The Engagement Cupboard
People can become problematic when they are turned into material for creative practice. In ‘The Engagement Cupboard’, Oliver Herbert explores his own uneasy relationship with engagement, public practice and the fantasy that culture sits neatly on one side, waiting to be delivered to another. Beginning with an A Level Art project that still makes him cringe 25 years later, Herbert reflects on his recent work as Schools and Young People’s Curator at The Showroom, asking what it means to enter a community, plan a programme, and slowly realise that the curriculum is outside of the gallery walls - Labubus and alien slime babies in tow.
13 May 2026