Services 3 — Cecilia Wee

Curating and Creative

My curatorial and creative practice is interdisciplinary, collaborative, centred on addressing equity and celebrating knowledge and experiences of communities that have been historically marginalised.

These projects take place in galleries, theatres, community spaces and public space, including online.

Here's some information about recent projects -

Our Community Inheritance (2022- onoing)

*Our Community Inheritance* is a creative action research and learning project exploring more equitable circulation of wealth and resource generation, initiated by Dr Cecilia Wee and made with local communities.
*Our Community Inheritance* brings together decolonial approaches to cultural production, knowledge from community organising, radical, community-centric approaches to fundraising and liberatory understandings of economics as ‘making home’.
*Our Community Inheritance* creates hyperlocal archives that document understandings of diverse, intergenerational knowledge and wealth and makes community-generated proposals that respond to what our communities need to thrive.
The first edition of *Our Community Inheritance* was in collaboration with NHS Grenfell Health and Wellbeing Service, commissioned by Dani Admiss as part of *Sunlight Doesn’t Need a Pipeline*.

More about Our Community Inheritance

solidarity in black linocut — Salon Superstore (2023)
I exhibited limited edition linocut and screenprints at the Salon Superstore show, Salon Gallery, Margate, alongside more than 50 artists from Thanet and beyond.

Group of people of mixed ages and ethnicities standing in front of green and pink vinyl exhibition

Our Croydon, Talawa, Croydon London Borough of Culture (2023)

I was co-producer/co-curator for Our Croydon , a festival project amplifying and weaving stories of historical, recent and current figures of African and Caribbean heritage who are from or have lived in the borough. My co-producer/co-curator was Lehni Lamide Davies and Amina Jama was assistant curaror/producer.

Our Croydon took place from 11 November - 14 December 2023 across the borough, comprising talks, workshops, events and exhibitions celebrating the diversity, resilience, and creativity that define our beloved Croydon and the countless stories it holds.

Exhibitions at Croydon Clocktower Atrium Galleries, Stanley Arts, Talawa Theatre and Turf Projects featured new photography and text installation by actor, poet and artist Jeremiah Brown, a new audio installation by composer and sound designer felix taylor and a film made in collaboration with elders from Croydon’s Caribbean community made by poetic-activist, drama therapist and performer, Nina Mdwaba.

Visit the Our Croydon project archive

2.8 million minds (2023)

Collaboration with artists the vacuum cleaner, Amina Jama, and young people from Tower Hamlets, in partnership with Chisenhale, Whitechapel Gallery and the Greater London Assembly.

Over the course of six months, 2.8 million minds convened a group of 30 young people with lived experience of mental distress in Tower Hamlets (East London) to explore how they can dismantle and reimagine mental health support.

Responding to two questions ‘How do we make change?’ and ‘How do we make decisions?’, the group critically considered how their own creativity and making can build new aesthetics of care and art. This phase of the project culminated in poetry, music, an 8 metre collective illustrative tapestry, films, meditations, a podcast and zine, presented at Whitechapel Gallery.

Read the zine

With for About (2020), a slow conference for a fast evolving crisis

I co-curated and presented With for About 2020, Heart of Glass’ 5th annual conference, with the brilliant artist and activist the vacuum cleaner

In response to the covid-19 crisis, WFA2020 centred the perspectives of marginalised communities, particularly ethnically diverse, disabled, LGBTQIA+ and working-class practitioners including Jess Thom/Tourette’s Hero, Johanna Hedva, Lois Weaver, Máirín de Burca, Selina Thompson and Xinhao Cheng, sharing the work of more than 30 artists, researchers and activists, from across the globe.

Watch With For About