COLOURISM

Colourism was an ambitious project, as it sought to break free from the usual constraints placed on a traditional exhibition. It was funded by Arts Council England and took place across multiple venues in the Southampton area, including several libraries, a theatre, bookshops, a hospital, universities and colleges, as well as an art gallery. This required careful co-ordination and promotion.

The theme of the exhibition was bold, and the logistics of putting it on were ambitious. This was the task as described by Don John, the Founder and Director of Black History Month South:

“Colourism is all about the value we place on somebody if they’re light-skinned or dark-skinned, and over the years this has been the way in which some communities have judged people of different complexions. We used the local photographer Nosa Malcolm to capture images of local people with varying degrees of darkness in their complexions with a view to putting on multiple, eye-catching exhibitions.

In order to achieve maximum exposure we set up various formats of the exhibition in a number of venues, including Southampton Central Library, the MAST Mayflower Theatre, God’s House Tower, Barton Peveril College, October Books, Southampton Central Hospital and Southampton Solent University, thereby spreading the demographic and age of the audience.

All of these places had great footfall. And people walking in to those location may not have been expecting an exhibition, but obviously once they saw it, they were attracted to it.

The objective was to produce art of our own experience and take it out to different locations to produce the feeling of art to the communities, for the communities, by the communities.” - Don John, Founder & Director of Black History Month South

Special thanks to:

Nosa Malcolm - Photographer

Anthony Smith - Creative Director

Heidi Taylor - Marketing Consultant

Links:

https://www.donjohn.co.uk

https://nosamalcolm.com