Late at Tate Britain presents exhibits created by young people for young people.
Hours after the Tate Britain closes on the first Friday of certain months, its numerous esteemed galleries are taken over by London’s youth, a selection of 15-25-year-olds who create one-off programs in response to the museum’s collection. A community building event first established in 2015, Late at Tate Britain engages young people—often from culturally deprived areas—with art, by having them curate exhibits for other young people.
“If you’re stuck in an area where you don’t have access to art, or anything culturally, I think you become a bit more close-minded,” says fashion designer Daniel Lismore. “When I first got to galleries, I was just blown away. Getting these young people into actually work at the Tate is so important because culture not only shapes us but these young people are going to shape the future of art.”
Lismore is the newest ambassador to Circuit, a UK national program that works within the youth sector to inspire social development and education through arts and culture, tackling issues such as racism, discrimination and inequality. Partnering with the Tate Collective—the art institution’s strand of events geared towards young people—Circuit strives to give opportunities to budding multidisciplinary creatives but also provide a social space where career potentials of any kind can be explored.
“It started with just the idea that young people were empowered enough to be within galleries and create programs for those galleries for other young people,” says Circuit lead Mark Miller. “It’s kind of rooted in social justice and this idea of radical education, that through informal learning you can empower people to see how they might construct or change institutions.”
In 2015, Culture at King's—part of King’s College London—released an inquiry into art access for young people, looking at how art policies had historically shaped youth engagement. The report, titled "Step by Step: arts policy and young people 1944-2014," recommended that government policies going forward should reflect narrowing the gap between affluent neighborhoods and disenfranchised communities, adding that more should be done within cultural institutions outside of the school system.
Read more: https://creators.vice.com/en_us/article/3d5g3w/london-young-people-curate-tate-collection
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