Decibel: The Politics of Cultural Diversity

According to Decibel, ‘the landscape is changing’; from policy to funding, Arts Council England (ACE) has put its money where its mouth is, embarking on an unprecedented level of support for so-called ‘cultural diversity’ initiatives. So why does it feel as though ‘cultural diversity’ is short changing those whom it purports to support and letting those it claims to challenge off the hook?

In recent years ACE has let it be known that ‘cultural diversity’ with specific reference to ethnicity is one of its major priorities. The catalyst for this focus can be linked directly to the publication in 1999 of the MacPherson Report, which among numerous findings and recommendations noted that “Any long-established, white dominated organisation is liable to have procedures, practices and a culture which tend to exclude or disadvantage non-white people.’ Since the publication of the report ACEE has subsequently bent over backwards to be seen to be taking its findings on board. In its Cultural Diversity Action Plan ACE noted that the MacPherson Report ‘marked a sea change in the understanding of the significance of institutional racism’ adding in its later consultation document Framework For Change, ‘The arts cannot shut its eyes to the strictures of the Stephen Lawrence Report or the legal demands of the new Race Relations (Amendment) Act’. However, you would be excused for not knowing that we are coming to the end of ACE’s major flagship project Decibel’ raising the voice of the culturally diverse arts in Britain’, the reason being that Decibel has failed to sustain anything like a national profile and belies the deeper problems bedevilling cultural diversity in the visual art sector.

Prior to the arrival of Decibel in 2003, ACE had originally earmarked 2001 as the ‘Year of Cultural Diversity’, a nationwide festival for profiling artistic practices across all art forms. For reasons which have never been made public, the ‘Year of Cultural Diversity’ was postponed until 2002. Rebranded as ‘The Big Idea’, this new diversity project was to be expanded to last 18 months from September 2002 to March 2004 and was to include numerous activities: collaborations, commissions, internet what’s on guides, and a national media campaign.  One project to be included in the visual arts programme was the ‘Artist Market Place’. Scheduled for September 2002, this project was to be a five day ‘trade fair’ involving artists showcasing their work in visual arts venues across Bristol. However, despite numerous updates and various job appointments, like its predecessor, ‘The Big Idea’ was also scrapped.

Despite the unknown chain of events which had delayed its arrival, this initiative was given a new lease of life, rebranded and armed with millions of pounds of Arts Council money and a national network of organisers and finally launched as Decibel in May 2003. Perhaps now, things would take a turn for the better. With its focus ‘on ethnic diversity resulting from postwar immigration, with a focus on arts and artists from African, Asian and Caribbean backgrounds’ it promised to ‘profile arts practice…and to develop opportunities for increased access into the mainstream.’ The press release announcing the launch of the visual arts component of the project informed us ‘from October 2003 – March 2004, Decibel turns its attention to the visual arts, with a series of events, debates, artists’ awards, fellowships and research programmes. With a focus on supporting, profiling and exploring perceptions of culturally diverse artists, curators and administrators, the platform will continue Decibel’s crucial work.’ Given that it has been in the pipeline for over four years, albeit in a number of incarnations, the fact that it has offered a mere half a dozen of job opportunities, an artist award scheme and one future exhibition to be curated by David A Bailey and planned for the Arnolfini in 2005 can hardly be seen as evidence of ‘crucial work’ being done. Since its launch it has been impossible to get an overview of what Decibel represents. Conflicting strategies for promoting projects have added to the confusion. Where some opportunities, like traineeships and awards, have been advertised nationally, others, like nationwide mentoring schemes and Spike Island’s Curatorial Residency Initiative, have been casually circulated via the internet and by word of mouth.

Decibel’s stated agenda of changing the practices and conditions that perpetuate art world exclusion/racism clearly cannot be achieved overnight. However, its visual arts programme, such as it is, has done little to inspire confidence. It does quite the opposite. The most significant exhibition to be staged during Decibel’s official lifespan is one by the African American artist Lonnie Holey at the Ikon Gallery. Another example is the 2004 calendar co-produced by the Hayward Gallery, Decibel and the Arts Council Collection, featuring work by artists in the collection; ‘This calendar’, it is claimed, ‘was developed to for one main reason:  to highlight the beauty, depth and scope of art from culturally diverse artists in Britain today.’ Such piety is the stock in trade of Decibel. But it is tempered by the quality of this product.  Skimping on the design by leaving the reverse pages black rather than having, for example, a month-to-view, and littered with biographical inaccuracies, this calendar is of little practical use. More significantly, in gathering such a differentiated group of artists purely on the basis of the colour of their skin, little consideration has been given to the historical and ongoing struggles of black and Asian artists to have their work read beyond such a crude and expedient categorisation. Surprisingly, two out of the 12 artists included in this calendar are Anish Kapoor and Rasheed Araeen. Given that both have respectively circumvented and confronted such ethnic labelling over the years, one can only speculate as to whether they or any of the other artists included granted permission for their work to be reproduced…

Such a project typifies the broader problems with Decibel’s cultural diversity agenda. The notion that some people are more cultural diverse than others is as spurious as it is to consider some people to be more ethnic than others. In Britain the use of such terminology has had a long and checkered history. ‘Ethnic minority’ and ‘culturally diverse’ are terms that privilege a limited notion of difference based on race. Such euphemisms are unhelpful because they presuppose normality to be white and everything else to be diverse.

Another key component of Decibel’s visual arts programme has been its recent advertisement for ‘Trainee Curators’ and a ‘Curatorial Fellowship’ which represents ACE’s ‘positive action to address under-representation of Black and Asian artists’ (and presumably curators) in the visual arts sector. Accompanying these posts was a call for ‘host organisations’, in the form of galleries and museums to register an interest in supporting the Fellow and or Trainees through a work based placement’. It does seem rather odd that no indication was given as to whom or what kind of organisations would be hosting these posts. On what basis could a prospective candidate make an informed judgement as to whether such opportunities were appropriate for their career?  While symptomatic of Decibel’s organisation failings, such administrative oversights imply that black and Asian people are so desperate to work in the visual arts sector that they should be grateful for any opportunities – however shoddily conceived– that are put their way...

<< Back to previous page