The Abuse Of Children
GOMA & other Cultural and Educational Bodies Anti-Racism Agenda
In yesterday’s post I referenced GOMA (Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art) Saturday Art Club Session ‘Teaching Empathy’. This Saturday morning workshop seeks to “to introduce families to anti-racism and decoloniality”.
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GOMA has been hosting Saturday morning drop in sessions as long as I have been living here. Due the centrality of GOMA’s location many families put it on their ‘Saturday list’ as they can drop in with their kids (the majority of children are toddler-9 years old) in the morning, do some free (in the past high quality) art workshops before getting some shopping and errands done. The times I visited when my son was wee it was always heaving with children keen to ‘get stuck into’ art making. They’d do everything from lino prints to collage to sculpture and lots in between. It was very much based upon the *craft* of art making.
As you know there is a dirth of options for kids to ‘do proper art’ here in Glasgow. In fact the *only* four I know of are the sessions through Glasgow museums, the Wee Art Studio in Clarkston, The Glasgow School of Art Open Studio and the Rumpus Room in Govanhill. Running arts workshops is messy and expensive. Providing materials alone can run up quite a cost, and having the space to explore and experiment with the various media is not something most families have access to. Which is why the Glasgow Museum sessions were always appreciated, not least because they were free.
That said even the Glasgow Museum sessions have only ever been ‘tasters’ as children cannot properly develop any of the practices they are introduced to in a one off session they might stay 10 minutes for.
From what I can find- the Wee Art Studio and The Glasgow School of Art are the only ‘proper art’ classes in the Glasgow area driven entirely by teaching children artistic skills. They are, also, costly.
The only other free arts provision I have found (outside of the Glasgow Museums drop in sessions) is the Rumpus Room. And well it’s this….
The Rumpus Room is funded via Creative Scotland, Glasgow Life and the Big Lottery Community Fund to the tune of £21, 483. Not a lot of money but enough to ‘serve’ the needs of 50 ‘young people’ aged 8-25. It is located in Govanhill.
‘Studio Community’ between ‘8-25 years’ ?
I have often spoken about the ‘lack of places for kids to go’ here in Glasgow. In particular teens. For children who are at ‘loose ends’ either in terms of ‘no where to hang out’ or even in the context of being vulnerable, a club like the Rumpus Room seems an enormous safeguarding risk for exploiting that vulnerability. It is clearly a political entity which happens to do art.
It is also worth noting that the founders of the Rumpus Room are involved in The Red Sunday School. Another ‘art’ club with an activist message for it’s young cohort.
The Red Sunday school (at least) is not funded via the public purse. Rumpus Room and Glasgow Museums are. And with that comes a certain responsibility to the public funding them.
None of these activism programs values art for its own sake. Not one allows a child to enjoy being creative and expressive without political boundaries. What’s more it is exploiting the vulnerability of this cohort because it doesn’t recognise ‘childhood’ as a unique time of life with unique capacity and vulnerabilities. And even within that it doesn’t recognise further vulnerabilities that could be triggered unnecessarily.
Off the top of my head I can think of four families I know who were/are foster carers to children with very tragic backstories. These four families all made it a habit of attending the free sessions offered through the council. In years past I would often see them at my art and dance workshops. These are the ones I know about. What happens when these children show up at GOMA ‘to do art’ and are told they have ‘white privilege’. These children have escaped abuse, they are not secure in any measure emotionally. What’s more it is not the job of our arts practitioners or institutions to be the moral arbiter in children’s lives. That is the role of the family.
So I wrote the following letter:
I then posted the letter on Facebook and Twitter tagging in Scottish Union for Education (whom I represent) and Don’t Divide Us.
Duncan Dornan, the Head of Museums and Collections got right back to me. I suggested that he cancel the workshop until the questions are addressed and answered.
We shall see….
What is clear is that there is so much of this happening behind the scenes, with our tax money and without our democratic consent. As with good laws, good safeguarding must consider things at the edges where life is not perfect. There is no compelling reason (as far as I can see) to have this kind of program in our museum schedule for children. As I have often pointed out there are so few options for kids to genuinely learn stuff. Children are not going to develop competency let along excellence in art (or any field) without the opportunity to explore the tools on their own terms and in good time. We must continue to recognise, celebrate and preserve childhood. It will not come again.
Special thanks to my current subscribers, if you are a free subscriber maybe you could consider becoming a paid subscriber? It really does make a difference. A yearly subscription is just £25 per year, £3.50 per month or founding membership £250. Every penny makes a difference & allows me to continue advocating for children & childhood. Or buy me a coffee? Thank you!