Artist-Researcher Collaborations
Our researchers are working with local artists to produce art reflecting key issues and themes across the region.
From the impact of Covid-19 on hospices, to experiences of lockdown, from exploring cultural memory and heritage through sound, to prisoner experiences, artists and our academics and researchers are working together to engage the public with research.
Working with a diverse range of organisations and communities, alongside the universities’ own individual programmes of research, these collaborative relationships are opening up opportunities to learn, reflect and engage new audiences on societal issues that matter.
Coventry Biennial
Warwick has been collaborating with the Coventry Biennial since its second iteration in 2019, with artists responding to a variety of Warwick research and Warwick researchers participating in various events.
Belgrade Theatre Project
Working with the Belgrade Theatre, Professor Jacqueline Hodgson and Dr Rachel Lewis will see their research into policing and community translated into a performance piece, exploring the power of arts and culture as a collaborative endeavour.
Coventry Creates
For Coventry Creates, 18 local artists worked with researchers from the University of Warwick and Coventry University resulting in a wide range of innovative artworks presented through a digital exhibition.
Artists & Researchers: Why Collaborate?
To evaluate the success of artist-researcher collaboration on artist participants, a series of interviews were carried out. Feedback forms were gathered from all artists and researchers, providing additional insights into participants’ experiences of Coventry Creates.
A knowledge sharing document was also created based on the evaluation of artist-research collaborations together with a roundtable discussion.
These documents share learning from Coventry Creates, including its benefits and challenges, alongside four case studies to illustrate the experiences of artists and researchers working together for the first time. In setting out our findings, as well as lessons going forward for similar projects, we hope to help promote future successful artist-researcher collaborations - not just around City of Culture, but in all aspects of academic work.
Getting Creative with Sustainability
Getting Creative with Sustainability saw local artists and creatives working with Warwick researchers and regional organisations around the theme of sustainability.
These projects enabled researchers, local organisations and creatives to work together via artistic collaboration and build ongoing relationships to explore potential new projects and partnerships.
Emerging from Lockdown
This project, led by Professor Jacqueline Hodgson, involved working with a creative writer and a mass public participation photography project, in order to examine the experiences of people in Coventry during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It resulted in a photography exhibition at Warwick Arts Centre in collaboration with the Grid Project, and a short story and film which brings the research findings to life.