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Issue 05 June 2018
Creativity and collaboration Creativity and collaboration underpin much of our work at HudCRES, and this is clearly illustrated by the projects featured in this issue of the newsletter. On the inside pages you will also find an important invitation for you to contribute to the collaboration, as we open our doors for ‘HudCRES … in conversation’.
As a specialist in arts-based pedagogy in lifelong learning and arts-based enquiry, Sarah Williamson researches the aesthetic construction of knowledge and also the transformative value and impact of the arts in professional education. Attracting national and international recognition, Sarah was recently invited to become an international collaborator on a five-year research project funded by an Insight Grant from the Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Led by Professor Darlene Clover, the project involves experts from Canada, USA, Italy, Portugal, Sweden and Finland. It will explore how art galleries and museums can be used to draw attention to injustices and inequalities, particularly genderbased, and their potential to be sites for change.
You can read more about Sarah and Darlene’s interventionist work with students in art galleries and museums in Sarah’s ‘Ed space blog post (28th Feb, 2018) blogs.hud. ac.uk/subject-areas/hudcres Sarah will also be contributing to a collaborative workshop in Lisbon, Portugal in January 2019 as part of an international knowledge exchange project entitled ‘Feminists and feminisms in museums and art galleries’, funded by a SSHRC Connections Grant, and led by Dr Nancy Taber, Brock University, Ontario, Canada.
Sarah Williamson (far right) with HudCRES visiting scholar Professor Darlene Clover from the University of Victoria, Canada and students from the Lifelong Learning PGCE
In addition, Sarah has continued to develop her expertise in ‘pop-up’ pedagogy for informal and large-scale community arts education, through her creation and leadership of ‘Pop-Up Art Schools’. More information about these can be found in the book below, and on kirkleeslocaltv.com/video by searching for ‘pop up arts’. Informal Learning: Perspectives, Challenges and Opportunities Sarah’s contribution to this book outlines her programme of ‘Pop-Up Art Schools’. She describes and theorises these public arts events in the context of Russian philosopher Bakhtin’s ‘Carnivalesque’, a concept based on medieval carnivals where freedom, unpredictability and the resultant creativity that this produces, is encouraged and celebrated. ISBN 978-1536122503