In the latest episode of the Royal College of Art Podcast, Emily Moore and Ekua McMorris discuss initiatives to support the RCA’s Black community.
Host Benji Jeffrey was joined by Emily Moore (Painting MA, 2020) – co-chair of RCA BLK, the association of Black Students, Alumni & Friends – and Ekua McMorris (Photography MA, 2009), former RCA Student Union President and current tutor on the Graduate Diploma Art and Design at the College. 
From an online support network to scholarships and socials, Emily explains the origins of RCA BLK and how it has evolved to support the needs of Black RCA students, past, present and future. 
Ekua shares her experiences of curating the 2011 RCA Black exhibition, which showcased the work of RCA artists and designers from throughout the College’s history.
Their conversation considers the importance of solidarity, financial support, and the visibility of those who have gone before. 
Featured in the podcast is a poem by Thalia Dougourou (Visual Communication MA, 2023), which was commissioned by RCA BLK, as part of Black Star, a project creating a time capsule of artworks from the RCA BLK community to be sent into outer space. Thalia’s practice dismantles Eurocentric perspectives on African history through word and image. Discover her ⁠RCA2023 graduate work⁠.
The music in this episode is from Andrew Pierre Hart (Painting MA, 2019). It’s taken from a mix he created to accompany his exhibition ‘The Listening Sweet - 3 - Lagos’ at Tiwani Contemporary in Lagos Nigeria. The work he exhibited explored the dialogue between painting, sculpture and music – a fundamental part of his practice. You can discover more about Andrew’s work on ⁠his website⁠. 
More information:
RCA BLK
You can find out more about RCA BLK ⁠on their website⁠.
You can also get in touch with RCA BLK through⁠ their Instagram ⁠or contacting them via email. rca-blk@rca.ac.uk
Further details of The Frank Bowling Scholarships, open to Black students, can be found ⁠on our website⁠. 
The Yinka Shonibare residency in Lagos, Nigeria, that was mentioned is an opportunity for the extended RCA BLK community: email rca-blk@rca.ac.uk for the open call information pack


RCA
You can find out more about the RCA on ⁠our website⁠.
If you are interested in studying here, you might want to check out an Open Day.
Details of the Graduate Diploma in Art & Design, can be found here.
You can also find out more about the wider Student Support offered by the College.


RCA Black exhibition
The RCA Black exhibition featured 23 artists from the RCA’s history. You can read more about it in ⁠a Guardian interview⁠ with Ekua.


The RCA alumni Ekua mentioned in the podcast were:
Barrington Watson 
Frank Bowling
Joy Gregory
Charlie Allen
Faisal Abdu'Allah

Other artists mentioned in this episode
Emily talks about artists featured in Frieze art fair and 154, including:
⁠Lubaina Himid⁠
⁠Jadé Fadojutimi⁠
⁠Shaquelle Whyte⁠

She also mentions ⁠Jarelle Francis⁠ (Curating Contemporary Art MA, 2023) who established Meadow Gallery, with an exhibition of work by ⁠Roisin Jones⁠ (Contemporary Art Practice MA, 2023).
Ekua discusses Black female artists Lubaina Himid, ⁠Marlene Smith ⁠and ⁠Claudette Johnson⁠

Behold our power - celebrating the RCA’s Black community

In this episode, Benji Jeffrey chats to Christoph Jones and Melanie King from the Working Class Collective (WCC).

The WCC is a student-run society, founded by Jennifer McMillan and Cristoph Jones in 2020 with an aim to uplift and provide solidarity for working-class students at the RCA.

The WCC acknowledges and celebrates the varied lives and experiences of working-class people through talks, events, exhibitions and social gatherings, and has produced two triumphant summer shows.

At the time of recording, Melanie King is the Interim Chair.

Listen as Benji, Christoph and Melanie discuss:

The formation and growth of the society
What it means to be ‘working class’, intersectionality and cultural identity
How being working class influences artistic practice


About the guests
Christoph Jones is an award-winning conceptual artist based in London. He graduated from the RCA with an MA Contemporary Art Practice in 2023. During his time as a student, he co-founded the RCA Working Class Collective with Jennifer McMillan. His practice encompasses a diverse range of mediums, including 3D digital design, video essays, painting, sculpture, performance, installation, and speculative fiction writing. With a focus on recontextualization, aesthetic abstraction and geographic relocation, his current work explores the transformative power of these processes on ostensibly axiomatic ideological, political and social concepts.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_christophjones/
Website: https://www.christophjones.com/

Melanie King is a working class artist and curator, originally from Manchester, and is now based in Kent, UK. She is a practice-based PhD Candidate in the School of Arts & Humanities at the Royal College of Art. Melanie is co-Director of super/collider, Lumen Studios and founder of the London Alternative Photography Collective. She is also a Lecturer In Photography at Canterbury Christ Church University. She is represented by the Land Art Agency.
Instagram: https://www.melaniek.co.uk/research 
Website: https://www.instagram.com/melaniekatking/
Learn more about the Working Class Collective
Instagram: @RCAWCC
X (Twitter) @RCAWCC
Website https://www.rcasu.org.uk/organisation/6281/ 

Mentioned in the episode
Jacob Talkowski @jacobtalkowski
Zofia Skoroszewska @zofiaskoro
RCA2022 & RCA2023 curated collections:
RCA2022
RCA2023
Working Class Artist Network Collective Instagram
Article: ‘Impostor syndrome’ is a pseudo-medical name for a class problem, Nathalie Olah
Book: Chavs by Owen Jones
Book: Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber 
Essay: What’s the point if we can’t have fun? David Graeber
Resource: Working Class Creative Database
Resource: White Pube Successful Funding Application Library

Learn more about the Royal College of Art
Visit: www.rca.ac.uk
Find out about scholarships and funding available: https://bit.ly/3mEaQjv

RCA Podcast: Being a working-class creative

How can we integrate sustainability into arts and design education to empower students to make an impact?

In the latest episode of the RCA Podcast, Dr Nick de Leon explores this question with representatives from the Sustainable Markets Initiative, the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (UAE), the National Institute of Design Ahmedabad (India) and the Rhode Island School of Design (USA).

Following on from the global success of the 2022 edition, the RCA is partnering for a second time with the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Terra Carta Design Lab - a competition to discover student led, high impact solutions to the climate crisis.

This year’s Design Lab has expanded its reach to also partner with Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (UAE), National Institute of Design Ahmedabad (India) and Rhode Island School of Design (USA).

In this podcast episode, leaders from each of these institutions come together to consider:
How we can integrate sustainability into higher education
The value of multidisciplinary collaboration, and collaborating between academia and industry
Taking an entrepreneurial approach to learning and design
Making an impact through international partnerships
The Terra Carta Design Lab and Sustainable Markets Initiative

Host & guests:
Nick de Leon is the RCA’s Academic Lead for the Terra Carta Design Lab. He is also Executive Education and Knowledge Exchange Lead in the RCA’s School of Design, where he leads the development of the School's research and knowledge exchange relations.

Jennifer Jordan-Saifi, M.V.O., MBA is Chief Executive Officer of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, a global organisation that mobilises the private sector to put sustainability at the heart of global value creation. His Majesty King Charles III, a champion of sustainability for over 50 years, launched the Sustainable Markets Initiative (when he was Prince of Wales) in 2020.

Touba Ghadessi is President Provost of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), setting a visionary path for student learning and academic affairs. Of Iranian ancestry and raised in  Geneva, Switzerland, Touba embodies a commitment to diplomacy and cultural dialogue.

Hani Asfour is Vice President of Innovation and Institutional Partnerships at Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (DIDI). He is a founding member of DIDI, playing a pivotal role in shaping its curriculum, developed in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and The New School's Parsons School of Design.

Praveen Nahar is the Director of the National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad, India. His leadership extends across various departments and committees within NID, with a focus on areas such as Sustainable Design and Systems Thinking. 

Learn more about the Terra Carta Design Lab on the ⁠RCA website⁠: https://www.rca.ac.uk/business/terra-carta-design-lab/

Find out more about ⁠studying at the RCA⁠: https://www.rca.ac.uk/study/

Discover the ⁠RCA’s Scholarship and funding opportunities⁠: https://www.rca.ac.uk/study/application-process/funding-your-studies/

Designing the future - educating for sustainability in art and design

Kimberley Burrows is an interdisciplinary artist, disability advocate and model living and working in London. She graduated from our MA Painting in 2023 and is now Co-President of the RCA's Students' Union.

She was a recipient of the Tony Snowdon Scholarship, awarded by The Snowdon Trust to exceptional disabled scholars, and was named on The Shaw Trust’s Disability Power 100 List of the UK’s top 100 influential disabled people and organisations.

Listen as Kimberley chats to fellow RCA graduate, Benji Jeffrey, about:

The definition of ‘accessibility’
Accessibility in the arts and the digital world
Her artistic practice, and her journey as a disabled artist through creative education

RCA Podcast: Kimberley Burrows - Accessible making and making accessible

Check out our latest podcasts on the RCA website: https://www.rca.ac.uk/news-and-events/rca-podcasts/

RCA Podcast: Being a working-class creative

The Royal College of Art Podcast

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