In 2009 Shades of Noir (SoN) was created by Aisha Richards. SoN is an independent program that supports:
- Curriculum design
- Pedagogies of social justice through representation
- Cultural currency
- Accessible knowledge
Additionally, it has created physical safe spaces that offer opportunities to have critical and interdisciplinary discussions that confront some of the items that we see and do that can sometimes be challenging. This is a program that creates opportunities for marginalised groups and their need for safe spaces to articulate self-determination and liberate the struggles from oppressive structures both in education and society.
In the first instance, Richards designed developed and supported the implementation of SoN across UAL. Under Richards direction of Shades of Noir the University of the Arts London (UAL) hosted in its first phase (2011/2012):
Over the year Shades of Noir continues to contribute to the universities work around race equality. SoN has over the past 3 years begun working with other Higher Education institutions such as Ravensbourne and Glasgow School of Art. Additionally, it has been featured in Higher Education Academy publications ‘Embedding Equality and Diversity in the Creative Curriculum: An Art and Design Practioner’s Guide'[1], Richards, Finnigan 2015, and ‘Attainment and Retention in the Discipline: Art and Design'[2], Finnigan, Richards 2016
Richards believes the key to Shades of Noirs success is the collaborative process to its structure.
[1] EEDC art and design online
[2] Retention and attainment in art and design.
Our Framework
- Representation – Build capacity at all levels of society for marginal communities to grow, thrive and support others
- Remuneration – Support financial liberation for marginal communities to grow, thrive and support others
- Reparation – Action approaches making amends for the wrongs done to marginal communities to grow, thrive and support others
- Reclamation – Develop strategies to reduce erasure, misappropriation and or undervaluing theirstories/herstories/histories for marginal communities to grow, thrive and support others
- Redistribution – Evolve practices to redeploy powers and privileges for marginal communities to grow, thrive and support others
Streams of Work.
Shades of Noir’s ‘Streams of Work’ are broad-reaching and multifaceted, supporting the purposeful transformation of people, policy and process.
As a community, we centre the voices and lived experiences of students and staff of colour within the focus of social justice. We offer accessible knowledge and visible testimonies that we hope will further inform the evolutions of cultures and practices across the sector (and beyond).
For over a decade, the programme has reached huge success thanks to our intersectional team of award-winning staff and students. This allows us to shape our proactive interventions to be purposeful, relevant and effective. As creatives, we take an inherently intersectional and holistic approach, aligning everything that we deliver within the framework of policy, people and process.
| Staff Network support | Staff training | Event collaborations |
| Safe Space Crits | SU training | Conference activities |
| Student complaint and grievance support | Student training | The Institution for Decolonial Arts board membership |
| Staff complaint and grievance support | Inclusive teaching and learning contributions | Course teams advice and support |
| Teaching Within programme | History of arts education-based social justice project | Curriculum support and briefs |
| SU collaborations | UK Black female professors project | External consultation and training |
| Publications | HR advice | Senior management advice |