Our Areas of Work
NCACE is focussed on activities across four distinct yet interconnected areas. These are: Brokerage, Collaboration Support and Networking; Skills and Capacity Development; Evidencing and Impact Development and Showcasing and Communication, with programme evaluation ongoing throughout the project.
Brokerage, Collaboration Support and Networking
Whilst Knowledge Exchange, in its wider sense, between higher education research and the arts and cultural sectors is a well-established activity with many different models, manifestations and positive effects, there is often a lack of awareness on both sides about how to instigate collaborations and deliver equitable and mutually beneficial work.
NCACE is focussed on creating positive ecologies and environments in which to foster excellent Knowledge Exchange and collaboration between Higher Education and the arts and cultural sector and on supporting ambition around the wider potential and impacts for such work.
Associated activities and getting involved
Throughout each year NCACE runs various workshops, networking events and an annual Ideas Pool to bring together researchers and arts and culture sector professionals for challenge-led ideas generation.
We awarded four micro-commissions, following our first Ideas Pool event. These small projects explored ideas to support better knowledge exchange and collaboration between the higher education and arts and cultural sector. The projects are complete and the NCACE Micro-Commissions Evaluation Report is now available to download.
The report underlines the need for responsive, flexible and light touch modes of support for the development of new ideas and partnerships. NCACE continues to advocate to funders and policy makers regarding the need for small amounts of “proof of concept” funding for cultural knowledge exchange.
The second Ideas Pool was held in February 2023. We supported a second round of micro-commissions, these small awards are intended to develop collaborative relationships rather than project delivery. A creative mapping visualisation of the second Ideas Pool and micro-commissions is available to view here. The third Ideas Pool was held in January 2024, we will be supporting another round of micro-commissions to follow in the Spring of 2024.
Responding to demand from both HE and the Arts and Cultural Sector, we launched a new series of NCACE Meetups. These are 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. Meetup themes have included; AI, Storytelling and Equitable Collaborations.
Please contact us if you would like to be involved, get in touch with Noshin Sultan noshin@tcce.co.uk in the first instance.
Skills and Capacity Development
Within Higher Education, there are challenges faced by KE professionals and researchers alike, with a lack of opportunities for networking, peer to peer learning and professional development often cited.
For arts sector professionals, the need for better practical knowledge and know-how in this area is still a key concern for many, and the phrase ‘I don’t know where to start’ is all too common.
NCACE aims to provide support and development opportunities for: Knowledge Exchange Professionals, academics with a keen interest in developing social impacts, and arts/culture sector workers who wish to develop partnerships with universities.
Associated activities and getting involved
Every year we run a ‘state of the nation’ style event on supporting and showcasing excellent knowledge exchange with the arts and culture sector. In 2021 this was our launch event Knowledge Conversations: The Power of Collaborative Action. Following on from our launch, the second event held in March 2022 was entitled The Power of Collaborative Action: People, Place and Planet. It considered how knowledge exchange and working in partnership fosters connections, creativity and innovation across a myriad of important and often interconnecting themes. Our third event The Power of Collaborative Action III: Leading the Future of Cultural Knowledge Exchange was held on 8 March 2023, you can listen to the audio recording here. Our fourth event The Power of Collaborative Action IV: Pioneers, Change-makers and Liminal Spaces will take place on Thursday 23rd May 2024.
Our Knowledge Impacts Network (KIN) is open to anyone who works in or is interested in Knowledge Exchange and wider partnerships. In particular the KIN network provides informal opportunities to hear about how to approach KE challenges, to share knowledge, industry expertise and successes, and to build and enhance professional support networks across our community. We are also supporting this by our KIN Support Sets, action learning sets to support collaborative and creative problem solving which are being led by Guildhall Coaching Associates. Recordings for past KIN events can be found on our SoundCloud channel.
We are also running a series of leadership workshops, one held per annum. Our third Leadership Workshop Developing your Leadership Narrative took place in July 2023, the focus this time around was on narratives around female leadership, and provided an opportunity for female leaders to explore the myths, challenges and power of female leadership.
We have also published the NCACE Action Research Report: Skills and Capacity for Knowledge Exchange with the Arts and Cultural Sector addressing the challenging environment faced by KE professionals and arts sector professionals.
A further publication arising from discussions within the KIN network, Careful Collaborations: Ethics and Care in Cultural Knowledge Exchange and Trans-Disciplinary Research, was published in March 2024.
Please contact us if you would like to be involved, get in touch with Noshin Sultan noshin@tcce.co.uk in the first instance.
Evidencing and Impact Development
NCACE’s work around Evidence and Impact Development comprises a number of interrelated areas, including events based activities as well as two publishing platforms. Our events based activities include two key brands; NCACE Evidence Cafés and the NCACE Annual Policy Workshop. Our two publishing platforms include the NCACE Collection and the NCACE Evidence Repository.
NCACE Evidence Cafés
In spring 2021 we launched the NCACE Evidence Café, and it has since evolved into a longstanding and popular series that brings together researchers, knowledge exchange professionals as well as arts and culture sector professionals and practitioners often around research relating to Cultural Knowledge Exchange. The Cafés are designed to offer a space for sharing evidence, know-how and best practice. So far, we have held Evidence Cafés on the following topics: NCACE Literature Review, KEF 2021, Climate Emergency, Place-making, Narrating Cultural Knowledge Exchange, Arts and Health, REF 2021, NCACE Collections Launch, Creative Communities Programme, HEIs and Local Authorities and Cultural Partnerships, REF 2021 and the arts and culture sectors and KEF and Small Arts Specialists. Most of our Evidence Cafés are available to listen to on our SoundCloud channel.
Annual Policy Workshop.
We also hold an annual policy workshop in June each year. This is a longer and larger format event which creates space for researchers, artistic and cultural practitioners, knowledge exchange professionals and policy-makers to come together around ‘Grand Challenge’ type themes. Past workshops have been very well attended and have included: 'Collaborations in Placemaking: Shining a Light on the Contribution of Higher Education and Cultural Partnerships' (2021), ‘Culture and Collaborations on the Climate Emergency’ (2022) and Collaborations in Creative Health (2023). Our next policy workshop Culture, Collaboration and Knowledge Exchange: Technology for Social Good will be held in June 2024.
Publication platforms
In March 2023, we launched the NCACE Collection. It is a new online space where we showcase all NCACE originated and commissioned evidence development and research reports, essays and think-pieces, case studies, blogs and mini-toolkits. Since the start of NCACE we have produced and published almost 50 pieces on topics broadly relating to the field of Cultural Knowledge Exchange.
Our three most recent NCACE Collection publications include: REF 2021: Research Impact and the Arts and Culture Sectors, Careful Collaborations: Ethics and Care in Cultural Knowledge Exchange and Trans-Disciplinary Research and Placing Placemaking: Exploring what constitutes best practice in UK universities.
In early 2022, we launched the NCACE Evidence Repository, as an important gateway to a growing body of 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 in the first instance.
The NCACE Collection is a constantly growing online 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 as a space to house, showcase and create awareness about the themes explored through the publications that we have researched, produced and commissioned since we launched NCACE in 2021. Much of the work we produce feeds into or emerges as a result of NCACE Evidence Cafés.
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 a substantial array of 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
Together these events and publishing platforms are designed to address NCACE’s mission to develop and make available more and better evidence on the scale, extent, nature, drivers, and broader impacts of Knowledge Exchange and collaborations between Higher Education and the arts and culture sectors.
Associated activities and getting involved
As part of our work in this area, we are keen to hear from those of you who may like to contribute case studies, reports or other materials that focus on collaborative activities between HE and the arts and, in particular, where there are social, cultural or environmental impacts arising from that work.
This will be helpful as we continue to develop and co-create both the NCACE Collection and the Repository as unique resource bases for Cultural Knowledge Exchange.
Please contact us if you would like to be involved.
Showcasing and Communications
Communicating the wider benefits of knowledge exchange and helping to narrate this emerging field continues to be a key need. NCACE aims to showcase models of good practice in KE with the arts and cultural sectors from universities across both through our Evidence Repository, other online resources and publications as well as a bi-annual mini-festival.
Associated activities and getting involved
The NCACE Blog supports writing about Knowledge Exchange between HEIs and the arts/culture sector, and themes of relevance to the centre’s mission and audience. We are always keen to hear about collaborative projects between Higher Education and the arts and culture sector. We are also keen to hear about initiatives that support wider societal, cultural and/or environmental impacts, or that act as a follow up to any of our events or activities. You can access the NCACE Blog Guidelines here. For further information contact Noshin Sultan on noshin@tcce.co.uk.
We established an editorial partnership with ArtsProfessional, and have published a series of eight articles designed to promote awareness of NCACE to the arts and culture sector. Over the course of the partnership our articles have included: Co-designing a sustainable future for arts and higher education collaboration, Ways of working with universities revealed and Arts and higher education: a successful partnership in action. The full list of articles can be found here.
In October 2022 our first mini-festival NCACE Festival of Cultural Knowledge Exchange took place. The festival week was designed to raise the profile of Cultural Knowledge Exchange best practice and act as a space for fresh considerations and perspectives on cultural knowledge exchange between Higher Education and the Arts and Cultural Sector. The recordings of our festival events are available on our SoundCloud channel. Our second festival will take place in 2024.
NCACE produces a Monthly Bulletin, through which you can keep abreast of our activities. We also post regular updates through our social media channels; X/Twitter @CultureImpacts and LinkedIn. You can also listen to recordings of past and recent NCACE events via our SoundCloud channel.
Our latest Annual Report 2022/23 is available to read here.
Evaluation
Evaluation, as a valuable tool for learning, will be an integral part of this programme from the outset. Its purpose is to enable the ongoing evaluation of both the processes used to deliver the programme, as well as the programme outputs, outcomes and impacts. Importantly, it is supporting an ongoing dialogue and iteration across each area of work, in order to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in programme co-design and delivery. Evaluation will be guided by relevant principles, including Theory of Change, while stakeholders across the programme will further drive the co-creation of our evaluation framework.