Social impact

We believe our project will be of benefit to many people beyond the academic world:

i) Artists and cultural producers from Brazil, Colombia and Argentina whose work addresses issues of racial difference and racism. This project will raise awareness about the potential their productions have for exposing and confronting the persistence of racism in Latin America. Workshops and public events in each country will allow artists to discuss their work with other artists, academics, social activists and civil servants. The project’s closing event in the UK will bring researchers and findings from the Latin American scene into exchange with British anti-racist artist/activists. This event will also launch an online exhibition of some of these artists’ works, allowing them to reach a broad public.

ii) Indigenous, Afro-descendant and other organisations whose work focuses on race and racism will also benefit from the project. Its analysis of the role the arts and emotion can play in anti-racist practices will help them develop innovative actions aimed at social inclusion.

iii) Government agencies dedicated to racial issues will be able to draw on the results of this project to implement anti-racist initiatives in which the arts and emotions have a central role (for example, art festivals, competitions, educational initiatives).

iv) British cultural practitioners will also benefit from the Latin American experience. How Latin American artists navigate the particular racial dynamics of their countries through cultural production can provide learning points for their British counterparts. Furthermore, bringing these British and Latin American contexts together – rarely done in academia or anti-racist work – will help illuminate their shared features. The closing events will put British and Latin American artists in dialogue and create a platform for these exchanges.

v) Finally, we hope the research will appeal to communities and the wider public, in Latin America and the UK, with an interest in racism and/or art, giving them the opportunity to learn about contemporary and ground-breaking cultural production from Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, the state of racial difference and anti-racism in Latin America, and the possibilities of culture for fighting discrimination and strengthening racial inclusion.