Changemakers: Rocca Holly-Nambi
In this second installment of blog posts by our CEO, David travels to Portland to celebrate the dedication and generosity of b side‘s Director Rocca Holly-Nambi.
Portand from the Fleet. Image by Sarah Colwell.
Rocca is a Dorset incomer, having arrived from Nairobi, Kenya in the winter lockdown of 2020. In East Africa, she jointly set up 32° East, a contemporary art centre in Kampala, Uganda. Formed initially from four shipping containers, it is now a purpose-built space for creation and residencies. From this, Rocca moved to the British Council, funding projects in a land full of the ‘ghosts of colonisation: road signs, plug sockets, etc.”. Rocca is hyper-aware of the long tail of empire, the ‘neo-colonial agendas of funding and structures of power.’ In someone else this might manifest as anger or frustration. It’s there, beneath the surface, her values driving her work. But communicating externally, she’s calm, reasoned, exploring all angles of a problem.
“Do you want a blanket? I’m having one”.
It’s a cold April morning, sharp winds spraying sea water, as we look out from Portland across the Channel. Rather than sit in b-side’s office – a shop in the centre of town – Rocca has suggested we walk and talk. She tells me about the landscape, the stone mined and reconstituted around the world – not least as the UN Headquarters in New York – about the island’s isolation and consequent community resilience. We find a café and choose to sit outside but I’m not dressed for the weather. Her suggestion of a blanket is welcome. Within minutes of meeting Rocca, she’s made me comfortable – we’re no longer strangers.
Rocca with artist Babar Suleman. Image by Pete Millson.
Perhaps this comes from her own artistic practice – as a sculptor she liked to bring together ‘two materials that don’t fit’. Perhaps it’s from her experience in community arts in Muirhead in Scotland, encouraging young people to become hip hop artists. Or perhaps it emerges earlier, as England’s under-18 hockey goalkeeper ‘seeing angles no one else does’. For b-side, a company that uses the whole island as its gallery, its canvas, Rocca leads an organisation that encourages its viewers to see things differently.
How To Look After An Island event. Image by Pete Millson.
Portland is a place that is ‘done to’ – as Amanda Wallwork, one of Rocca’s estimable colleagues says – ‘battered from the outside, dug from the inside’. These actions – natural and human – create a strong community of resistance, a powerful island identity that finds unity in opposition. However, within this tight unit, there are lines of fracture.
The island is about to be at the centre of a national storm. The atmosphere on Portland is tense. As an intensely civic-minded island community, the arrival in Portland Port of the Bibby Stockholm, a boat that will house 500 migrants, has brought to the surface a set of difficult conversations. Town hall meetings are chaperoned by security guards. Humanity is tempered by fear. And that fear can lead to some deeply problematic sentiments.
For Rocca, this is personal and professional, political and artistic. What role does an arts organisation have in such turbulence? Rocca describes the company existing in ‘the collision of civic and social and place’. And so, in many ways, it’s the perfect vehicle for hosting polarising conversations and raw feelings, a mechanism through which to see the world differently, and understand each other better.
In another’s hands, I’d be worried. It’d feel too much like preaching. But in Rocca, I’m convinced, her goalkeeper’s hands feel safe. Why? Because she’s humble, she’s confident enough to know her (few) shortcomings, she’s inquisitive, she’s non-judgemental, she’s generous, she’s thoughtful, and, above all else, as evidenced through her offer of a blanket to a t-shirt wearing cultural bureaucrat, she’s kind. We’re lucky this incomer chose Dorset.
b side Festival returns 7 – 10 September 2023. This year’s theme is ‘This Land.’ Prepare to have your senses tantalised, to connect with others around you, and to experience the landscape like never before.
b side festival 2022 parade. Image by Pete Millson.
Beats Across Borders. Image by Pete Millson.