Art, activism and the fight for better buses in Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow by Ellie Harrison.
Glasgow-based artist and activist Ellie Harrison introduces ‘Bus Regulation: The Musical’, her epic trilogy inspired by the 1980s hit musical ‘Starlight Express’. Harrison’s musicals feature performers on roller skates to re-enact the history of public transport provision in three of the UK’s biggest city-regions.
Presented in collaboration with local campaign groups in Manchester (Sept 2019), Glasgow (April 2022) and Liverpool (coming late 2022), the musicals have helped create awareness and support for the need to re-regulate buses in order to provide the fully-integrated and affordable public transport networks each region urgently needs to address chronic poverty/inequality and tackle carbon emissions.
Ellie will introduce her work on Friday 19th August at 12noon.
Organised in collaboration with the Art of Management & Organisation conference, co-hosted by the Bluecoat and the University of Liverpool, the group exhibition Do They Owe Us A Living? Brings together twelve artists and artist collaborations and takes as its point of departure the conference theme ‘art-as-activism’. Each artist was asked to respond to the theme of activism within the broader context of the conference.
The exhibition features a diverse range of practice: from community-focused projects engaging with care in the workplace and council-approved regeneration programmes; through to artworks directed at the histories of prejudice surrounding different communities; as well as work that questions the efficacy of art to function as an act of political resistance in its vulnerability to political co-option, ‘activism’ is proposed less as a given than a complex proposition. While the Achilles’ heel of activism lies with its susceptibility to sanitisation under capitalism, and the Achilles’ heel of ‘art-as-activism’, the squaring of aesthetic questions with moral ones, what unites these artists is the way in which they seek to critique life under the market forces of neoliberalism, shedding light on the grassroots of lived experience, in the workplace and beyond, whilst throwing caution to the ‘activist’ tag.
Inspired by the 1978 song by the punk band Crass, from which it takes its name, Do They Owe Us A Living? sets out to reveal, as exhibition and idea, how any “living“ owed is registered solely with quality of life, as distinct from the ubiquitous culture of cost-benefit analysis and transactional thinking that surrounds us.
Artists: Beagles & Ramsay, Terry Bond, Dreamchord (nil00 & Yank Scally), Pil & Galia Kollectiv, Rachel Garfield, Julika Gittner, Al Hopwood, Sumuyya Khader, Manual Labours (Sophie Hope &; Jenny Richards), Chad McCail, Ian Monroe, Simon Willems
Curated by Simon Willems, artist and British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Reading.
Join us for a private viewing at The Royal Standard on the 17th August at 6pm.
‘Voicing Activism’ Frankie Armstrong @ The Bluecoat (18th August 5.30pm)
Why is it we talk about a people, an oppressed minority, or indeed an oppressed majority (women) ‘finding their voice’?
From the suffragettes, through the anti-apartheid movement and Greenham Common and many other political movements, it is raising their voices together that has helped them both to keep in the struggle and to be heard. It may be an individual voice such as Victor Hara in Chile, or the collective voices of the children of Soweto, but it is the quality of the voice that called to Frankie. It was Pete Seeger in the 1950s that stirred Frankie into this realisation, with songs that spoke to both the head and the heart.
Since then, Frankie has been singing songs that are an expression of working people, songs from women’s lives, songs of people struggling against oppression, of daughters against tyrannical fathers (in the folk tradition), and about the environment or social inequality.
In 1975, she began running voice workshops. Her teaching is aimed at helping others find the same sense of energy and power of communication that she experienced as a solo singer. In her keynote presentation, she’ll also speak about her feeling that the beauty and power expressed through voice can engage the artistry available to all of us.
Frankie is the honorary president of the NVN (Natural Voice Network), an honorary member of VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers Association) and received a Gold Badge from the EFDSS (English Folk Dance and Song Society) as both a singer and a voice teacher.
Frankie Armstrong will deliver a keynote speech on the 18th August 2022 at The Bluecoat at 5.30pm.
AoMO in the Pandemic was a virtual event hosted during the global pandemic of COVID-19. In recognition of the AoMO community not having been able to meet in person or collaborate in its usual space of the bi-annual conference a global discussion event took its place. You can see the proceedings from the event here:
We have been asked by many people who were not able to attend some or all of the 2021 AoMO in the pandemic if we would make the recordings available. We have now put the (largely unedited) videos up on YouTube and created a document that links to them, which we are calling the proceedings of the conference.
We hope that you are well and your loved ones are safe. Here in the UK, almost all COVID restrictions have been lifted as a consequence of the success of the vaccination programme. Whilst the situation remains under careful review, life does seem to be resuming to something recognisable. With a brighter future ahead, we have resumed planning our future events with a view to breathing new life back in to the AoMO community.
This email contains a number of updates and important pieces of information so please do read it carefully. As ever, if you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to contact Jenna on jenna.aomo@gmail.com.
AoMO2021 in the Pandemic For AoMO in the pandemic this August, we have changed our thinking a little. We have had some, but not very many submissions for the event. We suspect that this is a tough time for everyone and thinking about one more online event just hasn’t been that enticing to many. So, we have decided to not try and plan a large event with multiple concurrent sessions. In early August, we will look at what has been submitted and put together a set of online events/ conversations (based on the submissions and people’s time zones) to be held August 25-27th. We don’t know what exactly that will look like since it will depend on what we receive and what we can make of it. More information to follow.
AoMO2022 – Art as Activism in Liverpool, UK (18th-21st August 2022) We are planning to get back to as close to a ‘normal’ AoMO event (if there is such a thing) in August 2022. In order for us to begin to start planning we need to get a sense of how many submissions we have and your feelings about attending a face to face event next year. To help us with this could I ask everyone who submitted a proposal to AoMO2020 to complete the following short form which can be accessed at AoMO2022 Update (It is only 4 questions).
We are planning an exciting and creative event across three venues in Liverpool, the Bluecoat Gallery,The University of Liverpool’s Guild of Students and the Leverhulme Hotel in Port Sunlight. The theme will remain as ‘Art as Activism’ and we are working hard to schedule a range of inspiring keynote speakers, artists and events to compliment our bold schedule of events!
If you would like to make a new submission to AoMO2022 then please follow the instructions below:
Abstracts of no more than 500 words, in word.doc format, should be submitted as an email attachment by 2nd February 2022 to Jenna using aomoliverpool2020@gmail.com. Further information about streams and other events will be released shortly.
Registration is now open again for the Earlybird offer (until May 1st 2022). This year we are offering packages with and without accommodation.
For the 2022 AoMO conference, in Liverpool, UK, AoMO is offering up to 4 bursaries to support PhD students and/or artists who have had a contribution (paper, workshop, installation, performance, etc.) accepted for the conference.
AoMO Bursaries
What does it include?
The bursary is for £250 accessed through a discounted ticket price.
Who can apply?
The bursary scheme is open to PhD students and practising artists. Within the application you must make a clear argument as to how the bursary would be used and why you feel you are deserving of it. You must also have had a contribution to the conference accepted, and be in receipt of the acceptance letter sent by the conference host organising team.
How to apply
You will need to complete a bursary application form and email this directly to aomofunding@gmail.com. Application forms have been circulated via the mailing list, and you can also download here: conference_bursary
The closing date for applications is 1st May 2022. All decisions will be made and communicated by the 1st June 2022.
For more information please contact aomofunding@gmail.com or jenna.aomo@gmail.com.
Deadline for contributions to AoMO 2022 Liverpool (18th August – 22nd August) is February 2nd 2022. Please click on ‘The Beatles’ inspired stream titles below to download the Call for Papers/Contributions.
Within You but Not Without You: Open Stream (please submit directly to aomoliverpool2020@gmail.com)
Through the open stream we are particularly interested in inviting contributions that explore theatre as spaces of action, alternative organisations and the use of music in movements of resistance.
To submit a paper or artistic contribution to a stream please follow instructions in the individual calls. We are also keen to consider exhibitions, installations, workshops or performances. If you have an idea, please email jenna.aomo@gmail.com.
Abstracts of no more than 500 words, in word.doc format, should be submitted as an email attachment by 2nd February 2022 to the stream convenors (contact details can be found within the individual calls) and to Jenna using aomoliverpool2020@gmail.com
Thank you to all who attended AoMO2018 at the University of Brighton. It was wonderful to come together again as a community to celebrate, explore and challenge mainstream ideas of management and organisation.
In response to a number of requests please see here:
Planning for AoMO2020 at The Guild of Students and the Bluecoat in Liverpool are underway. More information including a call for streams exploring the theme Art as Activism will be released at the beginning of November!
However, in the meantime we are looking for feedback on the conference and on AoMO more generally. If you have the time please complete the following short survey here: https://goo.gl/forms/YMmvxye38yOoNqQc2
Keith was born in 1959 in Morley near Leeds. His love of photography began at the age of thirteen while on a trip to Lagos Nigeria with his parents. On his return he successfully exhibited and presented his work at his school.
He is self-taught and passionate about black and white photography, specifically film. He is an Official Ilford Artisan Partner qualified to teach the artisan process of film and darkroom photography and was instrumental in the concept behind Ilford’s “Share a Darkroom” idea.
Keiths’ inspiration comes from photographers Jean Loup Sieff, Robert Doisneau, Clyde Butcher and the main man Ansel Adams.
He guest lecturers at several universities throughout the UK, has appeared at Focus on Imaging at the Birmingham NEC and at the prestigious Photo Romania Festival where he held a street photography masterclass.
Author of the acclaimed book Urban Portraits, which contains images of the people Keith has met during his travels as well as hints and tips about street portraiture, he has also been fortunate enough to have photographed members of the royal family as well as many celebrities throughout his long career.
Keith has worked with Leica UK and Phase One camera brands, is a contributor to photography magazines and has had a successful 30-year career as an advertising photographer working for large blue-chip companies. He now puts his energy into passing on his passion and craft through workshops run from his gallery, studio and darkroom and now with the help of Dapper Dan the Darkroom Van at various locations in the UK and Europe.
“Photography is life.. it gives me the ability to express my every thought and emotion, It’s my way of communicating. It gives me fulfilment and above all photography gives me peace”
Keith Moss is the AoMO2018 photographer and be sharing his experiences in the panel session ‘Making a Living Through Art’ on Saturday at 3.30pm.
Keith is also running a Street Photography Masterclass on Thursday 10am-1pm. Please come along to the School of Arts on Grand Parade, Brighton with your camera. More information can be found here:
We are delighted to announce that AoMO2018 will host an immersive orchestral experience at the Brighton Pavilion on Friday 31st August.
World leading conductors Gloria and John Burgess will lead an inspiring immersive event which will see delegates experience up close and personal the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra!
The Art of Management & Organization 