Collider Conversations

Since 2011, Threshold’s Collider event programme has been a chance for artists, creatives and enthusiasts to connect via low-cost labs, conversations and collisions.

Collider Conversation Programme 2016/17

Moving Diversity Forward

We invite you to imagine a future in which diversity in arts and culture has been forgotten. Where the conversations have stopped, the debates long dormant.

What do we lose without the contributions and perspectives of diverse groups? What happens when our arts ecology only represents a narrow spectrum of society – and what the might the impacts be on quality and innovation in the arts and media landscape in the UK and beyond?

What role does technology play in bringing authentic voices to the fore, and how is the digital revolution helping communities to redefine themselves?

Through open conversations with experts, trailblazers and vigilantes, we’ll be discussing where we are now and what we can learn, as well as highlighting the positive work happening across the creative sector.

Taking the lead: Do arts and culture need a digital suffragette movement?

On 23 November at Rough Trade, Nottingham, we explored the roles of women in arts, culture and the creative industries. We discussed how women are taking ownership and responding to lack of opportunity, supporting each other creatively both online and offline, and asking what a ‘digital suffragette’ movement might look like..

We are all neurodiverse: new perspectives, new definitions

On 17 January at Attenborough Arts Centre in Leicester we were joined by a panel of creatives trailblazing a new path of visibility and representation for artists who experience the world differently – through Autism, Dyslexia and ADHD, for example.

Race and Representation: Beyond the Box Ticking

As the first UK degree programme in Black Studies begins in September 2017 at Birmingham City University, on Thursday 16 February at BOM (Birmingham Open Media) we discussed how to challenge the lack of diversity and race representation within the arts as well as higher education.

A Divided Nation: Class and social mobility in arts and media

In the final Collider Conversation of the current series held at Syson Gallery in Nottingham in March 2017, we discussed what happens when the arts and media lose working class voices.