BLK Art Collective CSM (BLACCC)
(2024-Ongoing) • Co-founding, Community-Led Pedagogies, Peer Mentorship, Strategic Development, Event Production & Workshop Facilitation
In partnership with Central Saint Martins / UAL
The Inquiry
How do we change the Black student experience within arts education by centering marginalised perspectives in a safe, collaborative, and culturally attuned environment? BLK Art Collective CSM (BLACCC) was born out of a long-standing necessity to address structural disparities in traditional feedback systems, where cultural context is too often misunderstood, overlooked, or left completely unexplored. It is a student-led initiative that reimagines the art school crit and educational events with collective care at its core.
Practice-Based Research as a Site of Care
Co-founded, developed, and designed alongside Huguette Tchiapi Kameni, BLACCC functions as a practical, deeply nourishing vessel for Black and African-heritage students across multiple disciplines-including fine art, fashion, film, architecture, and design. Moving completely away from competitive, hierarchical academic norms, our workshops are consent-led, non-competitive, and grounded in mutual respect.
We launched our public-facing programming in November 2025 for Black History Month at Chelsea College of Arts, partnering with 2B Or Not 2B Collective to produce a free, fully inclusive Life Drawing Salon designed to uplift marginalised, trans, and disabled bodies. Following this, in March 2026, we initiated our monthly Alternative Critique series at Central Saint Martins. These sessions pair presenting peer artists and observers with established Black industry professionals -including Liam Sangmuah (Associate Researcher at Wales Bonner) and visual researcher Dr Nathaniel Télémaque- to provide rigorous, experience-led feedback.
Our pilot phase achieved an extraordinary 100% satisfaction and student retention rate across 11 cross-college programme areas. True to our anti-extractive methodology, the space holds room for informal rest, networking, and nourishment (always providing food and space to gather before we begin). The impact of this care has extended far beyond the classroom walls: following student requests, we established a dedicated Substack community and active Instagram group chats to sustain these vital networks of peer support long into our collective careers.
My roles within this ongoing project include:- Co-founder, Developer, Designer, and Facilitator of the alternative critique structures and participatory event layouts.
- Event Producer handling cross-college institutional logistics, public/student ticketing structures, and external collective partnerships.