Migration is a lived reality for a growing number of creative workers and, has become a widely explored topic in contemporary Art and Design.

How do we acknowledge the personal and lived experience within art practices?

How can we as practitioners acknowledge the physical and cultural barriers faced by migrants?

How can we support migrant workers?

SU Co-President Aleks Stanek chaired a panel discussion based on the above with Dr Naomi Bath, Prof William 'Lez' Henry, Uta Kögelsberger, Arash Kamali Sarvestani. We recorded the talk and will be updating this page with where to watch soon. 

Thanks to everyone who came - let us know what you thought of the talk by emailing us on students-union@rca.ac.uk 



**Dr Naomi Bath is the ISM’s Senior Research and Policy Officer, responsible for the ISM’s research portfolio on topics ranging from music education to the impact of Brexit on musicians to the gig economy and the precarious nature of working as a musician. She regularly lobbies MPs and civil servants on key policy issues affecting music education and the music profession as a whole. Naomi previously worked in education policy at the think-tank, Royal Society of Arts (RSA), and completed her PhD on the role of Hungarian folk music in society in Budapest in 2016. In May 2019 Naomi authored the ISM’s most recent report on Brexit (Impact of Brexit on Musicians) which she will discuss today.

About the ISM
The Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM) is the UK's professional body for musicians and a nationally recognised subject association for music. Since 1882, the ISM has been dedicated to promoting the importance of music and protecting the rights of those working in the music profession.
The ISM supports almost 10,000 musicians across the UK and Ireland with our unrivalled legal advice and representation, comprehensive insurance and specialist services. Our members come from all areas of the music profession and from a wide variety of genres and musical backgrounds.
The ISM campaigns tirelessly in support of musicians’ rights, music education and the profession as a whole. We are a financially independent not-for-profit organisation with no political affiliation. This independence allows us the freedom to campaign on any issue affecting musicians.

**Prof William 'Lez' Henry
I was born in the London borough of Lewisham, of Jamaican Parentage and I am the British Reggae Deejay Lezlee Lyrix. I am a writer, poet and community activist who is renown as a first-rate public speaker.
I am a highly experienced lecturer in the areas of criminology, sociology, anthropology, race, education, ethnicity, youth crime and cultural studies. I am currently a Professor in the School of Human and Social Sciences where I teach Levels 3 - 7 and conduct MA and PhD supervision and have acted as an external examiner for several PhD Vivas. I have a wide range of research and teaching experiences, in formal and informal academic settings, and have successfully designed and delivered educational programmes for many of those who have turned their backs on formal education.

I too had a difficult time in formal education and left school and college with no qualifications of note but have always maintained a passion for learning and teaching. This passion drove me to return to the orthodox educational arena 1993 - 2002 to pursue the qualifications I always knew I could achieve, beginning with an Access Course in Social Anthropology, culminating in achieving a PhD. I currently use these experiences in my work with UWL’s Outreach Team where I deliver my ‘Goal Models: Pathway to personal success programme’ to students from various local schools.

I have lectured nationally and internationally on behalf of various public and private institutions and featured in numerous documentaries and current affairs television and radio programmes and has written and published extensively on many of the concerns of the African Diaspora in the UK.
My current research firstly seeks to understand racialisation as process, with a focus on African/black history and identity formation across the African diaspora; secondly ‘whiteness as process and praxis’ to evaluate how this form of identity politics impacts all areas of global human activity; and lastly on educational underachievement amongst BAME and white working-class children/youth, with a particular emphasis on the links between school exclusions, racial violence, youth violence and gang affiliation.


**Uta Kögelsberger is an artist based in London. Her work articulates and engages with social and political concerns through photography, video, sculpture and sound. Recent projects have included Uncertain Subjects, a durational billboard performance in response to the social and political landscape in the UK in the run up to Brexit (2017-2019), the sculptural installation and experimental sound work, Orchestra of Rocks a visceral response to the increase of rainfall due to changing weather conditions in collaboration with composer Atau Tanaka (2016-2019); Waiting for Los Angeles, a video portrait of Griffith’s Park one of the few truly democratic public spaces in Los Angeles (2015); and a trilogy of works including Off Road about the implementation of the notion of freedom in the USA (2008-2014).

Kögelsberger’s work has been exhibited across the UK and abroad including at the Brighton Photo Biennial, Art Night, London, Bluecoat, Liverpool, Spacex, Exter, CGP, Gallery, London, the Architectural Association, London, Laurence Miller Gallery, NYC, the Glassell Project Space MFAH, Houston and LACMA, Los Angeles amongst others. Her work is held in public and private collections including the Museum of Modern Art Houston and the Los Angeles County Museum.

Kögelsberger has been awarded the EAA Award for Art in Architecture and the SPD silver medal for editorial photography. Her photographic essays have been published in Wired, Esquire, GQ and American Photography.


**Arash Kamali Sarvestani is an Iranian Filmmaker. Arash was born in Tehran, Iran on 1981. He has studied Cinema in Art University of Tehran. In 2009 he moved to the Netherlands to study Fine Art in Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. He has graduated on 2013 and he is living in The Netherlands since then.

In February 2015 he has participated in Abbas Kiarostami's workshop in Barcelona. Besides close observation of Kiarostami's style of film making, this event was a unique chance to know about the late artist's character and his views about life and art.

Arash made the movie " Title of essay: The sea" In Abbas Kiarostami's workshop which has been shown in a number of festivals.

The workshop coincided with the huge wave of refugees. Arash came up with the idea of making a film from inside a refugee camp. He was curious to know if it is possible to make a movie about refugees using only mobile phone cameras inside a camp that looks more like a prison.After two years of investigation about refugees kept by Australian government in Manus and Nauru camps Arash eventually found Behrouz Boochani who was (and still is) detained in Manus camp. Arash shared the idea with Behrouz. The first feature movie of Arash “Chauka, Please tell us the time” is a result of their cooperation.