Image: SAFEDI enSHRINE installation (Image description: orange text on white and purple recycled paper that reads 'access obstacles')

Axisweb (Axis) has partnered Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) School of Art in conjunction with Social Art Network (SAN) on an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) fellowship, working with six social artists, community participants, arts organisations and policy makers to understand what kind of barriers underrepresented people face around access culture and creativity.

An important part of what makes a community or an individual marginalised is if they're not heard or included. Through artists making new art in participatory ways with people, conversations will be had exploring the participants’ experiences of being underrepresented with suggestions of how to put this right. We hope to change the way we think about what it means to walk through the door of a gallery, theatre or exhibition space and what might happen inside of them to those whose needs are least addressed by institutions. 

The SAFEDI fellowship will encourage solutions across the cultural sector, because it’s not just about one artist, one community group, the one institution that might adopt one or two policies, rather these can become examples for everyone. There’s something really powerful in what the outcome of SAFEDI could be, from paper recommendations to physical changes. It deeply reflects and responds to the moment that we’re living in.