WaterAid: Representing Development through Art and Developing Artists through Representation

WaterAid has fostered strong symbiotic relationships with artists for over ten years, gaining increased exposure to new audiences for the charity and artist alike. Focusing on WaterAid UK as a case study, this chapter explores various approaches for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and charities to collaborate with artists within developing countries and/or the diaspora to represent and communicate global development issues. Drawing on critical theory, this chapter explores the potential benefits and pitfalls of this relationship, providing a model for other organisations and artists who want their work to impact social causes. It examines ways that artists have challenged three main existing paradigms-poverty porn (or shock effect), deliberate positivism, and post-humanitarian communication-by incorporating approaches as diverse as dystopian fairy-tale landscapes and Afrofuturism. Maybe through artists’ collaborations we are witnessing the emergence of a fourth paradigm of humanitarian communication, ‘art for development communication’, which seeks to minimise and counter the criticisms of previous campaigns.