In 2023 I had the opportunity to work with the British Council as part of a Cultural Relations and Diplomacy Research Secondment, supported by the University of Siena’s Centre of Excellence in Cultural Relations and Diplomacy (CREDO), a scheme that supports early career researchers to foster dialogue between academia, practice, and policy. My research focused on my work with OFF/TRACK collective and the production of Lost+Found, a hybrid residency and research programme that was supported by the British Council’s New Narratives programme.

The British Council’s New Narratives programme aims to stimulate dialogue and promote more beneficial collaboration between young people in Africa and the UK. Lost+Found is a hybrid research and residency programme that uses technology and gamified approaches to catalyse connection, collaboration and cutting-edge work across geographies and disciplines. In 2023, 16 artists from across the UK, Africa, India and Europe were guided through a 6-week virtual process using low-tech hacks and smartphone technologies that inspired them to play, share perspectives with their peers, take risks and create new collaborative artwork. Working with local partners in the UK (Ugly Duck Spaces), Botswana (Maitisong Theatre), Nairobi (Freehand Studios) and India (Dhurii Space), Lost+Found culminated in a series of on and offline performance-installations for global audiences.

Throughout the residency, artists also participated in a research programme, exploring old and new narratives about structural inequality, generating new questions, insights, and perspectives, and imagining new models of creative exchange that are fit for the rapidly evolving mid-21st century.

Our key finding was that new narratives in arts programming - platforming marginalised artists, perspectives, and communities - is not enough. Whilst there is an appetite for decolonial approaches amongst cultural relations stakeholders, pervasive systemic challenges remain. These include governance, management and financial practices that perpetuate structural inequality between funding bodies and artists, particularly creatives from the global majority.

OFF/TRACK is a pioneering collective of creatives, bringing together artists and audiences from around the world to explore, reimagine and forge new ways of creating together. In our programmes, we prioritise south-south direction, collaboration and focus on process, supporting artists to stretch themselves in new directions and to build deeper transnational connections. Artists have commented that our programmes are a ‘unique opportunity’ to ‘build community’ and ‘revisit collaboration in a non-hierarchical, trusting environment’, a creative pressure cooker that will ‘unlock creative blocks’ whilst building skills and networks. However, when we examined what it takes to secure funding for our programmes, who controls the budget, as well as who we are accountable to for our work, it was clear we are still entangled in systemic structural inequities, colonial legacies and exploitative dynamics that don’t represent the values of our transnational collective.

Through one-on-one interviews, focus groups, and in the artworks produced, we identified critical challenges in international artist development programmes. These included:

•  Access to Technology: Artists from the global majority still face significant disparities in technological access. As one artist highlighted, "We need to advocate for democratic and equitable access to the internet, to see the Internet as a human right."
•  Resource Allocation: While international opportunities open doors and can provide financial support, they also reinforce dominant narratives and define what is considered legitimate art. One artist expressed, "in an ideal world, we would not need [international funders]. They are plugging a gap due to neglect by our own governments. For example, we don’t see our government funding European artists."
•  Gatekeeping: True south-to-south collaboration remains rare. One participant noted, "In today’s creative ecology, the emphasis on Europe-Africa or Europe-Asia collaboration is an evolution of colonisation. The funds are still controlled by the global north. What is funded, what is considered good, and what is vetoed... even with stakeholders from the global south, gatekeepers align with northern funders' preferences."

There is no doubt that cultural relations funders like the British Council are increasingly sensitive to the different dynamics at play. But despite this, there is a long way to go: ‘we keep coming across outdated models of cultural production that 'rely on modalities that are biased, exploitative and continue to cause bodily, political and environmental harm’ (Lost+Found Participant, 2023). This research underscored that despite changes in programming and a shift toward decolonial narratives, existing systems and structures reaffirm power imbalances.

We need innovation in grant making models and systems of accountability: traditional organisational models - characterised by formal registration at a fixed address, hierarchical structures and extensive reporting - are not suitable for transnational creative collaborations. We need to develop new accountability models, shifting focus from funding institutes requirements to the communities of practice that the work is for. Whilst COVID-19 demonstrated the agility and imagination of the creative sector; this research found that we have fallen back to relying on inadequate organisational structures.

The CREDO research secondment laid the foundations for exploration of the way we do things at OFF/TRACK. Together with OFF/TRACK I explored what alternative organisational models might look like and I was inspired by blockchain technologies that protect artists’ IP, web-3 tools used by decentralised autonomous organisations to build communities, indigenous cooperative systems like community savings groups, and transparent decision-making processes. This exploration was anchored in the belief that artists and their communities should guide the governance, financial management and accountability of their work. By employing tools like transparent budgeting and participatory decision-making via platforms such as WhatsApp,it is possible to create more inclusive and balanced management frameworks.

Next for OFF/TRACK is EASTgoesSOUTH, a creative adventure for artists on India’s historic railway. Alongside this programme, our ambition is to solidify this research with the establishment of an artist-led, owned, and managed collective. We hope that we can bring cultural relations stakeholders on this journey with us, as we continue to push the boundaries of what cultural production can mean—led by artists and shaped by collaboration.