Veionella Spaine

FHEA, MRes, BA (Hons)
Job title
Lecturer, BA Experimental Arts and Performance
Veionella Spaine
Orcid ID
0000-0002-1388-5421
Social media
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Profile

I am a producer, academic, and researcher with a disciplinary focus on experimental performance and arts practices and their surrounding ecologies, including Live Art, visual art, cultural policy and economics. My artistic practice spans across painting, sewing, photography, contemporary-classical music composition and creative writing.

I gained my BA (Hons) in Theatre Practice: Performance Arts (now named Experimental Arts and Performance under the department of Practice) at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. I then went on to complete my Masters by Research in the School of Arts and Creative Industries at London Southbank University, which explored the institutionalisation of Live Art and the implications for how its practitioners sustain their practices.

I began my teaching career at Central as a Graduate Teaching Assistant on BA (Hons) Experimental Arts and Performance in 2020, where I also produce the student’s internal and external public productions. I have since moved into a Lectureship position, gained my Fellowship of Advance HE, and will soon be undertaking a PhD project that is investigating the blockages to achieving institutional reform and experimental performance practices as a mode for making space for change.

External work I have been involved in whilst teaching has been project managing The Rising Sun (2022) by Dr David Shearing/Variable Matter, and acting as Coordinator for the Contemporary Visual Arts Network during the pilot year (2021-2022) of their 5-year Fair and Equitable programme. Whist working with CVAN to develop the programme, I co-authored, with Dr Cecilia Wee, a research report called Fostering Equity in the Visual Arts Sector, the findings of which have been disseminated to institutional leaders across the visual arts sector and to policy makers within the government Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Before Central, I worked in a range of positions, including as Gallery Manager for commercial art gallery narrative projects, Access Support to Alexandrina Hemsley (Yewande 103), Events Assistant at the former h.club London, and doing website development and graphic design for a host of projects.

My varied practices are punctuated by my commitment to creating ways for artists and artworkers to be supported with adequate resources and opportunities to thrive in their work and as people.

Areas of Expertise

  • Live Art, experimental performance
  • Visual Art
  • Art markets
  • Cultural politics
  • Cultural and public policy
  • Cultural economics
  • Institutional theory and logics
  • Institutional critique
  • Critical and liberationist pedagogies

Key Publications

2022. Fostering Equity in the Visual Arts: Findings from the CVAN Fair and Equitable programme on creating conditions for artists and artsworkers from underrepresented and marginalised communities to thrive. Co-authored report with Dr Cecilia Wee for Contemporary Visual Arts Network.

External Practice

2022. (Project Manager) The Rising Sun, David Shearing / Variable Matter.

2021-2022. (Coordinator) Fair and Equitable programme (pilot year), Contemporary Visual Arts Network.

2018. (Website Developer, Access Support) Black Holes, Alexandrina Hemsley and Seke Chimutengwende.

2018. (Creative Producer) On Futures: a Performance Symposium, Continuum Collective at The Others.

2016-2017. (Gallery Manager) exhibitions and art fairs for narrative projects.

Register of Interest

Nothing to declare.

Image gallery

1. A room with five brown chairs and a person sitting, illuminated by rays of sunlight coming through thin, tall rectangular windows across the walls.
The Rising Sun (2022) interior view. Photo by Hannah Davis, courtesy of Variable Matter.
Yellow, pink, and blue digital post-it notes on a light grey background with text and arrows drawn between them. Some of the post-its read “white fragility”, “who is responsible for changing the culture of the sector?” and “this is a question of access!”
Snapshot of Fair and Equitable programme planning and working processes, Courtesy of CVAN.
A half white, half red room with grey concrete floor; triangular ceiling beams that are painted mostly red. On the right, there is a concrete clipboard with an image of scanned photos attached. On the white wall in the centre of the wall is large black text that reads “I will close my eyes and put my fingers on the map”.
Exhibition view of Antonis Pittas Shadows for Construction, 2016. Courtesy of narrative projects.
1. A room with five brown chairs and a person sitting, illuminated by rays of sunlight coming through thin, tall rectangular windows across the walls.
Yellow, pink, and blue digital post-it notes on a light grey background with text and arrows drawn between them. Some of the post-its read “white fragility”, “who is responsible for changing the culture of the sector?” and “this is a question of access!”
A half white, half red room with grey concrete floor; triangular ceiling beams that are painted mostly red. On the right, there is a concrete clipboard with an image of scanned photos attached. On the white wall in the centre of the wall is large black text that reads “I will close my eyes and put my fingers on the map”.