Jack Clarke

I’m a producer, curator, writer and cultural theorist from Kersal in Salford, working across film, exhibition-making, criticism and socially engaged cultural practice.

My work is rooted in Northern DIY traditions, working-class history, community memory and political storytelling, often developed through low-budget, collaborative and grassroots contexts. I’m interested in the spaces where culture actually happens before institutions arrive to rename it: pubs, community rooms, archives, churches, markets, estates, drop-ins, kitchens, front rooms and whatever else people manage to build together when the official infrastructure has gone missing.

I’ve worked with Factory International as a Young Curator, Bury Art Museum as Moving Image Curator, and the Working Class Movement Library through the Big Flame Project. I co-curated Keep The Flame Burning with 16–25 year old working-class volunteers, and produced and co-curated Nothing About Us Without Us, the national Big Local legacy exhibition.

Alongside my curatorial work, I’ve produced short films, documentaries and community-led moving image projects across the North of England. My writing has appeared in Culture Matters, Savage Minds, Z Network, STAT Magazine and 1922, often pulling apart the language of institutions, class, art and power with humour, frustration and refusal. My work pushes against the idea that legitimacy only comes through degrees, funding systems or institutional approval.

Contact details:

Work

Selected Work: Film, Curation & Community Culture
Work includes producing and curating Nothing About Us Without Us for Local Trust, a national exhibition celebrating the legacy of 150 Big Local communities across England. As a Young Curator with Factory International, I co-curated UTOPIA with Trackie McLeod, transforming part of Aviva Studios into a functioning pub exploring class and community space. I also co-curated Keep The Flame Burning at the Working Class Movement Library with young working-class volunteers, and have supported emerging artists as Guest Moving Image Curator at Bury Art Museum.

More recently, I worked with Ciara O'Rourke and ArtBomb in Doncaster to create Anti-Social Housing Agency, an immersive exhibition examining homelessness, hostile architecture and the absurdities of housing bureaucracy.

My background is in independent filmmaking, including producing the award-winning feature Nobody Loves You and You Don't Deserve to Exist, a microbudget, surreal exploration of working-class life in Manchester that went on to find audiences internationally. I've also worked on short films including For God's Sake, Paint, Before the Law, Don't Believe a Word I Say and Bless the People Who Live in This House, alongside documentaries and community-led moving image projects across the North.

I'm also a broadcaster and cultural writer, contributing to Arts Express on WBAI 99.5FM in New York, with articles and interviews published in Culture Matters, Z Network, STAT Magazine and Savage Minds. My writing includes Balkan Erotic Epic: Marina Abramović, Tito's Funeral, and the Holy Madness of Manchester, Open Country: Unveiling the Working-Class Heartbeat of American Country Music and Sacred Banter & Steadfast Devotion: The Masjid Uncles Holding the Front Row. Across both film and writing, I'm interested in challenging the usual narratives around class, culture and power, often with a bit of humour and a healthy suspicion of institutions.