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The NCACE Blog platform fosters a vibrant community of writers exploring collaborations between higher education and the arts, showcasing diverse stories, experiences, and reflections on cross-sector partnership.

Planting & Playmaking

Polly Tisdall (actor, director, traditional storyteller and creative facilitator) and Dr Giulia Carabelli (Queen Mary, University of London)

In April 2023 theatre maker, Polly Tisdall and researcher, Dr Giulia Carabelli received a £1000 micro-commission from the National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange to explore the beginnings of a collaborative project focused on the potential of theatre-making to galvanise caring for plants in our communities. Here they reflect on the experience and what … Read more…

How can we better understand ‘Everyday Creativity’ and can it play a role in reducing inequalities in local communities?

Jess Plant, England Director Creative Lives

For over 30 years Creative Lives has championed community and volunteer-led creative activity. Our role is to improve opportunities for everyone to be creative – a bold ambition! Creative Lives is specifically interested in supporting opportunities for people to be actively creative; taking part in music making, photography, singing in a band, making clothes, joining … Read more…

Poem: Easy Bake Collaboration Equity Pie

Pauline Rutter - Researcher, archival artist, community and organisational poet

This recipe serves more than the institutionally established researchers and creatives. It’s adventurous, with generous embedding, Of independent producers and marginalised community collaborators. Rare ingredients in the traditional organisations spice rack. You’ll marvel at its satisfying wholeness. No bitter after taste at all. If committed to memory this will become a staple, On your menu. … Read more…

SAIL: Bridging the gap between Knowledge Development and the Creative and Cultural sector of West Yorkshire

Helen Brook, Project Development Manager - SAIL

In this blog post, hear from SAIL, a membership network of creative and cultural organisations in West Yorkshire, about how they’re working collectively to exchange research, build capacity, and advocate for sector-wide solutions, in order to accelerate action on climate change. At SAIL, we unite creative and cultural organisations, individuals, creative curriculum education providers and … Read more…

Reflections on our NCACE evaluation journey: from a composite baseline position to the midpoint evaluation.

Dr Thanasis Spyriadis - Evaluation Lead, NCACE

At NCACE we are committed to evaluating our work not just for accountability to our partners, but also to inform continuous improvements of our activity. We are particularly interested in understanding how our approach is making progress in facilitating and supporting capacity for Knowledge Exchange between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and arts and culture organisations … Read more…

The keyword is collaboration: dwelling among pathways through NCACE’s evidence garden

David Amigoni (Professor of Victorian Literature and Director, Institute for Social Inclusion, Keele University)

Keyword searches will help to unlock the NCACE collections for researchers and practitioners. I was pleased to be invited to reflect on what Evelyn Wilson described as an ‘evidence garden’ recording the complex pathways of knowledge exchange that characterise NCACE’s multi-sector-connecting mission at the March 2023 Evidence Cafe launch of the new NCACE Collection. The … Read more…

The Art of Engagement: creating foundations for an international learning community in social practice

Dr Loraine Leeson, Middlesex University

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 … Read more…

‘What do Universities actually do?’: Some thoughts on Interdisciplinary Knowledge Exchange and Creative Arts Collaborations.

Muriel Swijghuisen Reigersberg (The Open University, UK) and Graeme Surtees (The Stables, Milton Keynes)

‘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 … Read more…

God’s Eye View: Curating the intersections between artist, audience and place

Prof. David Cotterrell and Amy Carter Gordon, Sheffield Hallam University

Exploring the contributions of artist-researcher, curator and practice-based research in stimulating public dialogues through site-specific art installations and how notions of place are vital in shaping these new narratives. In this blog, Amy Carter Gordon and David Cotterrell reflect on a pilot collaboration between Sheffield Hallam University and No Bounds – a critically acclaimed independent … Read more…

The challenges of research collaboration

Rosy Greenlees, former Executive Director at Crafts Council and Suzie Leighton, Co-Director at National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange NCACE

This article was originally published at www.artsprofessional.co.uk on 22 February 2023, it has been re-published here with the permission of ArtsProfessional.  Rosy Greenlees and Suzie Leighton have been reflecting on the challenges of knowledge exchange between the arts and higher education sectors. Here they explore the mutual benefits of co-curated collaborations and what support leaders in the field … Read more…