Southwark Education Research Project Reactivated at Tate Modern with Peckham Platform
Event page - Tate Exchange 18 - 22 April 2018
Ghafar was commissioned by Peckham Platform to critically interpret and reactivate the SERP archive through an interactive project. Ghafar focused on John Latham’s Niddrie Woman, He was inspired by Latham's advocacy of non-intervention and social value. Which he attempted to take a similar approach with the commission, by providing a sandbox for auidences to engage in whatever manner they wished and reflect on the social value of what they have made, having ultimately made a 'sculpture' at Tate.
Peckham Platform is a creative and educational charity based in Peckham, south London. We bring local communities together with leading artists to co-produce social art that responds directly to the needs and concerns of the people involved.
In 2018 Peckham Platform reactivated the Southwark Education Research Project, a pioneering arts education programme run with local authorities, teachers and pupils.
Between 1989 – 1995 SERP created interventions in the schools it worked with, encouraging participants to question the education process and providing new ways for them to engage with the arts. The project created a model for replication across the country and in doing so gained recognition nationally and internationally.
In 2018 Peckham Platform revisited SERP’s significance, at a time when education policy focused overwhelmingly on measuring attainment through exam results and league tables, and increased bureaucracy coupled with reduced budgets had seen a reduction in the opportunities for young people to engage with culture and the creative process in school.
Peckham Platform’s project had two main strands – securing and reactivating the archive of the original SERP; and public programmes at Tate Exchange and Flat Time House, which presented highlights from the archive alongside new material created through collaboration between artists Barby Asante and Barbara Steveni.
SERP Reactivated was supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Sharing our Stories
June 2022
Weinrebe Learning Centre, The Britsih Libary, 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB
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