After a long period of silence, Arts Council England are announcing the results of their long-awaited investment decisions on arts funding tomorrow!
The Mighty Creatives are waiting in trepidation along with everyone else in the sector. So, in the spirit of hoping for the best but planning for the worst, our period of not-quite-silence on the reflections of our past and re-imaginings of our futures continues unabated.
If this period of not-quite-silence is getting on your nerves, you could do a lot worse than to support our the Mighty (UN)Mute campaign here. One thing I promise: if you can help us reach our target, I’ll never ask you ever again! You will have well and truly shut me up 🙂
Today’s reflection: come expect a miracle
Ambling through the back streets of a market in Port of Spain, Trinidad, you come across a church – modestly rebranding itself as the Jesus Miracle Centre – with the claim that should you wish to visit it, you can ‘come expect a miracle’ no less.
Expecting a miracle is perhaps something we’ve gotten out of the habit in recent years, depending as we do on rational, positivistic ways of thinking that persuade us that without ‘x’ input, then ‘y’ output is impossible: that the imagination and dream land are concepts best left in the hinterlands of the Australian outback and that everything in this world is determinable and forecastable, if only we had enough clean data available at our disposal.
We don’t talk often enough about miracles and we’re certainly not encouraged to expect them – and perhaps we should.
Expecting a daily miracle might just help us deal with the imminent threat of economic meltdown, global warming up and England being beaten by Germany on penalties in the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Over the last few years, I’ve been supporting The Mighty Creatives’ annual ‘Be Mighty, Be Creatives’ fundraising campaigns. This year is no exception. Called The Mighty (Un)Mute, we’re aiming to raise £5,000 to support the artistic creation for one of ten Globe Sculptures in The World Reimagined art trail across Leicester, one of the most multicultural cities in the UK.
On 5th October The TMC staff team supported the campaign by taking part in the Mighty (UN)Mute, a day-long vow of silence, which saw us taking a Journey of Discovery of all ten Globe Sculptures around Leicester. This is what we discovered:
Or if neither of these is possible (and heaven knows we’re all in tough financial times right now), then anything you can do to share and shout about the campaign would be equally welcomed and appreciated.
It’s been an eventful journey for us all afternoon and it’s pleasing to know that we have seen all the globes in situ, before they all get moved to their final resting place outside the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery in New Walk.
It’s been a new walk for all of us; if not individually then certainly collectively. Eventful but silent: we undertook the whole experience muted although it was evident all day that whilst we had adopted a vow of silence, our communications were irrepressible. Whether this be through our sombre genuflections at some of the globes, our facial gestures of concern, of pleasure, or of hilarity; our hunched bodies in the cold autumn air or our physical responses to the questions that members of the public directed towards us, or our imagined conversations between historical and cultural figures, we couldn’t help but communicate what we were experiencing throughout the journey.
We may have been muted, we may have been silenced but nothing can stop our desire and innate hunger to communicate our condition in whatever context. There’s been lots of learnings on this journey today: but for me, the main one has been that nothing can stop us communicating our histories, dreams and visions. We may not be heard at first; but time will tell, truth will out and discoveries can never be silenced.
Or if neither of these is possible (and heaven knows we’re all in tough financial times right now), then anything you can do to share and shout about the campaign would be equally welcomed and appreciated.
It’s not long before we encounter the next globe sculpture on our journey of discovery: the work by Hannaa Hamdache, Sarah Mensah & Gabrielle Ubakanma (theme: Ecology of Existance).
We’re especially enamoured with this globe as it’s particularly close to our heart. When we heard about The World Reimagined project being developed back in 2020, it became clear in those early days that no-where in the East Midlands was being ear marked to host a globe. Bristol, yes; Manchester, yes; Liverpool, obviously. But the East Midlands?
As ever, it seemed that the region was being marginalised by some larger national interests so we thought, that in our role as Arts Council Bridge organisation for the East Midlands it was up to us to see if we could persuade some of the larger local authorities in the region to step up and support it. So, although approaches to Nottingham, Derby, Northampton and Lincoln all came to nothing, Leicester City Council, God Bless It, stepped up and found the resources and political will to support the programme, underwrite the financial requirements and make it happen.
We played our part in this process too by sponsoring one of the globes (guess which?) and involving one of our team, Hannaa Hamdache to produce the globe together with local young artists. Mission accomplished. Nearly.
Our sponsorship of the Globe has required us to underwrite its production using a combination of our own unrestricted reserves and public donations. Our trustees promised that for every £ we could raise through our campaigning, they would match it, £ for £ until we reached the target of £10,000.
We’re not there yet but are heading in the right direction: so any help you can offer would be much appreciated.
And even if you can’t donate your cash at this moment in time, please do come and visit all the globes (especially ours. Which we really love. As if you couldn’t guess.) – they’ll provide a fascinating journey of discovery not only around Leicester but across the world.
The imagined conversations between Joe Orton and Richard Rawlins accompanies us as we continue our journey of discovery into central Leicester and the site of our next Globe Sculpture by Zita Holbourne (theme: Still We Strive).
“The quintessential English cup of tea and its insidious intertwining with sugar are the cornerstone of the economic construction of Britain” Richard starts.
“Until I was fifteen, I was more familiar with Africa than my own body.” Joe retorts.
“I am an invisible man; I am a man of substance flesh and bone fibre and liquids and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible simply because you to refuse to see me,” quotes Richard from Ralph Ellison.
“I needed the invisible butler in What the Butler Saw as a symbol for the complacency of upper-middle-class lives,” Joe reminisces.
We have to leave them struggling out some meaning of their imaginary collision as we process into the city centre. It’s a very different experience from walking up New Walk or through Highfields. Here, we could be tourists, we could be locals, no-one knows as we’re subsumed into the anonymous flow of humanity which is experienced in perhaps all city centres.
There are a few landmarks which indicate that we’re specifically in Leicester but the main view is of corporate retail opportunities which could be anywhere in the western world. The landmarks and sounds which mark out this place as specifically Leicester are valuable reminders of where we are and why we are there.
Somewhat incongruously, the globe sculpture is parked right next to a takeaway food stand. Imagining a conversation between these two objects becomes a step too far for this afternoon: despite being reminded that “our lives begin to end the day we are silent about all of the things that matter.”
The busy city centre flow picks us up and we head through the Highcross monolith to the next globe sculpture which we have a particular interest in visiting.
Or if neither of these is possible (and heaven knows we’re all in tough financial times right now), then anything you can do to share and shout about the campaign would be equally welcomed and appreciated.
Heading off back town-wards, the exertions of the afternoon are taking their toll and the group starts to straggle out along the pavements and roadsides, slowly pulling us apart. Traffic lights and zebra crossings don’t help the group cohesion and before too long we’re taking up a lot of pavement space in our Journey of Discovery towards the next Globe Sculpture by Richard Rawlins (theme: A Complex Triangle Indeed).
Located in Orton Square which is bordered by Curve Theatre, Leicester Athena, St George’s Church and the Exchange Building (Leicester’s very own answer to New York’s Flat Iron building), Rawlin’s work is a sculpture which pulls you up sharply with its combination of direct text and images. If you’ve ever caught yourself saying ‘these things aren’t black and white’ this sculpture and its texts insist that on the contrary, things are very much black and white – and shades of grey too.
Imagine a conversation between Orton and Rawlins taking place in the Exchange Buildings. Orton might start with this from Loot:
Truscott: Why aren’t you both at the funeral? I thought you were mourners.
Fay: We decided not to go. We were afraid we might break down.
Truscott: That’s a selfish attitude to take. The dead can’t bury themselves, you know.
Or if neither of these is possible (and heaven knows we’re all in tough financial times right now), then anything you can do to share and shout about the campaign would be equally welcomed and appreciated.
We march on from Medway Community Primary School dodging the prams, pushchairs, school buses and young children and parents who are now doing their own dodging of the traffic. It’s ‘School’s Out!’ time and the street has become a flurry of activity all the way down to the Highfields Centre where we encounter the next Globe Sculpture on The World Reimagined trail. Created by Marcus Dove, it’s theme is ‘Abolition and Emancipation’ and is located just outside the offices of the Race Equality Centre which is now based at the Centre.
The Centre itself is a significant presence in the landscape but you never quite know how significant it is until you’re inside. Complete with recording studios, art rooms, performance spaces and meeting rooms galore the Centre is a veritable Tardis.
Their call to action: “Enhancing Lives, Empowering Communities, Enterprise For All” is a Tradis-type call too: a big, inclusive dynamic ambition summed in just seven words.
We’re mindful of the flow of young people heading our way and our call to continue our Journey of Discovery so we wave a silent farewell to Fatima and Aaron who have kindly come out to see us and figure out what on earth is going on. Showing them our orange badges isn’t having impact on them either so we shrug, wave good-bye and some how gesticulate that we’ll be in touch with them again soon. They seem bemused by it all but send us off in good cheer. Next stop: the sculpture at Orton Square.
Or if neither of these is possible (and heaven knows we’re all in tough financial times right now), then anything you can do to share and shout about the campaign would be equally welcomed and appreciated.
Every step of the way away from Victoria Park takes us into a journey of discovery of the community of Highfields where we reach the Globe Sculpture of Lou Boyce (theme: Stolen Legacy: the Rebirth of a Nation) placed next to Medway Community Primary School in St. Stephens Road.
We notice how noticed we are becoming as we make our journey: people stare at us as we straggle along the streets in silence, looking at our phones or checking the paper maps that one or two of us have. One shop keeper comes out to ask what we’re doing, and we show him the orange badge, point to the QR code and he takes this as a sign that we are a group interested in nature.
We get the impression that there aren’t many times when a group like us stroll down these streets, looking suspiciously like tourists. Whilst these streets may offer you security and a place to hang your hat and settle down, they wouldn’t necessarily be your first choice as a tourist destination.
The Highfields Remembered website hosted by DMU University provides greater knowledge of the area than we learn from our journey of discovery into the area, and reminds us that since the early 20th century Highfields has often become the home of new communities: Jewish, Polish, Latvian, Caribbean, and East African:
“In 200 years, Highfields has grown from a sparsely-populated rural area to the thriving multicultural community it is today. All the communities which have settled, either staying or moving on, have made a contribution to the area’s development, leaving a legacy of thriving mosques, temples, churches, shops and other secular buildings.”
We arrive at the location of the Globe Sculpture at Medway Community Primary School where the school’s concerns about slavery are evident through its website. Again, this is not a matter of dry, distant historical interest but is a live issue which families face in the here and now:
Modern slavery is the severe exploitation of other people for personal or commercial gain. Modern slavery is all around us, but often just out of sight. People can become entrapped making our clothes, serving our food, picking our crops, working in factories, or working in houses as cooks, cleaners or nannies.
They are also explicit about the differences between child work, child labour and child slavery:
Child work: Some types of work make useful, positive contributions to a child’s development, helping them learn useful skills. Often, work is also a vital source of income for their families.
Child labour: Child labour is not slavery, but nevertheless hinders children’s education and development. Child labour tends to be undertaken when the child is in the care of their parents. Hazardous work” is the worst form of child labour. It irreversibly damages children’s health and development through, for example, exposure to dangerous machinery or toxic substances, and may even endanger their lives.
Child slavery: Child slavery is the enforced exploitation of a child for someone else’s gain, meaning the child will have no way to leave the situation or person exploiting them.
Child trafficking: Trafficking involves transporting, recruiting or harbouring people for the purpose of exploitation, using violence, threats or coercion. When children are trafficked, no violence, deception or coercion needs to be involved, trafficking is merely the act of transporting or harbouring them for exploitative work.
The school also recognises that child marriage can also obscure what are in reality cases of slavery or slavery-like practices, being clear that child marriage can be referred to as slavery, if one or more of the following elements are present:
* If the child has not genuinely given their free and informed consent to enter the marriage
* If the child is subjected to control and a sense of “ownership” in the marriage itself, particularly through abuse and threats and is exploited by being forced to undertake domestic chores within the marital home or labour outside it, and/or engage in non-consensual sexual relations
* If the child cannot realistically leave or end the marriage, leading potentially to a lifetime of slavery.
But their focus is not just on the impact of slavery on children but also on the impact on adults and families and the causes of slavery:
Forced labour is any work or service which people are forced to do against their will, under threat of punishment. Almost all slavery practices contain some element of forced labour….
… Forced labour happens in the context of poverty, lack of sustainable jobs and education, as well as a weak rule of law, corruption and an economy dependent on cheap labour.
We bade farewell to Medway Community Primary School, thankful that it offers a sanctuary for children and their families against the tyrannies of slavery and enslavement. Next stop: Highfields Community Centre and its relationship with the fashion workers of Leicester.
Or if neither of these is possible (and heaven knows we’re all in tough financial times right now), then anything you can do to share and shout about the campaign would be equally welcomed and appreciated.
We take on New Walk at pace past the shishy offices, university buildings and comfortable hotel offers, with barely a glance to TheClothier, a marble statue made by John Atkin to commemorate the legacy of Leicester’s clothing industry in 2010. According to the Friends of New Walk website,
“From 1970 onwards the industry was in decline, but in the last few years there have been indications of a slow rebirth. Manufacturing is growing slowly in the hands of new investors and locally-based retailers, such as Next, Bodens and Joules, have shown that textiles are still very much a Leicester industry.”
Nothing showed us that as clearly as the garment industry scandal which emerged in Leicester during the Covid-19 lockdowns. In July 2020, the city’s dirty “open secret”of underpaid workers in Leicester’s garment industry was dragged out of its silence.
The retail giant Boohoo were implicated in contracting with suppliers who ‘employed’ workers in unsafe conditions, forcing them to come to work even when ill with coronavirus.
Boohoo found itself at the centre of a media storm when came to light as some of their suppliers were accused of modern slavery. But they were by no means the exception: the authorities’ efforts to stamp out bad practice in many employers have consistently failed over many years.
As you walk on past De Montford Hall to see the work of Natasha Muluswela, another potent kick of ‘history’ makes itself felt: the hall takes its name from the late Simon de Montfort, after whom Leicester’s De Montfort University was also named. The university acknowledges the potency of this naming on its website:
While Simon de Montfort is remembered chiefly for his achievements as an architect of and campaigner for a representative parliament – achievements which originally inspired DMU to take his name – it is argued, too, that he bears responsibility for the persecution of Jewish people because in 1231 Montfort issued a charter expelling Leicester’s Jewish community in an overtly anti-Semitic act.
Fortunately, resistance isn’t futile but is alive and kicking not just through the DMU Students Union but also through the work of the Fashion-workers Advice Bureau Leicester (FAB-L) based in Highfields which is fighting back against modern day employment slavery practices. It’s where we head to next as the afternoon’s temperature continues to drop and the autumn leaf slush makes the journey discovery a little more treacherous, step by step.
This walk is not just about visiting 10 Globe Sculptures on an art trail: you’re reminded every step of the way of the necessity of The World Reimagined programme. The history of enslaved Africans isn’t just someone else’s history, it’s our history. And it’s not just our his-story or her-story: it’s our here-and-now-story.
Or if neither of these is possible (and heaven knows we’re all in tough financial times right now), then anything you can do to share and shout about the campaign would be equally welcome and appreciated.
The morning team TMC mute session finishes just before 2pm and following some loud closing of laptops, shuffling of chairs and waves across the office, we’ve all gathered down in Rutland Street to explore the Globe Sculptures on the trail of The World Reimagined. Our Orange Mighty Unmute badges are prominent on our coats, and we’re determined to show them to anyone who’s interested, albeit in silence.
The World Reimagined is billed as “a Journey of Discovery to transform how we understand the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans and its impact on all of us, so that we can make justice a reality.”
So we head over first to the Globe Sculpture made by artist Laura-Kate Pontefract, inspired by the theme Mother Africa, being shown at Leicester Station.
Except it’s not there: we discover that the rail dispute has led to the globe being moved over to Leicester’s New Walk. The doors to the station are locked, there’s no sign of the globe and the only significant signage is a notification from East Midlands Railway about the station’s closure.
Outside the station, we wave to the members of picket line who wave back and show some interest in our orange Mighty Unmute badges although no-one steps up to snap the QR code on the badges. One missed fundraising moment silently passes us by.
Somewhere in the back of my memory, I’m reminded of the links between the railways and the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans but as we’re all on mute for the day, that conversation will have to wait for another time. One missed understanding moment silently passes us by.
We continue at pace to where Laura-Kate Pontefract’s Globe Sculpture is located at New Walk. Within close proximity to the second globe on the trail by Roy Meats. (theme: The Reality of Being Enslaved) the effect of the globes is audible. Our muteness becomes even quieter and our silence even noisier.
We stare, we read, we reflect, we genuflect. One passer by looks at us quizzically and tries asking us what we’re doing and what the globes are about. We direct his stare to our orange badges but he’s in a hurry and won’t be hanging around to find out. He sees the word ‘mute’ on them and thinks that’s a reason for him not to talk to us any more so he hurries off after his walking partner. One missed understanding moment silently passes him by.
But it’s soon time for us to move on to the third Globe Sculpture up in Victoria Park. The autumn chill is finding its way into our joints and we still have a lot of walking to do.
Or if neither of these is possible (and heaven knows we’re all in tough financial times right now), then anything you can do to share and shout about the campaign would be equally welcome and appreciated.
Dr Nick Owen MBE PLUS 