A look back at the CHEAD Annual Conference 2024 from Sophie Amono, Director of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion.
Reflecting on Unlocked: Creativity & Culture for Positive Change
And breathe.
It’s safe to say as someone who suffers from social anxiety – I know you’d never guess if you’ve ever spent more than 5 mins with me, but that’s the thing about disabilities; they can often be steeped in misconceptions – I was rather anxious about my first in-person conference since COVID-19.
However, I’m pleased to say the CHEAD Annual Conference 2024 convened by Professor Anita Taylor in Dundee proved that even the most socially anxious and awkward Black woman (that’s me) can find themselves in a room of Academics and feel right at home.
Being Surrounded by Women in Art & Design
That feeling of being at home is something I’ve always thought about as I moved through my career. The standard working world never felt like home and I’ll be honest, I always thought the problem might be me. Having been diagnosed with dyslexia and specific markers of ADHD at the ripe old age of 36, like many women finding themselves with a diagnosis as an adult, it’s been liberating to fully accept there is nothing wrong with me.
But it’s not come without its own feelings of self-doubt and worry. Being surrounded by so many intelligent, inspiring, and creative women in art & design HE, and opening my reflection on Professor Dori Thunstall’s keynote with this words “as a dyslexic single mother with dyslexia from a working class background and ADHD…” felt like that moment when Dorothy realises she was home all along.
If home is where the heart is then art & design is absolutely home for me. It is my belief that art & design HE is for everyone and by a radical practice of self-acceptance, I feel in some small way my leadership can help move the dial towards a more equitable future for art and design as a whole.
My diagnosis as part of my continued postgraduate studies at Central Saint Martins on the MA Arts & Cultural Enterprise programme demonstrates all too clearly the vital role that the art school plays in our individual and collective social identity.
Which brings me to a question that I pondered as the small Logan Air flight landed from Dundee into London Heathrow;
How will CHEAD’s EDI plans respond to the provocations from Dundee?
It’s something I thought of again this week as the first communications piece from the three-day symposium went live across our social platforms. The video by Laure Astill captures much of the magic held within Dundee’s creative education spaces. From the V&A Dundee sitting proudly on the windy banks of the River Taye to the calming presence that envelopes the exhibition spaces of the Cooper Gallery at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD), it’s a perfect illustration of the power of collaboration for positive change.
My next big project is focusing on our identity as an intersectional art & design organisation of distinction, trust, and activism so I invite you to reflect on the provocations from Professor Anita Taylor and Sophia Hao, Director and Curator at Cooper Gallery.
Forging our identity within the lens of our EDI values helps ensure that the positive changes we advocate for through the power of art and design can be realised by all. It’s a radical moment in our individual and collective lives where we can re-define the rules of engagement by which creative education shapes our contemporary society. art and design HE.
And so, I invite all of our colleagues, collaborators, and friends across art and design to think about how we can collectively design a new identity for our little corner of the world by making space for all at the creative education table.
“Our most important jobs as educators is to make one another curious about our world and the people that call this giant rock home – and that starts with our own self-curiosity.
Once we do that, we unleash the radical hope of self-acceptance.”
Sophie Amono, Director of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion