Events

WHAT IS IT?
A one day gathering of cultural workers who are interested or involved in UK and EU politics.

WHERE CAN I GET A TICKET?
Here

If you need one of 10 free tickets, email us Keepitcomplex2016@gmail.com

The ticket price includes stickers, brunch, dinner, tea and coffee, and a handbook, in which we will also disclose the full budget for this event. “Make it work” has been made possible through selling our “Potatoes Are Immigrants” jumpers and other merch. Thanks to everybody who has bought something from us this year.

WHO IS THIS EVENT FOR?
* People who don’t want to give in to fear and apathy.
* People who are fed up with an unequal, racist art world making “political” artworks, but also don’t want to give up on art completely.
* People who want to get involved in the European Parliament Elections in May next year.
* People who are worried about how their creative practice will survive in Brexit Britain and want to develop strategies, alternatives and resilience

WHY SHOULD I COME?
* To meet people who you might end up working with.
* To get new energy and ideas.
* To tell us about what you are already doing and how we could help.
* To eat delicious food.

WHY IS IT CALLED “Make It Work?”
Increasingly, it seems impossible to make it work, to make a living without packaging your politics or identity into an art brand, to do something beyond a nice gesture, to organise for change without burning out. So this year’s activation focuses on funding, power mapping and communication strategies to give us new tools in our ongoing struggle to make it work.

ANYTHING ELSE I SHOULD KNOW?
This is the third January activation after Unite Against Dividers (2017), Organise with Others (2018) by Keep It Complex, a group of artists, designers, curators who formed during the EU referendum in 2016. Check out or previous activations, Unite Against Dividers in 2016 and Organise with Others in 2017.

The venue is wheelchair accessible. If you have any access needs or need an interpreter, get in touch.
You are welcome to bring your children. If lack of childcare is making it difficult for you to come to this event, get in touch.

IS IT GOING TO BE A LOT OF BLABLABLA?

Yes, there will be a lot of talking, but we will also make time to just hang out and eat together and sing, so it won’t be your usual artist talk or academic conference vibes. There will also be a reading corner and quiet space and lots of breaks – check out the draft schedule below:

MAKE IT WORK

Saturday 19.1.2019, 10.30am-5pm
Company Drinks
Outdoor Bowls Pavilion (map below)
Barking Park
Essex IG11 8TA

A 7 minutes walk from Barking Station.

10.30 – 11.30 Brexit means Breakfast
Coffee, tea and a huge continental breakfast.

11.30 – 12.45 Use the brains in the space
Who is in the room and why? Who is not here and why? What are you working on? What else is going on? What do you need to make it work?

1 – 2 pm Is there such a thing as ethical funding for the arts?
Short presentations and panel discussion: Is there an alternative to the Arts Council? How can you know where your fee is coming from? How can you pressure an institution to divest from fossil fuels?

If you want to bring something to share, please email keepitcomplex2016@gmail.com or let us know on the day.

2.10 – 3.50pm Migrants Power Mapping
This session will explore how to map power in the cultural sector and better understand the challenges & opportunities of making the sector more accountable to migrants. Led by a newly founded network of migrant cultural workers organising against the Hostile Environment.

4.00 – 5.15pm How to CONTINUE to talk to people you disagree with

5.15pm
Curry and Company Drinks
Get together in smaller groups to start plotting and planning for 2019

6 pm – 7 pm
F*Choir by the fire