WHO: Alicia V. Stevens (University of Cambridge), Bart Was Not Here (a.k.a. Kyaw Moe Khine), Burmese visual artist (independent)
WHAT: The Challenge
With its abilities for strategic political expression, visual art is a powerful tool for establishing agency and resilience. It is a subtle yet/thus potent form of soft power activism providing some sense of cultural identity and empowerment for those living with political oppression. What happens to this expression when artists are internally displaced or exiled? Forced human migration due to armed conflict, climate, or other catastrophic realities has fast become a global issue requiring innovative approaches and unconventional solutions: the unique contribution of exiled visual artists is one such approach. On February 1st, 2021, democratization in Myanmar ended abruptly with a military coup that sparked the Spring Revolution, resulting in more than 5 million displaced persons inside and outside the country. Workshops with Burmese artists, publications, a traveling exhibition, and a podcast will bring these issues to the GHI community and general public.
WHY: Motivations & Intentions
By hearing directly from the people most profoundly impacted, we aim to increase awareness of the complex problem of cultural sustainability amid forced human migration due to increasing global conflict and the climate crisis. Our goal is one of deep mutual benefit: our platform, funding, and reach (as MIT and Cambridge) will provide significant visibility to this increasingly global issue as well as to individual artists working to jumpstart their careers in new (primarily urban) locations around the world.
The personal stories and insights from our collaborating artists shared in the exhibition, podcast, and convenings will add new knowledge to the growing global challenge of human displacement, dislocation, and exile. Early discussions indicate that our project has already moved past well-trodden themes of recovering a sense of Home through visual art, to vanguard themes such as recovering individual agency through art making as well as the institutional fascination with “Artivism” that often overlooks the work of non-activist artists.
HOW: Methods & Tools
- Closed-Door Workshop(s)
- Convene Burmese artists living in exile
- Establish a dynamic for artist-led production of public-facing events also creating space for discussing sensitive issues
- The workshop will be held in Boston and New York City
- Heritage Symposium
- Host the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre (CHRC) Annual Heritage Symposium in Cambridge (UK) on art in exile
- Publications
- Publish a chapter in the upcoming Heritage Studies Methodologies Volume: 2025/2026. This is an opportunity for our artists and scholars to co-edit a chapter in upcoming volume
- Traveling Exhibition
- Present the creative work and interpretation of our artist collaborators
- Premiere in Boston and New York City, with potential to travel to Singapore, Bangkok, and elsewhere
HOW CAN I JOIN? Activities & Events in 2025
- 2025-2026: Podcast Production
- Produce a podcast on the theme of visual arts and dislocation with our Burmese collaborators and growing to include exiled artists from other geographies
For further details, contact the project leaders.