Intro.
Q. How did you first meet Donald Rodney?
Q. What would Donald Rodney have thought about having his archives donated to Tate?
Q. What was Donald Rodney's involvement in the Black Art movement of the 1980s?
Q. What was Donald Rodney's work about when you met him?
Q. What key themes underpin Donald Rodney's work?
Q. How do you feel about Black History Month?

Q. How do you feel about Black History Month?

Jeremy Akerman

I think that it’s great that Donald can be seen in a role model position because he really was a person to live up to. He struggled a lot with the various labels that he felt he attracted as an artist, however at heart he wanted his art to be seen alongside his heroes and peers in the national galleries such as Tate, that is seen on an equal level holding their own.

Virginia Nimarkoh

Ambivalent.

Eddie Chambers

It's problematic.

Michael Tooby

I once asked Donald how he could still enjoy Bob Marley after Marley's music and image had become such global commodities. He said that for a black person to become rich, famous and global and still make work with a consistent message was the biggest challenge of all. At the same time, we agreed that it was essential for people of any cultural identity trying to find their own voice that they found a way of owning the means of expression of that voice. I therefore think that Black History Month is a good idea if it creates examples of what could happen for the other eleven months of the year if varied voices are allowed channels of communication.

Elizabeth Ann McGregor

I seem to remember one of the artists (maybe it was even Donald) saying - what happens in the other eleven months? Do we simply ignore black people? On the other hand, these events can serve to remind us of the contribution and importance of people like Donald Rodney.

David Lawson

Black History month is an initiative that all major institutions should invest time and events around. There is an essential need for the space that Black History Month has created, allowing events, discussions and debates around race and our multi- cultural society to talked about at all levels. This is an initiative that the Tate should continue to invest in.

David Thorp

The question of how one feels about Black History Month is best addressed to black people whose history it is. As a white person with all the baggage of colonialist guilt, politically correct zealotry, liberal humanism and so on, I am concerned that cultural institutions frequently use Black History Month as the opportunity to 'deal with' the sometimes uncomfortable (for them) issue of black representation. Therefore, rather than helping to solve the problem of the marginalization of black culture in Britain, by consigning the work of black artists to prominence at this specific time they actually contribute to its continuing marginalization.

I would be very interested to know what the response of major artists who are black, like Chris Ofili and Steve McQueen, would be if they were invited to take part in Black History Month events. My guess is that they would be less than enthusiastic because their practice has attained a position within the art mainstream as art qua art and, while it may make reference to black identity, operates in a broader realm than that of so called 'Black Art'.

Mark Sealy

I think it is terrible to be honest. It seeps into institutions and it is a little bit naïve as it becomes an excuse not to do anything subsequently in any shape or form. I am quite into the whole idea of projects that address the history of black identity but Black History Month provides an institutional ‘get out.’ In a way it is like tabloid curating, where you create a quick interest that only lasts until the next headline.

Donald’s work should just be shown as an interesting body of work that addresses a very specific cultural period of Britain in the early 1990s. Black History Month feels really naïve and makes me shudder, I refuse to get involved in it in any form as far as Autograph is concerned.

Marlene Smith

I am somewhat cynical about Black History Month in that it represents the soft option for many institutions. Many are content to pull together something quite shabby and poorly-resourced which they can annex to their main programme during October instead of fundamentally re-examining their approach to content and meaning throughout the year.

I think it is important that Donald's work is recognised, not because he was my friend, but because his work was and is truly important. It is therefore appropriate that the Tate should acquire the archive. However, I would like to see his work highlighted in discussions about its content and meaning. The themes in it and the context within which it was made are absolutely central to any thorough reflection on contemporary art of the period. It should not be annexed.