On Artist Collectives:
Diasporas Now x RESOLVE x B.O.S.S.
at Institute of Contemporary Arts
29 October 2025
Why do we need artist collectives and how do they form? On Artist Collectives brought an evening of conversation exploring what it means to be part of an artist collective today, featuring members from RESOLVE, Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S.) and Diasporas Now.
The panel reflected on how collectives are formed and sustained, and consider whether artistic practice can operate as a survival strategy. Panellists from all three collectives – including Seth Scafe-Smith, director at RESOLVE, member of B.O.S.S. Kiera Coward Deyell and Diaspora's Now co-founder Lulu Wang – shared insights through short presentations, followed by a discussion led by Nana Opoku from The Feminist Library.
Celebrating the importance of collectivity and collaboration, this event invited audience to imagine new futures for artist collectives.
Part of Diasporas Now's yearlong residency at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, – which explores new ways for emerging artists and and institutions to interact – this event is presented in collaboration with the ICA as part of the first edition of Speaking Futures: a new annual flagship programme of talks, performances, and workshops celebrating artists as catalysts for imagining and shaping the future. The programme is in partnership with AnOther Magazine.
Live Art: Body as a Language curated by Diasporas Now with curator Hanna Geddes.
About Panels
Black Obsidian Sound System's (B.O.S.S.)
B.O.S.S. work includes renting the system to the community at subsidised rates or for free, technical workshops, live performance events, club nights, art installations and various creative commissions including a short film ‘Collective Hum’ (2019) for LUX & the ICO and 'The Only Good System is a Sound System' for Liverpool Biennial (2020). In 2021 B.O.S.S was shortlisted for the Turner Prize and presented an exhibition at Herbert Museum and Gallery Coventry.
Seth Scafe-Smith and RESOLVE
Seth Scafe-Smith is a director at RESOLVE. RESOLVE is an interdisciplinary design collective that combines architecture, engineering, technology and art to address social challenges. They have delivered numerous projects, workshops, publications, and talks in the UK and across the world, all of which look toward realising just and equitable visions of change in our built environment.
Much of RESOLVE’s work aims to provide platforms for the production of new knowledge and ideas. An integral part of this way of working means designing with and for young people and under-represented groups in society. Here, ‘design’ encompasses both physical and systemic intervention, exploring ways of using a project’s site as a resource and working with different communities as stakeholders in the short and long-term management of projects. In this way, design carries more than aesthetic value; it is also a mechanism for political and socio-economic change.
Nana Opoku and The Feminist Library
Nana Opoku is a cultural producer, community organiser, and workshop facilitator with a background in production and campaign strategy for international brands. Based at the Feminist Library in London, she leads The Culture Team, developing programmes that explore intersectional feminism as both methodology and praxis. Her work bridges cultural production and grassroots organising to create transformative learning spaces rooted in care, criticality, and community.
With a practice grounded in social justice and community education, Nana’s workshops address themes such as Afro-pessimism, Black feminist organising, and radical pedagogies using theory as a living tool for collective reflection and action. She also serves as Production Manager at House of Dread, where she supports projects at the intersection of heritage, culture, and grassroots organising.