Building towards better access to arts education and arts spaces Shepherd Manyika

Multi media artist and educator Shepherd Manyika will be joined by Mary Evans, artist and BA Fine Art Leader at Chelsea College of Art to discuss his exhibition Me Myself and I // Home // Grandmother’s House and the wider context of building better access to arts education and arts spaces.

Me Myself and I // Home// My Grandmother’s House features new work by Shepherd and includes artworks from this year’s ArtLab+ artists from Earlsmead Primary School. It seeks to remove barriers and as such reduce the separatism between the achievements of the professional artist and the children to challenge traditional hierarchies within visual arts. Shepherd has been a key part of the ArtLab+ programme at iniva for three years. ArtLab+ aims to broaden horizons, increase confidence, develop emotional learning alongside creative and practical art making skills in primary aged children. The programme also supports artists and art therapists in developing their practice.

Shepherd is dedicated to working towards better access to arts education and arts spaces for all. Mary and Shepherd will talk around this aspect and how we all can consider ways to broaden and embed routes of access to the visual arts.

Mary Evans is an artist and is the BAFA Course Leader at Chelsea College of Arts. Mary uses kraft paper and other disposable materials to consider sites, stories, place and belonging through the social, political and historical frames of Diaspora, migration Global mobility and exchange. Evans is engaged in investigating and interrogating the African body as a site for historical and contemporary narratives of violence, geography, mobility and globalisation.

Shepherd Manyika is a London based artist who works with mixed media. Shepherd is interested in memory and play and explores themes such as identity, representation, collaboration and points of access. Shepherd graduated in BA Fine Art at Central Saint Martin’s in 2011 and MA in Academic Practice in Art, Design and Communication from Central Saint Martins 2019. He exhibited at Royal Academy School of Arts with the Parasites School residency and produced site-specific works for iniva, South London Gallery, TATE and also works on various education programs across London.

Image: Sound Opus by Shepherd Manyika, 2018