Liberating the Curriculum (2025-2027) is a two-year programme of Participatory Action Research (PAR) which reimagines art education with young people and teachers from Arts and Media School Islington (AMSI). 

Informed by Paolo Friere’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy, the project began from the question: how can we meaningfully introduce PAR into a school context to support young people to become co-creators of inclusive, engaging art curricular? 

Liberating the Curriculum comprises workshops with young people, research, curriculum development, reflection gatherings and study days for AMSI’s art teachers. As the programme evolves, a public programme of workshops and resources will share learning with and invite reflections from teachers, artists and educators. 

Core to the project is learning together about Participatory Action Research: a process which centres lived experience and relationships, and moves iteratively through cycles of action, reflection, revision and planning to collectively produce knowledge and practice.

Responding to recommendations identified in Runnymede Trust’s report Visualise: Race & Inclusion in Secondary Art Education, LTC provides the essential time and resources to develop a flexible, diverse and responsive curriculum. By foregrounding curiosity, slowness and presence, we hope to support young people to bring more of themselves to their art education.

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Liberating the Curriculum is part of Cubitt’s long-term collaboration with Arts and Media School Islington, where we’ve managed four studios and explored the role of artists in schools since 2018. 

The project is generously supported by Freelands Foundation as part of their Inclusive Practice Fund.

Project team:
Eleonora Antoniadou, Learner-in-Residence
Lydia Ashman, Cubitt Education Curator
Jasmin Bhanji, Lead artist
Sam Castro, Assistant Curator of Learning and Engagement
Dunya Kalantery, Participatory Action Research Mentor
Joe Omotesho, Head of Art at AMSI
Javiera Sandoval Limari, LTC Project Curator (maternity cover until March 2026)