Huddersfield leads research on public engagement with the arts
Mon, 22 Sep 2014 14:36:00 BST
Researchers’ book What is to be Done – Cultural Leadership and Public Engagement in Art and Design Education brings new insight to encouraging public engagement
THE University of Huddersfield’s Professor Steve Swindells and Dr Anna Powell (pictured below) are making significant contributions to a global debate over public engagement with the arts and the role that can be played by universities.
They have edited and contributed to a new book that explores the subject, and they have presented papers at conferences in the UK and overseas. Also, a collaboration between the University and the local Kirklees Council – which has seen a series of innovative exhibitions at Huddersfield Art Gallery – has been an important case study.
The book is entitled What is to be Done – Cultural Leadership and Public Engagement in Art and Design Education and is published by Cambridge Scholars. Its origins lie in a 2013 symposium that was hosted by the University of Huddersfield and held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. The event was an exploration of the impact and cultural value of the arts and the socio-cultural barriers that hinder public engagement.
The new book, said Professor Swindells, was initially intended to be a straightforward record of the proceedings of the symposium, but developed well beyond that. He and Dr Powell edited the contributions and provided key chapters themselves, exploring public engagement with the arts and the role that is played by civic universities.
Developing new audiences for contemporary art
A contribution by the University of Huddersfield to the cultural value of its district have been exhibitions mounted at the town’s art gallery, showcasing work by art and design staff. Named ROTOЯ, the project began at the start of 2012, with an aim of developing new audiences for contemporary art. After two seasons, the highly-varied, sometimes provocative ROTOЯ shows have been well received and now there are hopes that a new Arts Council award will provide funding for a third series, starting in 2015.
There are also plans for a collaboration between art and design lecturers and colleagues in the University’s School of Human and Health Sciences. Research based on cognitive psychology techniques would measures the effect of the ROTOЯ exhibitions on their audience.
The exhibition series has led to the Arts Council consulting the University of Huddersfield on the topic of public engagement with the arts and the civic role that universities can play. Also, Professor Swindells and Dr Powell are members of the Arts Council’s Cultural Knowledge Ecology Forum, which spans the entire North of England and examines the best ways of developing partnerships between Higher Education institutions and cultural organisations.
Cultural value
The two researchers acknowledge that there are barriers that can prevent people from taking an interest in art.
“Our next stage with ROTOЯ is to look at what these potential barriers are and how they can be overcome or alleviated without compromising the artwork,” said Professor Swindells.
An artist himself, he is Professor of Creative Practice at the University of Huddersfield, where Dr Powell is Research Assistant in Contemporary Art, with a speciality in the relationships between artwork, curatorial practice and audience. Recently, the two academics have travelled widely to present papers on aspects of their research.
Professor Swindells attended a conference at the Community University of Victoria in British Columbia, entitled Beyond Engagement: Creating integration, innovation and impact. Dr Powell visited Bandung Technology Institute in Indonesiato contribute to a conference named Reflections on Creativity: Public Engagement and the Making of Place.
The two Huddersfield researchers have also contributed tothe event named CONTEMP ART ’14 at Istanbul’s Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University,and most recently they have delivered a paper, entitled Creative Citizens at London’s Royal College of Art.
Their research is also of relevance to the two-year Cultural Value Project that has been launched by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which aims to make “amajor contribution to how we think about the value of arts and culture to individuals and to society.”
Professor Swindells and Dr Powell acknowledge the difficulties in measuring the effects of a “cultural offer”, but they believe that it does have the power to enrich lives and to develop civic pride and can also help to improve health and wellbeing.
