Maybe we are all prospective migrants. The lines of national borders on maps are artificial constructs, as unnatural to us as they are to birds flying overhead. Our first impulse is to ignore them.
Mohsin Hamid
In July 2019, Many Studios and Deveron Projects co-produced an event called Movement of Freedom, which brought together around 40 senior creative practitioners as well as Scottish Government representatives to discuss issues and barriers in the UK Visa and Immigration system, especially in relation to inviting international artists to participate in arts programmes in Scotland.
Contributors included artists and art representatives who had experience on this issue: Claudia Zeiske, Deveron Projects; Natalia Palombo, Many Studios; Nick Barley, Edinburgh International Book Festival; Alasdair Campbell, Counterflows; May Murad, Artist, Gaza and Ayá»Ầ Akínwándé, Artist, Lagos (both of whom joined via Skype after being denied visas).
The event highlighted some key questions, the main one being: 'how can the arts, creative and cultural sectors in Scotland and across the UK call for a more transparent and accountable visa system that will underpin the international connections and diversity of expression that is fundamental to our work and the social, cultural and economic contributions that we make to the country for the benefit of all?'.
In response to the Movement of Freedom workshop, Many Studios and Deveron Projects are creating a Manifesto and Toolkit, designed to explain the Visa process to producers and organisations in order to increase the success rate of applications. We are working closely with the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Creative Scotland and other institutions with experience of supporting and submitting applications for artists to travel to Scotland. The manifesto will be utilised to advocate for a better system for visiting artists.
