Space for migrant artists' voices

Hello Friends, here is another milestone for me. 

2024 marks a quarter of a century as a migrant to the UK. I landed at London Heathrow Terminal 2 at the age of sixteen, on my own with two bags, an icon and fifty quid. The rest is history as they say. 

2024 is also an election year, this means that migration will be used as a political tool with often negative rhetoric for votes and for those of us with lived experience of migration - an increase in the already hostile environment. At the same time, culture doesn’t seem to be a priority for government investment. These are challenging times for migrants seeking to carve out creative careers -- (and challenging times are perhaps what we’re good at navigating).

So, I am carving out some time, and a little cash, to reach out to my fellow first generation migrant artist peers. Around touring 40/40 in March, I will be visiting Lancaster, Manchester, Derby, Cambridge and Birmingham. 

I am gathering a small group of us, across artforms, in each place to share experiences and ideas about how to shape a career in the arts. We’ll spend a couple of hours together, with a cuppa, and I can offer each participant £120. You can call this a little CPD (continuing professional development) and conversations will be around making and sustaining a career in the arts as a migrant artist -- the many different parts that ‘job’ entails. So, if you want and need some time and a safer space to check in, chew the fat, politics and art I will be at the below places at the below times. 

To book yourself in, please email me kat@twodestinationlanguage.com with 

• a paragraph about your practice

• where you are based - i.e which of the places you wanna join me at

• what you might like to talk about - i.e what will be useful to you so I can prepare accordingly

• Please do this by 18 February 2024. Spaces are limited. 

21 Feb - 3-5pm - Lancaster Arts (Bar area- the bit between the gallery and the Great Hall) I will be going to see Andy Smith's A Citizen Assembly that night, and tickets to Andy's show are here.