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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.

A new form of Collaboration: Immersive Experiences Redefined

Alexander WH Winterbotham (OmBeond), Sam Healy (Ray Interactive) and Oliver Durcan (Goldsmiths, University of London)

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. In late … Read more…

Knowledge and research based in practice: ways of knowing and articulation

Dr Sara Wookey

Considering practice-based-research through anecdotal experiences across academia, museums and archival practices 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 … Read more…

Compassionate Interviewing Techniques for Creative Knowledge Exchange: In Discussion with True Crime Practitioners

Megan Lupton, PhD candidate at De Montfort University

Megan Lupton is a PhD candidate at De Montfort University investigating the ethics of true crime content. As part of her research, she conducted semi-structured interviews with true crime practitioners to understand how they navigate ethical dilemmas associated with their genre. The knowledge exchange between Megan, the researcher, and the interviewees was a surprising yet … Read more…

Cultural Impact and Knowledge Exchange and Small Specialist Institutions in REF2021

Dr Laura Kemp - Senior Manager, NCACE

In the recent NCACE publication REF 2021: Research Impact and the Arts and Culture Sectors we analysed the submissions of small, specialist higher education providers that conduct research within disciplines that correspond to the arts and culture sectors, such as music, the visual arts, the performing arts and literature. Chapter 3 – An analysis of … Read more…

20 years of rich and reflective practice-based research: The Clore Leadership/AHRC Online Research Library

Magnus Copps, Research Library Consultant and Curator

It’s really exciting to be able to announce the launch of our new Online Research Library, showcasing the outputs of two decades of collaborative working between Clore Leadership and The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). I’ve led the cataloguing and curation of the project on behalf of both organisations. This post will share a … Read more…

REF 2021: Addressing societal Grand Challenges through arts and culture research

Dr Ning Baines, Lecturer in Marketing - University of Leicester

In our recent report on REF 2021: Research Impact and the Arts and Culture sectors, one of the themes we explored was how research, in collaborations with the arts, can address what are sometimes referred to as ‘Grand Challenges’. ‘Grand Challenges’ can be thought of as specific critical barrier(s) that, if removed, would help solve … Read more…

Knowledge exchange has always been at the heart of music conservatoires, but do current metrics accurately reflect the richness of these KE environments?

Dr Michelle Phillips, Royal Northern College of Music

Knowledge exchange is a term used to describe a variety of activities that creative higher education institutions have been undertaking for a long time. What we may refer to as outreach, business and community engagement, impact, and / or widening participation, falls under this term, defined by UKRI as ‘universities and other higher education institutions … Read more…

How does academic research generate impact through, or on, artistic and cultural activities? An analysis of the 2021 REF impact case studies

Dr Federica Rossi, Co-Investigator, Evidence and Impacts - NCACE

The importance of impact arising from, and having effects on, artistic and cultural production While it is broadly acknowledged that academic research should generate real-world impact, the discourse often focuses on impact arising from academic knowledge feeding into technological and business innovation; much less so on the impacts that involve, either as means or outcomes, … Read more…

Creative Change: Interaction and Impact on Wellbeing in Incarceration

Artist Faye Claridge and Researcher Dr Ana Chamberlen (University of Warwick)

Faye Claridge and Dr Ana Chamberlen, are awardees of the second round of NCACE Micro-commissions. They undertook a programme of collaborative conversations to share their experiences and research on imprisonment and wellbeing with the aim to develop understanding of how creative and research interventions in prison settings can be effectively measured for impact on health … Read more…

Exploring innovative uses of immersive media technologies to enhance the teaching of arts and heritage in Rugby Art Gallery and Museum: A Collaborative research project with Birmingham City University and STEAMhouse.

Phoebe Hilton, Senior Learning and Engagement Officer (Rugby Art Gallery and Museum)

The aim of this project was to explore, test and identify the creative and technical possibilities of utilising immersive media technologies in local authority run combined arts and heritage venue Rugby Art Gallery and Museum (RAGM). Focussed on the themes of digital storytelling and technology for social good, we developed a feasibility study which will … Read more…