Rebecca Marcus-Monks
Director Of Operations at The Koppel Project (UK)
Rebecca Marcus-Monks is a London based curator and creative director. She studied Contemporary Art at Sotheby's Institute of Art and started working directly with artists upon graduating - first running an artist-led art fair called Parallax, then setting up Anders Wahlstedt Fine Art gallery on the Upper East Side of New York, and then to The Koppel Project. Her journey has followed an interesting path focused on supporting artists, promoting transformative dialogue, and encouraging diversity in cultural programmes.The Koppel Project is an arts charity, gallery, and creative hub based in central London, aiming to support early and mid-career artists by offering affordable studio spaces, pop-up and long-term white-wall galleries, ideal to host exhibitions, innovative brands and creative entrepreneurs' events and activities.
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What are you interested in as a cultural professional/ why do you work in culture and curating?
Culture is an integral part of why we're alive - without it the world is dull and grey. While I may not be a practising artist in my own right, producing exhibitions and platforms for art helps every single person learn and grow. I work to preserve and create this space for exchange.
The Koppel Project has an ongoing relationship with We Exist, a trans* led organisation that wants to provide more spaces for trans* people to platform their work and their ideas. In the middle of the pandemic, The Koppel Project provided We Exist with studios so that first timer artists could have space to themselves and their projects, learning and experimenting with something new, taking risks, creating, growing. This year, they hosted a We Exist exhibition in their gallery space in central London.
Thinking about 'tokenising', Rebecca wonders if that isn't already happening when a show is marketed as a show by artists from a community. Probably. But we need to look at the bigger picture, and the fact that The Koppel Project is supporting We Exist in the long term speaks to their will to platform their voices, supporting them with space and creating opportunities.
In the context of The Koppel Project, an element that has an impact on the discussions that can be had around the problem of 'tokenisation' is 'accessibility'. Their model sees them taking over entire buildings for relatively brief chunks of time, which means that potential accessibility issues cannot be fixed, because of the contingency/short-term circumstance and especially because of costs that cannot later be recuperated.
We know that the conversation inevitably needs to be intersectional - within the queer community there will be disabled people for example. While being focused on issues of representation of the LGBTQI+ community, some of the organisers and members of We Exist needed support installing the show for that reason. This started another conversation on top of the trans one: one demanding support and solutions.
Another point of discussion around 'tokenisation' was connected to the planning and delivery of public programmes, when they are piloted by current funding trends, which sidelines the social responsibility institutions have, really. The funding problem sits very close to the tokenisation issue unfortunately as the way in which we can really represent and support a community depends also on the ability to spend and invest in the issues; by the vision of the body funding the public programme or institutional activities. It's a fact that public programmes can be the direct outcome of what a funder wants, rather than what a community needs.
In order to overcome this issue The Koppel Project operates balancing between business and independent programmes. To be truly independent and effective in the ways they see fit with regards to their programmes and truly support artists, they 'sell out in other ways': renting out some of their spaces in their most strategically located buildings downtown for photoshoots and other more commercial events. Rebecca highlights that those rentals are not going to be in any way part of their cultural programmes but they are actually a very separate activity, which, even though they are still in line with the charity's objectives, but not public facing in any way, represent a great income stream that can be utilised to fund cultural activities. Any public activities as part of a programme, with no obligations to any funding body and without worrying about finding, towards the best programme possible.