UCL East Artists & academics knowledge exchange labs: exploring untold histories and the power of cultural diversity with Lydia Newman & Joseph Ijoyemi
Thursday 15th May 2025 , 5:30pm to 8:30pm
Join us as we explore the relationship of the arts, research, history and heritage. We will be delving into how we as artists, researchers and academics create new narratives that bridge the past and present by exploring untold histories and the power of cultural diversity.
UCL’s Cultural and Community Engagement team is collaborating with Bow Arts on a series of learning and networking events bringing together artists, researchers, and local communities. Participants will hear from a panel of speakers whose work touches on a range of themes and issues which relate to the themes of history and heritage. The panel conversation will be followed by a Q&A and informal networking.
This is a fantastic opportunity to connect with others in the room to collectively work and think through some of the questions raised as well as reflect on the topic.
Activations on the night:
- Hear from East London Art Prize shortlisted artist Joseph Ijoyemi and the exploration into his multidisciplinary practice, informed by his personal journey into Nigerian heritage, examining identity and cultural disconnection through traditional wood carving and bronze casting. His work is deeply rooted in the concept of restitution, recontextualising archival items and historic objects to address the ongoing impact of appropriation on Africa and its diaspora.
- Fellow shortlisted artist Lydia Newman will share thoughts related to her current body of work explores her identity as a Black British woman, reflecting on the oppressions that intersect with race, class, and gender in a broader societal context. Acknowledging the masks we need to adopt to navigate western capitalist society, her work seeks to create opportunities for us to listen to our deep inner knowing, rewild and begin to liberate ourselves, moving towards a more holistic and playful reality.
- We will be joined by UCL researchers / academics, speakers to be announced soon!
This knowledge exchange lab will be highly interactive, with plenty of opportunities for you to connect with others in the room to collectively work and think through some of the questions raised, and reflect on our positionality within this context.
Please note there will be photography taken at this event for Bow Arts and UCL’s internal reporting and for sharing in print and social media.
This event will take place at UCL East Campus, Marshgate Building, 7 Sidings St, London E20 2AE
This event is co-curated by Wan Yi Sandra Lam, Curator: Programmes & Engagement at Bow Arts and Briony Fleming and Paris Hyman, UCL Cultural and Community Engagement at UCL East.
More about Joseph Ijoyemi
Joseph Ijoyemi is a Swedish-Nigerian multidisciplinary artist whose work combines diverse materials and imagery to tell stories fuelled by life experiences, cultural conversations, and a deep connection to his heritage. His output includes sculptures, multimedia installations, and sound performances, through which he shapes conversations around the African diaspora. Ijoyemi holds a MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins. He has previously won the prestigious Helen Scott Lidgett Award, and was shortlisted for the Evening Standard Prize 2023. His works were exhibited at Camden Art Centre, London, and Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, as part of Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2023. Joseph is co-founder of The Collective Makers, and organisation that mentors and empowers young creatives, and he was recently awarded the MEAD Fellowship at UAL for his project Tracing Roots: Exploring Nigerian Heritage Through Ondo’s Treasures.
More about Lydia Newman
Lydia Newman is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses painting, sculpture, installation, live performance and creative workshop facilitation. With a background in drama and performance making, her work is deeply interconnected, with each discipline bleeding into the others – images from live performances often appear in paintings, while the forms and themes in paintings inform the shapes and concepts in performances. Newman won the second prize of East London Art Prize 2025. She completed an MA in Performance Making at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2021, having previously studied Drama at Queen Mary, University of London. Between these programmes, she focused on creative facilitation, delivering self-development programmes grounded in creative practice to communities in the UK and internationally within the charity and NGO sector. Recent performances and exhibitions include Coercive Contortion, The TATE INSTITUTE (2024); The Renovation Revisited, All Hail Disordia, The Anatomy Theatre, Summerhall (2023); Tangled Series, Gallery 32, Barcelona (2023); A Primal Scream, Black Discourse, as part of online exhibition The Body is My First Mother (2021) and site-specific audio journey The Multi-story Time Park, Ilford Shopping Centre (2021). Newman was also a performer in Lygia Clark’s Corpo Coletivo & Elastic Net, Whitechapel Gallery (2024).
More about UCL
UCL is London’s leading multidisciplinary university, with more than 16,000 staff and 50,000 students. Our world leading academics, curious students and outstanding staff continually pursue excellence, break boundaries and make an impact on real world problems.
Access information
If you have any questions regarding accessibility at this event or would like to make us aware of any access requirements that you have in advance of visiting, please email Briony on b.fleming@ucl.ac.uk
Access requirements could include things like providing equipment, services or support (e.g. information in Easy Read, speech to text software, additional 1:1 support), adjusting workshop timings (e.g. more break times), adjustments to the event space (e.g. making sure you have a table near the entrance) or anything else you can think of!
About the East London Art Prize Events Programme
The East London Art Prize Events Programme is a dynamic, free public programme open to all, which builds on the Prize’s ethos of providing ongoing support, development, and networking opportunities for artists in east London and beyond.
Featuring a constellation of workshops, talks, panels, lates, socials, labs, walks, and takeovers in collaboration with our Prize partners and featuring some familiar faces from our shortlist of 12 fantastic artists, this year’s events programme celebrates and pays homage to the huge abundance of talent and creativity nestled in east London.
These events have been developed by Wan Yi Sandra Lam, Curator: Programmes & Engagement at Bow Arts in collaboration with our Prize partners the British Council, The Line, London College of Fashion (LCF), London Legacy Development Corporation, University College London (UCL), V&A East, Whitechapel Gallery and Dulux.
Find out more about the wider programme here.
More about the East London Art Prize
The East London Art Prize is an all-media art prize designed to showcase the talent of artists working and living in east London, with an accompanying event programme supporting artists’ careers and opportunities. The Prize is generously funded by Minerva and Prue MacLeod. Find out more on the Prize webpage here.
