Show notes
Ceri is joined by Rosalie Schweiker, a South German artist and cultural organiser reimagining how art can drive social justice. As co-director at Migrants in Culture, Rosalie shares her journey from EU citizen to confronting the UK's hostile immigration system and how this transformed her creativity. The conversation explores motherhood's impact on creativity, building collective driven organisations and dismantling oppressive systems while designing joyful alternatives.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Rosalie structures her week meticulously since becoming a mother: two days of childcare, two days at Migrants in Culture and one day for "mopping up" life admin. This routine provides space for her creative process.
Migrants in Culture operates as a design agency that creates capacity for organisers to imagine a world without borders, following design justice principles while ensuring their processes align with their values around migration justice.
The traditional commissioning model for socially engaged artists often places them in an impossible position, expected to deliver transformative work with minimal resources while bearing all responsibility and getting paid less than everyone else involved.
Building a collective helps shift from the unsustainable model of the individual artist to a more accountable, transparent system where decisions are made together, resources are shared and relationships are less disposable.
Artists shouldn't view themselves as special or separate from broader societal pressures, instead recognising they are workers within a system helps adjust expectations and create more sustainable practices.
Challenging the romanticised view of the artist, Rosalie suggests the system is intentionally designed to keep artists precarious while serving as "lightning rods" for organisational processes that otherwise can't be fixed.
Motherhood has shifted Rosalie's artistic practice to focus on drawing as documentation and processing, showing how creativity adapts to life circumstances rather than requiring ideal conditions.
The concept of "submerging" is as important as "emerging" for artists. Sometimes withdrawing from visibility to reflect, recharge, and develop work away from external pressures is essential to creative sustainability.
BEST MOMENTS
"I guess you find your people by just constantly showing up in a way. It wasn't like I had this as a vision for myself."
“The art world can do whatever it wants to do. I am not here to fix that mess.”
"When we make a report for an organisation or if we do graphic design and people are excited about it, you get quite direct feedback."
"The system is designed to work. People, especially when they're first engaged with immigration, they're like, 'Surely that must be a mistake,' but if this mistake keeps reappearing all the time, we can assume that this is structural, and this is intended."
"I really struggle with attributing value to what I do as an artist, as a person. I can only do that when other people are in conversation with me for some reason."
"That idea of continuing the status quo by trying to fix it, solve it, work hard, graft, overcome it, is such a familiar story to so many of us listeners, I'm sure."
"Submerging is as important as emerging, I would say."
EPISODE RESOURCES
www.RosalieSchweiker.info
https://www.instagram.com/rosalieschweiker/
https://www.migrantsinculture.com/
PODCAST HOST BIO
With over 30 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals.
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