Stephen Welsh on how equity and humility can flourish when cultural institutions resist the urge to take the starring role in a co-creation project and refrain from concentrating all of their efforts on the creative outcome and its public unveiling.

You may be surprised to learn that, in addition to being a cultural practitioner, I’m also a bit of a performer. At exhibition openings, networking events and conference socials in my beloved black sequined bomber jacket, I occasionally find myself belting out a bastardised version of iconic game show host Sir Bruce Forsyth’s instantly recognisable Generation Game theme song, “Co-creation is the name of the game, and I wanna play the game with you!” I’m joking, of course. I’m a terrible ‘singer’, and I even quit Skelmersdale Players because I was chosen to perform a solo version of Wonderful Copenhagen in their production of Hans Christian Andersen.

Anyway, I digress. This piece isn’t about repeatedly undiscovered entertainment talent but rather the growing popularity of co-creation with under-served communities in the cultural sector, a practice that’s swiftly becoming a spectacle in and of itself. For as we know, there’s always the chance that something will become more superficial as it grows in popularity and scale – just like the Tories’ ‘levelling up’ agenda. So, when the spectacle of co-creation takes precedence over the more subtle and, I would argue, more substantive aspects of this work, does co-creation risk becoming one big performance?

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good performance just as much as the next culture vulture, but if it’s going to be co-created with disadvantaged groups in such a way that they get to share centre stage with the cultural institution, then institutional egos need to be dispensed with. This isn’t easy, especially when funding bodies have quite rightly emphasised engagement with people and places that’ve benefited the least from decades of investment in arts, culture and heritage, are looking to be dazzled by cultural institutions carrying out this work.

I encourage cultural institutions to engage with both the elation and exhaustion that accompanies co-creation, as well as the risk of exploitation and extraction, and resist feeling compelled to reproduce some confected ‘industry standard’

This can lead to under-served communities being portrayed in a particular light, as if they’re somehow comparable to compliant game show audiences waiting patiently to be invited to participate, “Come on down, the co-creation is right!” These communities have endured marginalisation but they are anything but passive; not only are they brimming with creativity, but as Professor Thomas McCarthy describes in his book Race, Empire, and the Idea of Human Development (2009) they are, “quite often more adept with the weapons of critique than their opposite numbers: the virtuosos of reflexivity in our time come disproportionately from such groups.”

As a cultural practitioner I’m a big fan of critique and reflexivity, or as Public Enemy put it on their rap album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988), not believing the hype. I encourage cultural institutions to engage with both the elation and exhaustion that accompanies co-creation, as well as the risk of exploitation and extraction, and resist feeling compelled to reproduce some confected ‘industry standard’. In my experience, thinking about co-creation in the round like this allows cultural workers – some of whom, like me, come from these under-served communities – to be more realistic and rigorous about their plans rather than stretching themselves to breaking point to create an all-singing, all-dancing show.

Being subtle and avoiding the spotlight from the outset sends a powerful message that cultural institutions and workers are serious about building genuine community connections rather than prioritising co-creation in order to gain more street cred, get the ideal photo op or start trending on social media. Equity and humility can flourish when cultural institutions resist the urge to take the starring role in a co-creation project and refrain from concentrating all of their efforts on the creative outcome and its public unveiling.

Authentic connections were what the Voices from the Edge project was aiming for. The project was developed by Ceredigion Museum curator Carrie Canham and artist and project coordinator Rose Thorn with the intention of fostering deeper understanding and strengthening relationships between the museum and Global Majority communities. Creative practitioners from Global Majority communities living in rural west Wales convened a group and came together every Sunday at either Over the Rainbow Wales, a vegetarian and vegan country retreat in Tanygroes, or Ceredigion Museum. The museum opened especially for the group, and any members with children were welcome to invite them along to the sessions as well, during which a range of artistic responses to the British Museum’s Touring Exhibition ‘For the curious and interested’ were co-created.

In my role as the project’s mentor, I was struck by just how much it resembled the way that Dr John Wright defined convening in his paper ‘The Power of Convening: Towards an Understanding of Artist-Led Collective Practice as a Convener of Place’ (2024), “… the act of convening opens a form of commons with those involved, a shared space that is not predicated on individual ownership or profit-making but on ideas and even sharing of resources that has potentially deep socio-cultural and even political value.”

Voices from the Edge was one of several projects included in the Re:Collections programme, which was a collaboration between the Association of Independent Museums and the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre and Education Trust, for which I worked as a consultant. The programme was funded by the Welsh government and designed to assist museums in Wales in implementing the Culture, Heritage and Sport goals and actions from the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan and Programme for Government.

When it comes to co-creation, we’re talking about people’s lives – their emotions, experiences and ethics – and that’s certainly no game

By viewing co-creation as part of a wider struggle to create more relevant, representative and responsive museums in Wales – which included action on anti-racism, decolonisation and inclusion – the programme and its related projects repositioned co-creation as part of an integrated approach to making and embedding change. Combining co-creation with other processes makes complete sense, especially when considering the provocations of Audre Lorde, who made it abundantly clear in her essay ‘Learning from the 1960s’ (1982), “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”

That’s the thing: when it comes to co-creation, we’re talking about people’s lives – their emotions, experiences and ethics – and that’s certainly no game. Cultural institutions and workers need to be prepared to embrace this and provided with all the necessary support to do so, or else performativity creeps in and communities can experience what Darren McGarvey describes in his book Poverty Safari (2017), “that things are not done with the community but to it.” However, taking the time to engage in co-creation in a complex and compassionate way can have a profound impact, as it did for those who were involved in Voices from the Edge.

I often wonder what course my life would’ve taken if I’d stuck it out at Skelmerdale Players; perhaps by now, I would’ve been a celebrity contestant or even a presenter on Strictly Come Dancing. I doubt I’d have ever made a decent game show host, though, because I’d be inclined to remove the pressure to overperform and achieve perfection in favour of taking a moment to pause, gain perspective and prioritise people over putting scores on the board. With that said, if this hasn’t put any talent agencies off, I’m always looking to expand my freelance portfolio, and my contact information is available on my website. But, until stardom beckons, I’m content to stick with my first love and, to paraphrase one of Sir Bruce’s many catchphrases, keeeeep co-creating!

Stephen Welsh (he/him)
Independent curator, consultant and creative producer
stxwelsh.com

Stephen Welsh is running a study day about museums and co-creation on 9th October as part of Museum Ideas 2024 in London. Find out more about The Co-created Museum study day.

Published 2 July 2024