UCL welcomes three new STEP trainees

This blog has been written collaboratively by Sadé Sarumi, Salma Mohamed and Makella Ketedzi introducing themselves as they joined UCL. Now five-months in to their time at UCL watch this space for further updates.

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This year UCL welcomes three (yes, three!) new STEP trainees working across teams at UCL. STEP, east London’s Shared Training Employment Programme, aims to connect young people interested in the creative and cultural sector with year-long traineeships. This year our trainees will be working across a variety projects, including the UCL East schools engagement programme, projects between UCL Engagment and QUEERCIRCLE, and the Trellis programme among others.  

Sadé, Public Art and Community Engagement Assistant:

Hello, Ciao, Ẹ nlẹ o! 

I’m Sadé Sarumi, UCL’s Public Art and Community Engagement Assistant 2022-2023.  I’m a conceptual artist using creativity to explore the mind of the calm and the chaotic through art. Using printmaking, illustration and sculpture my practice aims to advocate for wider disability awareness, particularly the nuances of anxiety related disorders. With lived experiences of disability centred discrimination, I care strongly about ensuring our schools, universities, and workplaces are inclusive environments. This transcends my creative practice, but also my professional work and aspirations at UCL.  

Prior to joining UCL, I was on a fellowship at Artsadmin as an Arts Producer in training where I supported artists in internationalising their work and accessing new opportunities. I also developed experience supporting research into the effectiveness of engagement programmes as an Arts Beyond Participation [BEPART] Diarist.  

With experience in programming, producing, and supporting events I wanted to dip my foot into curatorial work. I discovered The New Curators Programme, led by UCL Special Collections in collaboration with Newham Heritage Month. Over 3 months I worked on designing and curating an exhibition exploring the legacy of the Olympics in London.  

A role in Public Art and Community Engagement at UCL East proposed the perfect opportunity to build on my existing work within community engagement, enthusiasm for the arts, and a newly developed interest in curation. Most recently I experimented with the re-curation of Testing Grounds at the UCL Art Museum. In July I supported the delivery of The UCL Integrated Legal Advice Clinic at  Great Get Together in its celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the London Olympic games. Upcoming, I am excited to be supporting the launch of  Trellis3, Trellis:Arbor, and Drawn Together in collaboration with artist Dryden Goodwin. 

Salma Mohamed, UCL East Schools Engagement Assistant: 

My name is Salma Mohamed. I am currently in my second month of a 12-month STEP traineeship at UCL as part of the school’s engagement team. I recently graduated from King’s College London with a BA in Ancient History. My role as a school’s engagement assistant, within UCLs Access and Widening Participation team, is centred around museum education. During my time as a university student, museums were an invaluable resource and I’m excited to work with students across east London to do the same. 

The past few months have been incredibly exciting. I had the amazing opportunity to attend a conference hosted by The Group for Education in Museums (GEM). The conference was a great opportunity to network with museum educators and hear the amazing work being carried out by museum educators across the country. I’m currently assisting in a project called ‘Tutankhamen, the boy anniversary’ and for that project I’m working on a worksheet-based activity that will be completed by students in London and students in Egypt.  

Makella Ketedzi: Co-Production and Public Engagement assistant  

Sweet Salutations,

I’m Makella and I’ve now been working with UCL as a co-production and public engagement assistant since mid-July. During this time, I’ve been able to work within various teams and build in my experiences of engaging with project work, assisting with the planning of exhibitions and mixers, facilitating workshops and working with various groups of people in spaces like the Great Get Together, Here East and here at UCL in Bloomsbury.  More recently, I’ve been working with the Co-Production Collective to create a community resource library and I’m excited to share more on this towards the end of the year! 

As a multidisciplinary individual, I’m passionate about the art of expression in various forms. Personally, this has often involved working with others; exploring how best to collaborate, create and share art and ideas across cultures and beyond. Contrasting the belief that London is a city limited by individualism, through my practice in different contextual settings, I’m determined to show exactly how community approaches can be powerfully transcending. My previous practice entailed working as a Social Worker with children in care and young refugees, and as a result of this, regardless of what practice/work I’m engaged in, I aim to always prioritise this same community approach at heart. 

Outside of UCL, I am also a Barbican Young Film Programmer and a Museum of London Young Black Heritage Producer. When I’m not engaged in these things, in my free time, you can often find me losing myself in art whilst at an exhibition or in the cinema, reading/napping on public transport and/or smiling at the sun whenever it’s out.  

My own creative work is often experimental and takes shape through mixed media pieces, poetry, film and contemporary dance. Primarily, I also tend to use art as a form of expression and have had work featured in United Nations; Poets vs Gender Inequality anthologies, in Tate Britain and in the Barbican Chronic Youth Film Festival (2022).