we would like to open-up more exchanges, contestation, and more learning.
Situate yourself, and all the members of the curation/organizational teams. As Dona Haraway highlighted in 1988 in ‘Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective’, we all have subjectivities and lived experience that shape our reactions. We are occupying positions that are interlinked into existing power-relations. Taking the time to assess what position one acts and speaks from in different situations is a first step into being able to better understand them and being able to act to deconstruct them. Being open and aware of criticism, paying attention to one’s position in a space/project, is another way of putting oneself in capacity to deconstruct them. Attention should be paid to the diversity (of gender, race, sexual orientation, countries of origin) within a team to ensure diversity and openness in the work.
Work and rework your references and the theoretical basis you operate from, correct the educational bias that privilege thinkers, artists and writers from dominant groups. Consult and revisit the work of key feminist thinkers, artists & writers from around the world, from today and from the past. Some of the key, most impactful texts that have been shared in Room to Bloom include Bell Hooks, Françoise Vergès, Edouard Glissant, Saidiya Hartmann, Maria Lugones - Some of the texts accessible for free have been referenced here: https://www.roomtobloom.eu/bibliography/ - the rest of the references shared within the network can be shared happily upon request.
In programming: favour artists who experience the intersection between different forms of discrimination. Many would highlight that quotas and affirmative action can become problematic, however, without a deliberate effort to encounter, support and choose to work with the artists who have less access to remunerated opportunities to show their work and less opportunities to gain experience by doing, change will not happen. Some curators choose to only program and support artists and speakers who respond to predefined criteria, like for instance, not being from one of the majority communities in the country they live in. Make sure your organization does not program activities, performances and shows in which most artists and voices are from majority groups and make sure the organization and yourself make all efforts to avoid perception and implementation of tokenism. Favour work of non-mix groups when needed, as well as building on the potentials of alliances beyond non-mixity, as the Combahee River Collective highlighted in their statement in 1975.
Take time. Cultural managers tend to work with an eye on the clock, with tight constraints of budget, objectives, outputs, and expectations of impact. Building relations of trust and true forms of exchange and dialogue takes time. Changing the way one listens and learns requires time. Try to set up a working frame that allows for this to happen, within existing constraints, make space for trust-building and for deep listening so that the power relations can be unsettled and reversed, so that the learning/teaching position can be reversed.
Care for others. This is more easily said than done. There are various ways of caring and conception of what being cared for means. Pay attention to all forms of vulnerabilities and fragilities. Set-up rules for your organization on how to relate to and deal with vulnerabilities. Put in place processes that allow quick action when/if anyone is hurt. There will be vulnerabilities that have not been anticipated. Caring for some more may be at the expense of the well-being of others. Caring may mean building structures firm enough for people to feel they can rely on them or to disrespect them to build their own spaces of freedom. Pay specific attention to the way processes that release emotions are opened, held and closed and to who holds those spaces. There will be no perfect space for all but as feminists with a decolonial practice we need to set-up structures and rules that pay specific attention to the intersection of various forms of discrimination. Don’t accept any form of discrimination or violence to happen and be perpetuated without reacting to it as quickly as possible.
Care for yourself too. Activist burn-out is now well documented and more reported on. In Room to Bloom we also shared experiences on burn-out and on getting out of burn out. Caring for others can be challenging. It is important not to disregard completely one’s own needs to be able to care for others. It is OK to have needs and various forms of constraints. They should not be ignored but feminist decolonial practice should attempt to build a space in which one can live and work with them comfortably enough.
Be aware and attentive of body needs and mental health of those involved and of the surrounding beings. Pay attention to the needs of the body. Don’t impose activities that are not respectful of those needs and those of the surrounding beings. Stick as much as possible to times and to plans so that all those invited to participate can take care of themselves and of their wellbeing. Make sure your programme does not impose long days without breaks in static positions or long hours standing and walking without letting people know what they are subscribing to. Pay attention to signs of unwellness and attempt to address them. Pay attention to the earth and living beings around. Give them a voice and space if and when you can. Share information as often and as clearly as possible.
Always remunerate artists for their work and set-up clear contracts and agreements. This sounds basic, but artists are too often asked to give their time and work for free. Make sure work is remunerated and details of collaborations are shared as clearly as possible. Cultural operators are most of the time operating within difficult budget constraints. They however need to make sure the time and work of every artist is valued, within the frame of organizational means.
Provide environments that are safe and accommodating enough for children. Children are part of many lives. Women are more often than others in position to be the main providers for their children. Providing childcare to team members and to participants allows for their full participation in an activity and to try to avoid them being constrained to silent withdrawal.
Leave space for playfulness and expressions that may be less expected in professional contexts so as to change the spaces we evolve in. Playfulness and joy is part of life and what will make our time together memorable in a good way. As the collectively built Room to Bloom Manifesto (https://www.roomtobloom.eu/manifesto/) says: “We are amateurs and professionals (…) We listen to the animals and give voice to the trees (…) We dream of the future and we wake up within it... »