Jamila Prowse

How do we build support systems that are sustainable and accessible within the arts? Working as an artist, curator or arts professional can be an isolating practice (particularly when freelancing), curator Jamila Prowse will share the strategies she has been researching and learning to support the wellbeing of both herself and the artists she works with. As a mixed race practitioner with ongoing mental illnesses, Jamila will include a consideration of how to navigate working with institutions if you have specific access needs that restructure the way in which you work (including writing Access Riders, as informed by the work of Leah Clemments, Alice Hattrick and Lizzy Rose).

In line with the BLM movement, Jamila will discuss how she is challenging herself to be more vocal in ensuring the contexts that she is working within are supportive and sustainable for both herself and Black and PoC artists and practitioners (and the obstacles she has encountered around this in the past).

Jamila Prowse is an independent curator, writer and editor, aiming to develop new dialogues and structures around identity and care within the visual arts. Specialising in moving image, photography and community focused public programming, Jamila works primarily to center and engage underrepresented artists and audiences. Jamila was the Guest Editor for Photoworks special edition Annual in 2020, celebrating 25 years of the organisation. Recent curatorial projects include Dancing in Peckham, Peckham 24, London (May 2019); MOVE, 1-1, Basel (March 2019); ‘Reflections of Us’, Brighton Photo Fringe, Brighton (October 2018). She has written around representation, identity, disability and care for Magazine Art Work, Photoworks, Dazed, and was the founder of alternative women’s magazine Typical Girls.