MANIFEST, a Policy Lab initiative supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to bring outstanding UK-based artists into policy processes.

Christopher Samuel, Semiconductor and Dryden Goodwin were each embedded in a different government policy team and produced work in response to that placement. he MANIFEST artists showed an ability to draw attention to things which may otherwise have been overlooked and could cause detriment to people, groups and the achievement of intended policy outcomes.

Christopher Samuel worked with a team in DLUHC which develops policy for, and is delivering, the £150m Community Ownership Fund (COF) scheme aimed at enabling people and groups across the UK to save local assets at risk of loss. Christopher’s practice is rooted in identity and disability politics, often echoing facets of his own lived experience. He channelled this into an artwork which articulates his own policy green paper, surfacing questions relating to equality of access, application processes for the Fund, subjectivity, lived experience and modes of engaging people in policy.