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And …Where Do You and I Fit In?- Reflections on Coordinating Shake!
Blog post -
Jul 16, 2013
Some 9 months since joining Platform, I wanted to offer some reflections on working on Shake!, which is the project I co-ordinate and what I largely work on. This piece is extracted from my concluding remarks at our last Shake! Showcase , slightly paraphrased for the blog reader. Shake! is a project that brings together...

Workshop on using Story-based Strategy, 30 July 2013
Jul 11, 2013
Platform office, Tuesday 30 July 2013, 6.30 to 8.30pm Story-based strategy links movement building with an analysis of narrative power and places storytelling at the center of social change. The Centre for Story-based Strategy (formerly SmartMeme) have developed an approach that is grounded in a narrative analysis of power—a recognition that humans use stories to understand the world...

Official: Shake! Showcase at least 18% better than Glastonbury
Blog post -
Jul 1, 2013
BLOG from Platform’s youth project Shake!, first posted 28.6.13. Gender issues get a lot of discussion here at Shake! so it was with interest that we saw this article today on the representation of women on the line-up at festivals. We thought it only fair that we checked ourselves and with a hasty count-up and...

How fossil-fueled is your university? Take part in our research!
Publication -
Jul 1, 2013
Many UK universities support the fossil fuel industry both directly and indirectly through their research, their endowments and investments and their partnerships with companies like BP and Shell. We are campaigning to expose and sever these links – and we are asking for your help! People & Planet and Platform are trying to collect as...

‘Oil City’ ends, and Shake! youth showcase this Sunday
Blog post -
Jun 21, 2013
Today’s the last day of Platform’s performance ‘Oil City‘ – the spy-thriller for the post-Occupy age. I went last Thursday with the same bare information as any non-Platform person would have. For the past two weeks, at 9am, 1pm and 5pm, audiences of 6 people have been taken on an intense and beautifully crafted set...

Excerpts from Take The Money and Run? New guide on arts, ethics and sponsorship
Blog post -
Apr 16, 2013
This week, together with Live Art Development Agency, we are launching a beautiful print and e-version of the Agency’s Study Room Guide ‘Take the money and run? Some positions on ethics, business sponsorship and making art’. The Guide was commissioned by the Agency from Platform, and I took up the interesting task of choosing and...

Remember Oluwale – launch tonight, Leeds
Blog post -
Jan 23, 2013
Platform hails allies in Leeds who are tonight launching a key campaign and creative project ‘Remember Oluwale’. This marks the appalling treatment and early death in suspicious circumstances of Nigerian-born, Leeds-based man David Oluwale. It looks at the contemporary legacies, and how we can change the future. Platform makes common cause with David’s life and...

Platform at ‘Education: Not Knowing’, at Raven Row, London, Tues 13th November
Oct 24, 2012
Platform’s Jane Trowell is contributing to one of 5 parallel panels during this seminar. It’s part of the long-awaited exhibition on the Artists Placement Group (APG) at Raven Row gallery in Artillery Lane, London, E1 7LS. APG’s work – and successor O & I – has been a big influence on Platform’s development. The...

Oil money and the Academy
Blog post -
Aug 23, 2012
A guest blog post by Dr Alice Bell, an academic and writer interested in relationships between science and the public. She blogs at http://alicerosebell.wordpress.com/ and you can follow her on Twitter @AliceBell BP is to invest £64 million to set up an International Centre for Advanced Materials (BP-ICAM) based at the University of Manchester. It...

Keeping on: sustainable art-activism
Blog post -
Mar 27, 2012
What enables artists and activists to keep on making work that challenges the status quo? How can we sustain ourselves, our imaginations, and our communities while keeping on speaking truth to power? On 14 March 2012, I wrote this to some people I have been working with recently: "I'm giving a presentation called "Keeping on: sustainable...

Don’t throw activist histories away: Huntley Conference on Arts & Activism, Culture & Resistance
Blog post -
Feb 21, 2012
18th February, London There were over a 100 artists, activists, community workers, young people, archivists & conservators, educators, parents, grandparents, policymakers. We were taking part in talks, creative “Groundings” sessions, a parallel youth conference, music & poetry performances, from the fabulous El Crisis, younger talented artists, and the more experienced, discussing race and power, creativity and...
Education and Exhibitions
Site page -
Sep 13, 2011
“Education involves ethics and aesthetics hand in hand. It is beautiful because it is ethical” Paulo Freire Platform’s education work and exhibitions are creative opportunities for people to meet together, share, learn, and make change happen. It cuts across all of Platform’s work, demonstrating our values, processes, and...