Live Project: Windrush
Interview with: Rachel Barbaresi
Date: March 31st, 2022
Introduction:
Every year, the Oxford Windrush Group holds a celebration in June, including events that students and staff at Oxford Brookes University are involved in the planning and execution of. To gain more insight into the Windrush Project at Brookes, we spoke to Rachel Barbaresi, a lecturer in Foundation Art & Design who leads students on this Live Project.
I think students have found it incredibly moving and quite an intense experience, particularly when there’s been a lot of time with people from the community.
Rachel Barbaresi
Transcript:
Rachel: The Windrush Project has run for a few years now – it is very organic and [our work] changes every year. This year, we’re making banners. It’s going to be a combination of making a simple, very functional banner to publicise the project with the Oxford Windrush Group, and a more creative project as well.
We’ve got a group of students, seven of them are from the Foundation Art course, and one of them is from the Fine Art degree course, who has been involved with the project for two years. And then myself and another Lecturer, Amy Harris, is involved as well.
You mentioned that you’re making banners this year and that the work changes every year. What have students been asked to do previously?
The first time that we were involved with the project (2019), the community wanted to collect oral histories from Oxford’s Windrush generation to capture individual narratives as well as the impact that migration had on them. Students then responded to those recorded oral histories in their creative work which was shown at the Ashmolean Museum as part of a big Windrush celebration.
In 2020, we continued the idea of recording oral histories, but it was much more focused on a project that Junie James was running in Oxford named ‘The Caribbean Living Room’ about the significance of the living room to people from the Windrush generation. We continued responding to narratives and did some really lovely creative photographic work in space. Then of course, lockdown happened so instead of the work being shared in person, it was all published on local art organisation, Fusion’s, Instagram account.
Last year (2021), it was a slightly different version of the Project because of lockdown and COVID. Nobody knew what was happening. but we still wanted to do something around migration stories. We invited different speakers to come and talk about their experience of migration over Zoom, including somebody who was a refugee from Afghanistan, a successful tennis player from Nigeria and some people from the Oxford Windrush Group. Each student was sent a pack of materials for sewing, and these stories were recorded through their sewing. Students stitched quotes from the people that spoke, like certain words or phrases that really resonated or even their own thoughts. They made really beautiful pieces of work, and we did end up having a proper celebration and an in-person event where the students’ work was displayed. We also ran a sewing activity with members of the public, so students were able to share their own work and talk about it, and also engage with the community through sewing as a way of thinking about stories and migration.
For 2022, I was very conscious of listening to what was needed from the Oxford Windrush Group, and something that came up was that they really needed a banner so that when they have an event – it’s easy for members of the public to see what’s happening and to be welcomed into the space. So we’ve offered to make that. It’s very functional. I think it’s really important that our work can fulfil a need as well as making space for the students’ creativity.
Alongside that we are also planning a really lovely creative project with the students. They’re looking at the pattern and colour in the Caribbean living room, and then making designs based around that which will become a stitched and appliquéd work.
So you’ve listed many different outputs that students and staff at Brookes have produced for the Windrush Project. Can you describe some of the skills and competencies they demonstrated throughout the project?
A really important competency is listening. Developing that sensitivity and empathy. The listening is partly about hearing other people’s stories. It’s also about valuing those stories and perspectives, and thinking about what we do with them, how we respond as well as listening in very practical ways, hearing what we can do – What’s wanted or might be helpful that we can contribute. I think that’s a really, really important one. And I want students to learn to value this as a form of research. Apart from [listening] just being an important thing as a human being, it’s also a form of research and inquiry. It’s about kind of getting outside of your own experience. They’re really thinking about somebody else’s experience and that is a skill that maybe at university we perhaps don’t always cultivate so much.
Relating to the listening, we learn to think about how to ask questions of people, and that’s been important. Planning interviews, conversations and the kinds of questions we might ask.
And then practical skills, things like photographic documentation, as well as creative skills, which is about thinking laterally, how to respond using skills and approaches you have from your own creative practice, to respond to the material that’s been developed and shared as a group.
How did you negotiate the project with the partner, the Oxford Windrush Group?
I first got involved with this group as a freelance artist, and after this was invited to continue working with plans for future Windrush celebrations. Supported by Louise Williams, the course leader on Foundation Art & Design, we started to embed the Windrush project into our curriculum. It was community led and supported by arts organisations and museums with plans being developed through regular meetings.
The way that plans evolve can be quite fluid with funding, spaces for activities and plans only falling into place a few weeks before the events take place. So we don’t always know what’s going to happen until then. But because of this being a [University] project, there is a need to plan things in advance and work within certain timescales. I usually work with students from January to March, but by that point, the Windrush group don’t necessarily have a concrete plan, so I just have to say to them directly, “What should I do?” and hope it will work out. And then usually, there’s a need to adapt what we’ve done already, to the events that are planned.
What kind of things are the Oxford Windrush Group doing to help students at Brookes further their progress with this project?
It’s a balancing act really because most of the people at the Group are volunteering their time. Some of them are freelance creative practitioners. The first year that I worked on the project from within Brookes, I had a BTAP funding award for teaching and learning, and I was able to use that to pay people from the Oxford Windrush Group to work with the students. That was nice, because I felt that their time was being paid for. And usually, what we want for the students is time with people from the community to have conversations and to learn about the history of Windrush. That’s usually our starting point to give the stimulation for our own ideas and our work.
I also aim to use opportunities that are already being offered by members of the Windrush Group. For this reason we regularly visit the Caribbean Living Room, a project space that is run by Junie James and is open to the public.
I think that the students’ presence, willingness, helpfulness and engagement with people has been really great and I think that was felt by everybody there.
Rachel Barbaresi
What impact has this Live Project had for both the Partner and the Student?
I think students have found it incredibly moving and quite an intense experience, particularly when there’s been a lot of time with people from the community. That has been incredibly moving for all of us, and quite powerful in opening our eyes to very, very different experiences and particular challenges and difficulties that people have experienced. I think it’s been quite transformative for some students. Hearing stories firsthand is very different to reading about Windrush in a news article. And the narratives change us.
When the Black Lives Matter protests were happening, I know many of the students went to those and I think they felt more involved because of the stories that they had been listening to. It is very powerful. We’ve had some students who are from an African/Caribbean background who’ve taken part and developed a more personal relationship to the project, and one has stayed with the project. She’s talked about finding out more about her own history, and I think that’s been really important to her. There’s a lot of potential for it to really influence her, in her practice and the kind of work opportunities she might look towards after her degree.
For the community, I believe the students bring real energy to the kind of events we’ve been involved with. It was really lovely last summer when we had the community event where students helped with setting up the space, hanging up artwork, just generally helping out and talking to members of the public. So I think that the students’ presence, willingness, helpfulness and engagement with people has been really great and I think that was felt by everybody there.
I can’t speak so much for our Partner, although I think they’ve been really happy with our students.
About Live Projects in general.
Do you have any advice for partners who would like to work with Brookes students on a Live Project?
It’s really important to think about what we want the students to do and what their role is so that students have a sense of purpose and an understanding of the project. Giving responsibility is really positive, but also making sure that there’s enough of a framework so that students have sufficient support.
If possible, it’s good to spend time with students beforehand if it’s something like an event. It makes a really big difference to get to know each other. Find out what a student’s skills are, and try to use those skills as much as possible. So if you’ve got a student who’s a really good photographer, get them to document things with a camera and give them that responsibility. Knowing who you’ve got in the group, what they can do, is really valuable. On the other hand it doesn’t have to be all about what they already know or can do. Sometimes it’s about being asked to do things that are different and being stretched.
What advice do you have for lecturers who would like to run a Live Project in their programme?
1. Being very flexible, agile, and adaptable. Working with external partners or community groups, things can change at the last minute. It’s important for students to feel that they’ve had an outcome. There’s nothing worse than putting all that work in and then it’s just been cut off, so having other ways through is really important if/when that happens.
2. Good communication is crucial as well, keeping all the lines of communication open.
3. Planning ahead with students – I’ve already got my students to put event dates in their diaries months in advance. Students will just get booked up and plan other things, so it’s really, really important to make sure that they know exactly what’s expected of them and when.
4. Tuning into what the external partner needs, which can be tricky, because sometimes that’s not necessarily what’s best for the students. So it is a real balancing act, thinking about what we need to make sure the students are getting but at the same time fulfilling a meaningful role within the overall plans. I really try to make sure there’s something creative in it for the students because of the academic course this is part of.
5. Building trust and having an ongoing relationship with the partner. For example, I attend meetings with the Oxford Windrush Group all year round. There is a great team spirit and generosity within the group with a range of resources and ways we can all contribute. We have the events in June, we evaluate in September, and then there are quite regular meetings maybe every month or so. And then they get very close together at the last minute just before the events. This helps with making sure we’re on track with what they need, and also being available to hear any new needs that arise.
On being a bridge between students and the partner.
Sometimes the students come up with lovely ideas, but they don’t quite fit with what the partner is asking for. So I try to manage their expectations. The partner is like a client so we might propose an idea and show images then see if this fits. Most of the time responses have been really positive and we always end up with a project that is fulfilling for the students and has a valued place in the activities of the Oxford Windrush Group.
(End of interview)
For more information about Windrush, head to their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/oxfordwindrush