Dear Reader,
A warm welcome to our April bulletin. We are delighted to bring you details of our programme of events over the next couple of months.
Upcoming Events
Our next NCACE Meetup (12.30pm, 24th April) explores the theme of University Innovation Hubs as Creative Spaces where we will be joined by Caroline Anstey, The Studio at Bath Spa University.
Our next Evidence Café (2pm, May 9th) will focus on KEF, the arts and KE activities in Small Specialist Arts and Creative Institutions. Contributors include: Dr Michelle Phillips (Royal Northern Conservatoire of Music), Dr Federica Rossi (CIMR, Birkbeck UoL and NCACE Co-Investigator), Dr Ning Baines (University of Leicester), Dr Rebecca Emmett (Senior Policy Advisor, Research England), Sian Brittain (Head of Innovation, Guildhall School of Music & Drama), Evelyn Wilson (Co-Director, NCACE) and Dr Laura Kemp (Senior Manager, NCACE).
Join us for our Annual Showcase The Power of Collaborative Action IV: Pioneers, Change-makes and Liminal Space (10am, May 23rd). Contributors include: Rachel Tyrrell, Associate Director of Knowledge Exchange, Research England, Aisha Richards, Founder and Director, Shades of Noir, Jess Thom, Co-Artistic Director & Dr Will Renel, Director of Research, Touretteshero, Dr Jessica Moody, University of Bristol, Cleo Lake, Artist, Activist and Researcher, Kwesi Johnson, Artistic Director, Creative Assembly, Prof Selina Busby, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Dr Paul Sutton, Centre for Performance, Technology and Equity, Peter Mwashi Litonde, Initiator and Founder, Smiles Africa, Shibboleth Shecter and Alice White, Camberwell College of Art, Citizens UK and Prof Christopher Smith, Executive Chair AHRC.
Our Annual Policy Workshop will focus on Culture, Collaborations and Knowledge Exchange: Technology for Social Good (10am, June 20th). Contributors include: Dr Marc Garrett (Furtherfield), Professor Sarah Hayes (Bath Spa University), Professor Bryce Lease (Centre for Performance, Technology and Equity, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama), Sinead Ouillon (Coventry University) and Lara Ratnaraja (Independent) amongst others.
NCACE Collection and Evidence Repository
The NCACE Collection is a constantly growing resource featuring all our commissioned research reports, essays and think-pieces, case studies, blogs and mini-toolkits on a plethora of topics relating to the field of Cultural Knowledge Exchange. It has been developed to house, showcase and create awareness about the 40 plus publications that we have researched, produced and commissioned since we launched NCACE in 2021. Our most recent NCACE Collection publications include: Careful Collaborations: Ethics and Care in Cultural Knowledge Exchange and Trans-Disciplinary Research featuring essays, case studies and resources on this key and timely topic as well as an important new think-piece by Dr Cara Courage on Placing Placemaking: Exploring what constitutes best practice in UK universities.
NCACE Evidence Repository is our gateway to other publicly available online resources relating to knowledge exchange and collaborations between academia and the arts and cultural sectors. It is a significant signposting tool for research with almost 300 open access resources on topics including: Placemaking, Climate Emergency, Health and Wellbeing. If you would like us to signpost relevant material please email laura@tcce.co.uk.
NCACE Blogs
We’re delighted this month to publish a new blog from Alexander Winterbotham, Sam Healy and Oliver Durcan A new form of Collaboration: Immersive Experiences Redefined as well as Knowledge and research based in practice: ways of knowing and articulation by Dr Sara Wookey. Over the last few months, we’ve been producing blogs featuring key findings and recommendations from our latest REF report. It has been a pleasure to write this month’s blog on REF 2021 and research relations with Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations.
NCACE on SoundCloud
Recordings of most NCACE events are over on our SoundCloud channel.
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 continued readership and look forward to being in touch soon.
Evelyn Wilson (Co-Director, NCACE) and Noshin Sultan (Project and Partnerships Manager, NCACE)
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NCACE Meetup: University Innovation Hubs as Creative Spaces.
Wednesday 24 April 2024, 12:30 - online
We are delighted to invite you to our fourth NCACE Meetup: University Innovation Hubs as Creative Spaces.
The term Innovation Hub might not inspire a picture of a rich, creative and collaborative environment, filled with possibilities for artists! However, a variety of hubs, labs and different spaces within universities are nurturing a wide range of collaborations between researchers, students and artists in a variety of ways across the country. At this Meetup we will be joined by Caroline Anstey, Studio Manager at The Studio at Bath Spa University who will offer a snapshot of the creative and collaborative possibilities that Innovation Hubs can offer through the lens of her work. We warmly welcome other representatives from HE Innovation Hubs, and artists that have been supported through similar initiatives to join the conversation, alongside those who are interested in finding out more about the possibilities and potentials of these spaces.
More about NCACE Meetups
Meetups will be quick and informal online networking events developed to allow people from across academia and the arts and cultural sector to make initial contacts with those who share the same interests and priorities. Meetups will offer a chance to hear a thought provoking reflection, case study, or research summary, followed by some speed networking with other attendees. Contact details will be collected and shared via a Padlet, as will your thoughts and observations to help us shape this new initiative. We hope that Meetups will be a useful opportunity for those within higher education, the arts and cultural sector and related areas who would like to expand their networks, meet potential collaborators and that they will lead to some thought provoking conversations and new opportunities.
NCACE Evidence Café 13: KEF, the arts and Knowledge Exchange activities in Small Specialists Arts and Creative Institutions
Thursday 9 May 2024, 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.
The focus for the May 2024 Evidence café will be on KEF and Knowledge Exchange activities in Small Specialist Arts institutions where we will be sharing findings from our current work on KEF, the KEF narratives and Small Specialists.
We'll also be discussing KEF Metrics, drawing upon experiences and perspectives from KE practitioners and exploring key questions around the ways in which KE is approached, supported, developed and valued within conservatoires and art schools. Finally we will be considering ways in which the types of KE being conducted through small specialists might provide useful models of good practice for larger scale universities.
Alongside presentations there will be opportunity for group discussion and imagineering around what future iterations of KEF might include to more fully recognise the value of the arts and culture-led Knowledge Exchange.
Contributors will include: Dr Michelle Phillips (Royal Northern College of Music), Dr Federica Rossi (CIMR, Birkbeck UoL and NCACE Co-Investigator), Dr Ning Baines (University of Leicester), Dr Rebecca Emmett (Senior Policy Advisor, Research England), Sian Brittain (Head of Innovation, Guildhall School of Music & Drama), Evelyn Wilson (Co-Director, NCACE) and Dr Laura Kemp (Senior Manager, NCACE).
The Power of Collaborative Action IV: Pioneers, Change-makers and Liminal Spaces
Thursday 23 May 2024, 10:00 - online
The NCACE 4th annual showcase will explore boundary breaking cultural knowledge exchange and collaborative practice between the higher education and arts and cultural sectors. Our focus will be on audacious individuals and partnerships that challenge established norms, and in doing so, move research, practice, and policy forward in new and impactful ways. Through the lens of this pioneering work we will consider how cultural knowledge exchange practice is changing to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, and what further changes are necessary to develop truly relevant and transformative work.
Confirmed contributors include:
Rachel Tyrrell, Associate Director of Knowledge Exchange, Research England, Aisha Richards, Founder and Director, Shades of Noir, Jess Thom, Co-Artistic Director & Dr Will Renel, Director of Research, Touretteshero, Dr Jessica Moody, University of Bristol, Cleo Lake, Artist, Activist and Researcher, Kwesi Johnson, Artistic Director, Creative Assembly, Prof Selina Busby, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Dr Paul Sutton, Centre for Performance, Technology and Equity, Peter Mwashi Litonde, Initiator and Founder, Smiles Africa, Shibboleth Shecter and Alice White, Camberwell College of Art, Citizens UK, Prof Christopher Smith, Executive Chair AHRC.
NCACE Knowledge Impacts Network (KIN): Supporting Citizen Research Through Knowledge Exchange
Thursday 13 June 2024, 14:00 - online
Our next Knowledge Impacts Network (KIN) meeting will focus on how universities can better support and empower citizen research and knowledge creation, and how the contribution of the arts and cultural sector to the creation of new knowledge and research impact can be better understood and rewarded. If you would like to speak briefly about your experience of collaborating with citizen researchers, or your work as an arts practitioner working in collaboration with higher education researchers, do please get in touch with noshin@tcce.co.uk by 26th April and we will follow up with you.
KIN is an informal peer to peer network for KE engaged researchers, and KE professionals working with the arts and cultural sector, and arts and cultural sector professionals. It offers interactive opportunities to hear how colleagues are approaching challenges, swap industry intelligence, share knowledge, experience and successes, and build and enhance professional support networks.
Culture, Collaboration and Knowledge Exchange: Technology for Social Good
Thursday 20 June 2024, 10:00 - online
Where research and the arts come together to generate social and cultural good using existing and emerging technologies.
The purpose of this NCACE policy workshop is to discuss and showcase the impacts and potentials of collaborations and transdisciplinary research projects between HEIs and the arts that generate social and cultural good, though the use of both existing and emerging technologies.
With the intense proliferation of interest in uses of, and concerns about technologies such as AI, this timely workshop seeks to highlight partnerships, projects and opportunities that bring research and the arts together to create positive social benefits through engaging and exploiting diverse technologies. It will also provide space to reflect on the potentialities, challenges and ethics associated with enacting and enabling better futures through collaborative endeavours.
We are also seeking to highlight the roles that policy, funding bodies initiatives and other actors are playing, or could play in supporting social good now and into the near future.
Contributors include: Dr Marc Garrett (Furtherfield), Professor Sarah Hayes (Bath Spa University), Professor Bryce Lease (Centre for Performance, Technology and Equity, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama), Sinead Ouillon (Coventry University), Lara Ratnaraja (Independent) and we will be announcing others in the near future.
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Our Collection highlights 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.
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This month's blogs, A new form of Collaboration: Immersive Experiences Redefined is by Alexander Winterbotham (OmBeond), Sam Healy (Ray Interactive) and Oliver Durcan (Goldsmiths, University of London), Knowledge and research based in practice: ways of knowing and articulation by Dr Sara Wookey and REF 2021 and research relations with Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations by Evelyn Wilson (NCACE).
A new form of Collaboration: Immersive Experiences Redefined
In this blog, we’re exploring an emerging kind of interdisciplinary collaboration, and how similar kinds of highly iterative, agile workflow could benefit the wider creative sector. This article is less focussed on the outputs of our R&D processes, and more about how we worked together as a collective of production studios and researchers.
Knowledge and research based in practice: ways of knowing and articulation
While doing research for my PhD thesis at the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University in 2019 I was in discussion with my then Director of Studies, Dr Natalie Garrett Brown who suggested I use the term ‘practice-informed-research’ rather than the more common ‘practice-based-research’. This differentiation of wording struck me as important in that my approach to research was not one in which I drew directly from current, in progress, creative practices but, rather, from a reflection on past artistic works and processes.
REF 2021 and research relations with Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations
The REF Impact Case Study database provides a unique and vitally important lens on research and its impacts in the world and here at NCACE it was the state of the relationship between research and the arts that we were particularly keen to examine. So, in 2023, we undertook and published a body of research entitled REF2021: Research Impact and the Arts and Culture Sector. This is the last in a series of four blogs to give an overview of that work where we sought to gain deeper insights into how research and researchers and the arts and culture work together and in what ways, and how in the process they support significant research impacts and types.
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.
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Highlights from the Evidence Repository
With over 300 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.
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You may also be interested in:
From Ideas to Impact: Innovation in Business for Climate Action and Beyond
Thursday 18 April 2024, 14:00
Join City, University of London to celebrate World Creativity and Innovation Day, hosted by the Centre for Creativity in Professional Practice in conjunction with the Centre for Charity Effectiveness and ETHOS (the Centre for Responsible Enterprise). Designed to empower delegates with cutting-edge insights and strategies, this event offers a forum for sharing knowledge and tackling real-world challenges. You can view the latest programme for this event here.
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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 X/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.
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