Dear Reader,
A warm welcome to our May bulletin.
Many thanks to all our contributors and participants who joined our first NCACE Meetup event on Narrative, Storytelling and Impact on April 20th. We were delighted to see such a strong turnout and plans are underway for our next Meetup event.
Upcoming Events at a glance.
We have an action packed couple of months ahead with the following events taking place between now and early July.
Knowledge Impacts Network (KIN): Co-creating better ethics processes for Cultural Knowledge Exchange - Wednesday 17th May 2023
Evidence Café 10: Creative Communities - Thursday May 18th 2023
NCACE Annual Policy Workshop: Collaborations in Creative Health - Thursday 22nd June 2023
Call for contributors: If you are involved in research or in creative collaborations in this area, and would be interested in submitting a brief proposal to present at the event, do get in touch with laura@tcce.co.uk.
Developing your Leadership Narrative - Thursday 6th July 2023
Contributing to NCACE Mid-point Evaluation
We are at the final planning stages of the midpoint evaluation for NCACE and keen to gain an understanding of how NCACE’s activities, events and resources are adding value to the knowledge base of Cultural Knowledge Exchange networking and collaborations between universities and arts and culture organisations. As part of this work, we’re launching both a targeted and an open survey. The targeted survey will invite the participation of universities and people who have engaged with NCACE activities 5 or more times. The open survey will invite the participation of any universities and arts and culture organisations whether they have actively engaged with NCACE activities or not. The insights gathered at the midpoint evaluation will inform our reflections and future planning to improve the work we do at NCACE. We’d love to hear your thoughts so do please keep an eye out for the surveys’ launch next month and please be in touch with us by emailing noshin@tcce.co.uk if you would be willing to complete a survey for us. Many thanks.
NCACE Collection
Just before Easter we launched the new NCACE Collection of essays, case studies, research reports, blogs and mini-toolkits. The launch recording can now be accessed on our SoundCloud channel with Professor Ann Light (Sussex University) on the CreaTures Framework case-study, Dr Cara Courage (Consultant, change agent and academic) on her think-piece Greater than the Sum of Parts, Dr Bronac Ferran (Writer, curator and researcher) on Rewilding the Stems and Rosy Greenlees OBE (Former Executive Director, Crafts Council, Trustee Creative & Cultural Skills and British Ceramics Biennale and NCACE Sounding Board member) on HE and arts and culture sector collaborations with reference to the work of the Crafts Council. Our discussant, Professor David Amigoni (University of Keele) has written a blog on the collection. Keep an eye out for The keyword is collaboration: dwelling among pathways through NCACE’s evidence garden will be published next week.
NCACE Repository, Publications and blogs
NCACE Evidence Repository is a unique and ever growing online resource of materials relating to knowledge exchange and collaborations between academia and the arts and cultural sectors. The repository is quickly evolving and now contains around 250 articles on topics including Placemaking, Climate Emergency, Health and Wellbeing. If you have written on any of these topic, we’d be delighted to share your work via the repository. Email laura@tcce.co.uk or evelyn@tcce.co.uk to discuss further.
NCACE Blogs
Many thanks to Muriel Swijghuisen Reigersberg, The Open University, Graeme Surtees, The Stables and Dr Loraine Leeson, Middlesex University for this month’s blogs.
NCACE Publications and Reports
Details of all our publications, including many of our wonderful blog contributions, can be found at our newly launched NCACE Collection.
NCACE on SoundCloud
You can listen to recordings of most NCACE events over on our SoundCloud Channel. You will find a wealth of fascinating discussions, debates, workshops and in-conversations across a rich panoply of themes relating to Cultural Knowledge Exchange in its broadest sense.
NCACE is a four year initiative funded by Research England and led by TCCE. Our regional hub partners are: Bath Spa University, Birmingham City University, Manchester Metropolitan University and Northumbria University.
We thank you for your readership and look forward to being in touch soon.
Evelyn Wilson (Co-Director, NCACE) and Noshin Sultan (Project and Partnerships Manager, NCACE)
|
|
|
NCACE Knowledge Impact Network (KIN): Co-designing ethics processes for cultural knowledge exchange
Wednesday 17 May, 15:00 - online
This session of KIN will provide opportunities to discuss, reflect on and workshop how ethics processes for collaboration between the arts and cultural sector and higher education could be made more effective, mutually beneficial and appropriate. There will be a particular reflection on processes for work made with or by different stakeholders and communities.
We will hear reflections from those working in knowledge exchange and delivering collaborations between the arts and higher education. The session will also offer opportunities for peer to peer discussion of key questions related to developing mutually beneficial ethical processes, to help support and inform your future work and knowledge exchange practice.
Contributors include Professor Maria Delgado, Vice Principal (Research and Knowledge Exchange) Central School of Speech and Drama, Graeme Surtees, Head of Learning and Participation at The Stables Theatre, Tassos Stevens, Director and Joint CEO of Coney, Angelique Retief, Senior Policy Officer and Japheth (Jeff) Monzon Project Officer at Black South West Network.
KIN is facilitated by Suzie Leighton, Co-Director NCACE, Sian Brittain, Head of Innovation at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Dr Astrid Breel, Impact Research Fellow at Bath Spa University.
NCACE Evidence Café 10: Creative Communities
Thursday 18 May, 14:00 - online
NCACE’s Evidence Café sessions have been held regularly since March 2021. The café is an online space for presentations, evidence and information sharing, story-telling as well as a community of knowledge sharing and exchange. Over the last two years, our cafés have created key spaces for conversation on topics including: Impact and REF, Place-making, Climate Emergency, Health and Wellbeing and KEF.
The AHRC Creative Communities programme is developing the potential for arts and humanities in fostering and enabling creative communities. Its mission is to capture the inspiring explosion of collaboration and connectivity that can unlock the full potential of our great arts and culture in the hopes of creating a stronger, fairer economy and society across the regions and nations of the UK.
Our May 2023 Evidence café will present and reflect on the latest AHRC report By All, For All: The Power of Partnership: AHRC Creative Communities. It draws on more than a decade of AHRC-funded community and cross-sector collaborative R&D to explore how we can unlock the potential or accelerate the opportunity of engaging communities and partners as researchers, especially those most impacted by the UK Government’s Levelling Up agenda.
The session will provide opportunities for Creative Communities and AHRC to share headlines, examples of good practice and policy recommendations from the report that could facilitate more flexible, inclusive and sustainable R&D partnerships across the whole of the UK. Drawing on the case studies highlighted in the report, Creative Communities will invite arts and cultural practitioners to share their experience of co-creation in R&D.
Contributors will include Professor Katy Shaw (Humanities, Northumbria University), Dr Lauren Baker-Mitchell (Senior Research Fellow, Northumbria University), Dr Andy Robson (Senior Research Fellow, Northumbria University), Helen Welford (Curator at MIMA) and Ian Stanton (Head of Public Policy, Security, and Rights - Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)).
Collaborations in Creative Health: Shining a light on the contribution of Higher Education and the creative sector to health and wellbeing in the UK
Thursday 22 June, 10:00 - online
Health and Wellbeing is a key theme under-pinning our work and we are creating spaces for conversations around cultural collaborations on health inequalities, community wellbeing, mental health, social prescribing and related themes and concerns.
This event is aimed at those with an active interest in health and wellbeing and the role that cultural knowledge exchange collaborations are currently playing or indeed have the potential to play in addressing the challenges associated with this major national issue. We warmly invite attendees from across the higher education, arts and cultural, local and regional government, policymakers, funders and other public and private sector bodies working in this field to join us for a morning of key notes, case studies, panel discussions and workshops.
The event will include contributions from Jennifer Crook (Dreamachine/Collective Act), Kiran Manley (AHRC Health Inequalities Programme Coordinator), Alex Coulter (National Centre for Creative Health), Prof Anthony Caleshu and Prof James Daybell (University of Plymouth), Dr Nicky Abraham and Rachel Hudspith (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama), Dr Maria Turri (Queen Mary University of London), Dr Rowan Bailey (University of Huddersfield), Dr Jake Abrams (Kingston University) and Georgina Potier (Get Better Books), Dr 'Funmi Adewole (De Montfort University) and Victoria Hume (Culture Health & Wellbeing Alliance).
Call for contributors: We also welcome proposals for contributions and/or case studies around these themes. If you are involved in the development or curation of cultural or creative collaborative projects on the topic of health and wellbeing, we would like to hear from you. Email: laura@tcce.co.uk in the first instance.
Developing your Leadership Narrative
Thursday 6 July, 10:00 - online
A workshop for female leaders from the higher education and arts and cultural sectors at all stages of their careers.
This interactive online session provides an opportunity to explore the myths, challenges and power of female leadership.
During this session you will:
- Explore reflections and experiences from female leaders in higher education and the arts and cultural sectors.
- Interrogate what it means to lead with integrity and authenticity, in your leadership context.
- Consider how to create powerful collaborations within and outside organisational boundaries – leading beyond authority and maximising impact.
- Learn how to harness the power of storytelling to power-up your presentations, conversations and negotiations.
- Have the opportunity to build a peer to peer network to support the development of your leadership narrative and practice.
- Be given the option to sign up for a follow up session in the Autumn.
This session is free but numbers are limited and booking is required. It will be designed with a peer to peer dynamic at its heart, and the group experience will be an important part of the session, so please only request a place if you will be able to prioritise attendance. We particularly welcome women from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the higher education and arts and cultural sector.
|
|
|
We have just launched the Collection to highlight key NCACE led research reports, case studies, essays and toolkits as well as a selection of blogs. It has been created to share and amplify key research findings and to provide a space for writing, story-telling and deep reflection on the values of collaboration and cultural knowledge exchange. Highlights from the Collection:
|
|
|
Highlights from the Evidence Repository
With over 250 free resources related to knowledge exchange and collaborations between academia and the arts and cultural sectors, there is something for a range of different readers.
|
|
This month's blogs are: ‘What do Universities actually do?’: Some thoughts on Interdisciplinary Knowledge Exchange and Creative Arts Collaborations. is by Muriel Swijghuisen Reigersberg, The Open University and Graeme Surtees, The Stables and The Art of Engagement: creating foundations for an international learning community in social practice is by Dr Loraine Leeson, Middlesex University.
‘What do Universities actually do?’: Some thoughts on Interdisciplinary Knowledge Exchange and Creative Arts Collaborations.
‘What do Universities actually do?’ was the question our partner Graeme at The Stables, Milton Keynes had most wanted an answer to, before we began collaborating together. This was a very valid question and provided me with a focus for this blog. It’s a co-authored blog, since universities often try very hard to imagine ‘what partners want’, but don’t always succeed in hitting the nail on the head until a true and meaningful collaboration develops over time. The question ‘What do Universities do?’ got me to thinking specifically around what we did and are doing at The Open University with our ENSEMBLE project to further Knowledge Exchange.
The Art of Engagement: creating foundations for an international learning community in social practice
Social practice is a growing phenomenon amongst artists globally, who are increasingly drawing on their creativity to address urgent intersectional issues of social and environmental justice. There are nevertheless still relatively few opportunities to formally develop the knowledge and understanding needed for effective practice in this field. The nature of learning for engagement in the wider social sphere inherently questions whether it could be more effectively achieved by drawing on a wider pool of experience than higher education institutions in the UK have to offer.
We are keen to hear about your collaborative projects or related works and invite you to contribute to our blog. You can read our current blog posts on our website and can access the NCACE Blog Guidelines here. For further information contact Noshin Sultan on noshin@tcce.co.uk.
|
|
You may also be interested in:
Join the Social Art Educators’ Forum
Social practice continues as a growing phenomenon amongst creative practitioners globally, who are increasingly drawing on their creativity to address urgent issues of social and environmental justice. With relatively few courses that teach this as a specific discipline, we are quite dispersed as a community and it can be difficult to find the support and opportunities to discuss issues of teaching and learning that arise through this work. The Social Art Educators’ Forum is a short monthly online session, to which you can drop in according to availability and interest. It is held for one hour on the last Friday of each month for informal, open-ended discussion on proposed topics. The next session is on Friday 26th May 2023, 3pm GMT. Zoom link: https://mdx-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/93028736388?pwd=YS9rMHlWQnUxVENRdVhxbVV3QWdrUT09
In other news:
Networks to strengthen public’s role in research and innovation
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has awarded 25 grants in the first phase of its £3.6 million Community Research Networks programme. The programme will empower communities to develop grassroots research agendas and build capability and expertise in community-led forms of research and innovation. We are pleased that our partners Bath Spa University and NCACE Collaborations Champion Anita Shervington’s BLASTFest have been awarded separate grants.
|
|
Given the nature of our work, NCACE is likely to be of interest and relevance to those within Higher Education (HE) research and knowledge exchange, as well as those working in the arts and cultural sector. We are also very happy to hear from other interested individuals and organisations who may be interested in our work. There is more information on how to get involved on our website.
In the meantime you can follow us on Twitter @CultureImpacts and LinkedIn for the latest NCACE news and announcements. You can also listen to recordings of past NCACE events via our SoundCloud channel. For general enquiries, get in touch with Noshin Sultan noshin@tcce.co.uk.
Image: © Bill Leslie, Leap then Look: An NCACE micro-commission 2020.
|
|
|
|
|
|
