Perspective(s)

These are the critical questions that seven ethnically and culturally diverse artists are tackling through Perspective(s), a bold arts programme in which the artists are retelling and reimagining the stories of Welsh objects and history, offering fresh perspectives that challenge preconceptions and bring marginalised narratives to the fore.

Perspective(s) examines hidden histories within Wales’ national museums, from Welsh Plains used to clothe enslaved Africans to the lavish red sofa of Robert Clive, a figure central to British colonialism in India. The programme tackles complex and painful legacies; it rethinks the past to pave the way for a more inclusive future, one that acknowledges the diverse contributions and experiences that have shaped Wales and the world.

A collaboration with Arts Council of Wales and Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, Perspective(s) forms part of Wales’s Anti-Racist Action Plan, with support from the Welsh Government.

Chapter are working with Sophie Mak-Schram on this project.

Project description

Sophie is exploring power - who has it, how it works and what it does - within the National Museum (Cardiff) and Chapter. Working with a range of collaborators - activists, community workers, artists, museum staff - they are developing collaborative 'tools'. These 'tools' range from access templates to modified megaphones and sound pieces, and intervene in power structures to offer methods or moments to learn together or collaborate more equitably. The 'tools' will be shown alongside key museum collection items that Sophie and collaborators have worked with, including the Schools Outreach Collection and the Asian Art corridor.

To Shift a Stone
14 June 2025 – 15 February 2026 at National Museum Cardiff
From September 2025 at Chapter

Artist bio

Sophie Mak-Schram engages others in place-specific work around power, collectivity, knowledges and futures. Working with others both as method and as form, this work draws on experiential, artistic, decolonial and collective practices to convene, co-learn, re-imagine and invent. Sophie draws on personal and shared experiences of cultural difference, coloniality, race and gender.

Often using the metaphor of the ‘tool’ - as a poetic and practical object - they address how we know, who we consider ourselves in relation to, structures of power and ideas of belonging(s). Sophie convenes, facilitates, writes, reads, and makes objects to learn with or listen to.