enSHRINE (2020-21) — Social Art Library

By

Lady Kitt

A colour photograph of a video conferencing call. There are four larger screens showing the different people in the conversation and a tiny little screen of the person in the bottom right- this person is the person taking this picture. Everybody in … — A colour photograph of a video conferencing call. There are four larger screens showing the different people in the conversation and a tiny little screen of the person in the bottom right- this person is the person taking this picture. Everybody in the large four screens is holding up a paper house. In the top left screen there are two people. In every other screen there is one person. Image Credit Lady Kitt.

Mess making as social glue and collaborative craft as a catalyst for policy change

The project involved the development and facilitation of a short series of workshops exploring embodied policy change through collaborative crafting.

All participatory elements were run online using a variety of methods for making social art with social distance, some of which are detailed in Togetherness Tools HERE: https://www.lladykitt.com/together-ness-tools

The project was devised and facilitated by Lady Kitt, produced by Sarah Li with Sofia Barton and Co-Authors from the DGA* collective. It was funded by Arts Council England Project Grants and supported by commissions from axis, Disconsortia and Crafts Council UK *DGA- volunteer run Queer performance collective and LGBTQ+ support group researching, developing and presenting Drag as community activism. https://www.consortium.lgbt/member-directory/the-dga-collective/

“I think that making the houses and having them on display is a helpful and nice reminder of the creative connection that we had through the workshop. The little house reminded me of our community and that we are not alone.”

— enSHRINE participant

“I would love to take this thinking forward to (name of arts organistion) and see if it can be helpful in looking at our safer spaces policy that we have and unpacking it a little bit. We also plan on making zines and so I think the concept of the power object and stuff could be shared to the wider organisation that way and create some beautiful visuals to share with the messaging.”

— Arts professional

More information: https://www.lladykitt.com/enshrine

To contribute to the enSHRINE Google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_0IQSjpAhL3bNVq-tnUx8VnD_PKlWbexrkDUUbI7TnU/edit

Featured

Lady Kitt

Lady Kitt is a maker, researcher and drag king, based in the UK. Kitt describes their work as "Mess Making as Social Glue, driven by an insatiable curiosity to explore, share and (gently) insight the social functions of stuff that gets called art". Kitt uses crafting, performance and research to create objects, interactions and events. Some of the things that have happened as part of their work are: super-sized origami boat races, policy changes & the creation of an international feminist art magazine for and by children. Kitt is co-lead for Social Art Network (SAN) North East, trustee for Crafts Council UK, & member of disabled artist led consortium Disconsortia Kitt's work has been selected for inclusion in The Institute for Art and Innovation (Germany), “Social Art Award 2019 Book”. Their work has recently shown work at Atlanta Contemporary (USA) and Saatchi Gallery London (UK). Kitt is currently Maker in Residence at Durham University 2020-21 (UK) and one of nine "Constellations" artist with UP Projects and Flat Time House (London, UK).

www.lladykitt.com