Artist Tour - Class, Comedy and Community with Emily Pope
Join artist Emily Pope and Donna Howard, Executive Director of KARST, for an interactive tour of the ‘Beryl Cook: Pride and Joy’ exhibition.
The tour will focus on how class is represented through Cook’s depictions of people, leisure spaces, and city life. From nightlife scenes to seaside settings, her work captures distinctive social identities, expressed through dress, gesture, and environment. Emily and Donna will consider how these images connect to wider conversations about class within cities like Plymouth, and how class is interpreted both inside the arts and in everyday life.
This is a discussion-led event. You’re encouraged to share your own responses and experiences, reflecting on how class influences the way we see art – and how art, in turn, shapes the way we understand class and community.
The exhibition will be closed to the public for this event, meaning you’ll be able to spend time enjoying the show without the crowds after the discussion.
About Emily Pope
Emily Pope is an artist living and working in London. She works in film, sound, printmaking, and writing. She is interested in series making, and has been making The Sitcom Show, a failed sitcom recording life under austerity measures in the UK, since 2016. Her research explores a history of experimental broadcast media with a focus on humour and satire, queer intersectional feminism, political rhetoric + class politics and she is excited by challenging dominant power structures.
About Donna Howard
Donna Howard is Executive Director and co-founder of KARST. Born in Ernesettle and educated in Plymouth, she is proud to call the city her lifelong home. Growing up in a working class community, she experienced first hand the barriers that can limit access to creative careers. Art was a refuge, though not an option at the time, and this continues to shape her commitment to widening access and addressing inequality within the cultural sector.
Her career spans business, higher education and the arts. After self funding her way through business studies, she went on to work at the University of Plymouth, leading digital inclusion initiatives across higher education, business and industry. As a creative strategist and entrepreneur, she is focused on strengthening Plymouth’s cultural infrastructure and championing art as a force for social and civic change. She remains deeply rooted in her community and driven by the belief that creative opportunity should be open to everyone.
