In-Between Spaces: A National Level Report on the Visual Arts
In 2021, the Birmingham-based Central and Eastern European arts space, Centrala, launched the report In-Between Spaces: Inclusion and Representation of Central and Eastern European (CEE) Artists in the UK Creative Economies. The report was co-authored with Sara Jones and Jakub Ceglarz of the University of Birmingham. The key findings of the 2021 report were that art by CEE artists was underrepresented in arts spaces in the Midlands in comparison to Western European and North American artists, and that CEE migrant artists frequently experience microaggressions, discrimination, and an undervaluing of their skills and experience.
The report linked these findings to what is described as “xeno-racism”, or “Eastern Europeanism”. Eastern Europeanism views the countries in Europe’s East as an “in-between” space that is backward and constantly in transition to Western standards and norms. “Eastern Europeans” are in turn stereotyped as a source of low-skilled labour for Western capitalist markets, and as “white, but not quite”. The 2021 In- Between Spaces report indicates that this stereotyping is experienced by migrant artists from Europe’s East and that art from the region is not valued in the same way as “Western” art.
In 2021, the Birmingham-based Central and Eastern European arts space, Centrala, launched the report In-Between Spaces: Inclusion and Representation of Central and Eastern European (CEE) Artists in the UK Creative Economies. The report was co-authored with Sara Jones and Jakub Ceglarz of the University of Birmingham. The key findings of the 2021 report were that art by CEE artists was underrepresented in arts spaces in the Midlands in comparison to Western European and North American artists, and that CEE migrant artists frequently experience microaggressions, discrimination, and an undervaluing of their skills and experience. The report linked these findings to what is described as “xeno-racism”, or “Eastern Europeanism”. Eastern Europeanism views the countries in Europe’s East as an “in- between” space that is backward and constantly in transition to Western standards and norms. “Eastern Europeans” are in turn stereotyped as a source of low-skilled labour for Western capitalist markets, and as “white, but not quite”. The 2021 In-Between Spaces report indicates that this stereotyping is experienced by migrant artists from Europe’s East and that art from the region is not valued in the same way as “Western” art.
Read the original report here.
Download the 2024 In-Between Spaces report