Introduction
Currently, there is no Artist Residency programme at Cardiff University or accepted model of engaging artists in interdisciplinary works.
Yet, the practise of bringing Artists into the institution to work with Researchers and Academics for a variety of purposes has been happening for some time.
For example;
Currently, few Artists, Researchers or members of the public even realise this work is going on. There is no obvious point (physical or virtual) at which an audience could engage with this work. The work remains largely invisible, as few are able to access the opportunities or witness the results. Despite this, there is still significant interest for working together from both scientists and artists.
Other institutions have started to formalise and develop best practice in these arrangements with Artists. These include Leeds University, Warwick, Kings, Birmingham, Exeter and UCL among others. In Swansea University they created a Professor of Creativity role, and he has instigated a variety of Arts and Research collaborations designed to showcase key areas of research at the University and foster wider collaboration.
Catalysed by a role within the university, these activities could be a significant proportion of artistic activity and artistic income in Cardiff and the surrounding area. Given an identity and focus this work could presumably be shared with the public[1] and incorporated in the Universities Civic Mission as a public cultural offering and catalyst to the local arts sector.
The Current Situation at Cardiff University
Nearly all of the opportunities I have come across at Cardiff University have all originated from informal contact between Artists and Academics. There are benefits associated with the relaxed, intimate and informal approach. Loosely defined goals can allow relationships and outcomes to develop naturally, taking advantage of opportunities and finding suitable outcomes as they present themselves. Speaking to Dr Susan Wong about the ‘100 Years of Insulin Project’, she stated that it was precisely this flexibility and lack of pressure in the collaboration that led to the success of the exhibitions and workshops.
However, these informal relationships do not necessarily develop the most interesting work and run the risk of de-professionalising the Arts. This approach can also lead to a perception of bias and influence in recruiting Artists, which could become damaging to the university.
Alternatively, there are a few more academic collaborations involving artists from within other institutions collaborating on bids and projects. The results of these collaborations are often even more hidden from the public. Lastly, it is quite common to involve artists in projects working on workshops with children or the community. These are very visible and very valuable, but as they are often the only visible interaction that the university has with the arts it can lead to the impression that this is the only approach worth considering.
Academics wishing to employ Artists currently have no training or support in making selection decisions or working with the numerous different types of Artist who may wish to work with them. So, even when there are ‘Open Calls’ the brief needs to be written by someone with experience who can identify when there are deficiencies in the information provided and develop suitable contracts.
In other sectors, such as with publicly funded arts, Artists are usually employed as freelancers in something akin to a tendering process with a contract awarded. Within the university this is often cut out with no detailed contract between the artist and the researcher. Trust has always been crucial and I have never seen this deliberately undermined, but the lack of a contract doesn't represent best practise. As it is useful in defining the responsibilities and planning the project.
For example, in a recent example an artist was paid to work on engagement workshops with the public and produced some fantastically powerful poetry, but no production, exhibition or dissemination costs and responsibilities were included. This meant the project was never really successfully concluded and potentially may have let its participants down. Ultimately, the university bears the responsibility of this.
Aside from the potential for more obvious biases and omissions, there are also unintentional pressures that need to be highlighted. Academics with limited experience of the Arts may create preconceptions of what the finished ‘object’ should be when they write their brief or talk to artists, undermining the creative process before an artist has even been engaged. Then after recruiting, the power imbalance in the relationship, where Academics have senior positions, control of the budget and the institutional security can intimidate less experienced freelance Artists and cause them to become more instrumental in their approach than they would have otherwise been.
What is an Artist Residency?
Scratch the surface of the Arts and the different disciplines are as complex and multi-layered as any in the Sciences and Humanities, who is to say that previous projects are getting the best from the Arts sector? What is fair pay? What outcomes should be expected? What different sorts of Artists are there and which are appropriate for different scenarios such as workshops, residencies, engagement or display and for which audiences?
There is no agreed definition of an Artist. Game Designers, Graphic Artists, Illustrators and 3D computer modellers are all Artists, as are Visual Artists, Dancers, Musicians and Poets. Even within Poets, for example, there are street poets, lyricists, spoken word poets, community poets, workshop poets and published poets across numerous styles and sub-cultures. Cardiff University’s ‘Creative Cardiff’ survey on local Creative Industries in 2016 may also have included Tattoo Artists, but what about Chefs, Gardeners, Interior Designers, Architects or amateurs and hobbyists? All of these people have the potential to give exciting and creative responses to the work done in the University. Some artists even make it their role to facilitate and support other local talents or develop skills that already exist in communities and institutions, as part of their ‘social’ practise. If the brief is not written carefully it can exclude large sectors of the arts.
Engaging with artists can take many different forms from workshops to display works and ephemeral interventions. A residency, whether it is a period of days or whether it is a year, is an opportunity for the artist to try and embed themselves in the institution and ‘feel out’ the need for a work. Contrary to a professional artist, such as an illustrator, who is given a brief, here the artist is hired to discover their own brief. The outcomes of a residency can be numerous and wide ranging, including traditional art formats, workshops, public engagement, presentations, collaborative research and many softer outcomes, such as conversations, sharing meals and gentle critique. In my view the best projects incorporate as many of these elements as possible, but obviously this is affected by budgets, durations and the specifics of each project.
In setting up an Artist Residency it is important to establish a brief that defines what form the residency will take and what the expectations are, whilst leaving as much flexibility as possible. The brief can always be revisited after the artist has been appointed to fine tune things. Some questions you may need to consider include;
Why are Artists interested in Science?
For Artists, positioning their work in relation to the ‘Avant Garde’ is often important. For many Artists the leading edge of the Humanities and Sciences is a key site for artistic enquiry. For example, some Artists are meaningfully engaging in Health Care and Education, issues of identity, environmental campaigns or they critique ethics in areas such as Bioengineering or body modification. For others, it has been to co-opt the technology to create new artforms, encouraging creativity and self-expression, exploring the Arts as Social Practice or documenting working practises within a History Painting style or through Photography. The potential is limitless.
Another factor to consider is the function of the University as a potential ‘site’ of exhibition or engagement. This can take the form of flagship artworks designed to give identity, as with the exterior of the Psychology building in Cardiff University. Here the artist gets a highly visible career defining opportunity. But, for other artists the University represents a potential preselected audience of staff and students working in a similar area. Sometimes, the Universities own engagement activities will provide a site where an Artist’s interest in social practise or arts workshops can be used to amplify or critique Public Engagement and its effect. Collaborations can also be research orientated to allow Artists to develop new approaches alongside Academics. Here, although outcomes are deliberately blurred, the results are often more original and have the potential to lead to other projects.
One last development worth addressing is the origin of Fine Art PhD’s. This has necessitated a reconceptualising of Arts Practise as research, often drawing on research from other disciplines to do this. As a result, a range of interdisciplinary content is emerging in BA modules, specific MA courses and research programmes. Almost every Art college will now have some recent element of Art Science or Art Social Science specialism. Although, currently this is often taught by Art College staff. In my view, there is a debate to be had whether this way of teaching interdisciplinarity is dumbing down to meet student demand. Ideally interdisciplinarity should be taught by the same staff and assessed to the same standards as it would be on a focused degree pathway using a flexible modular structure. But, either way there is a trend is to produce MA Art Science specialists and related PhD proposals.
What are the benefits to Researchers?
As you can appreciate with the diversity of Artists, residency types and collaborating departments, every residency is unique. However, there are key themes that arise.
Types of Arts engagement have included but are not limited to:
The Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities are necessarily detached and objective, written in the third-person with a precisely worded technical lexicon. For most artists and community groups their experience is personal and first-person. The arts are one of the only tools that can make this personal experience meaningful, significant and communal for both the researcher and the participant. This is their great strength.
Julie Light, an artist who held a residency at Leeds University in 2020, noted that her artwork generated,
“curiosity and enable(d) people to generate questions about the science…it could potentially help to break through people’s expectations about their science literacy.”
Her Collaborator Dr Paul Beale also commentated on the difference between illustration and artworks,
“an illustration of a piece of science, … is still part of the science. An artwork acts almost as a tool, it kind of draws people in and it allows us to explore different things that a person is comfortable with, rather than talking at them about something very technical”. (Dr Paul Beale in. Julie Light, 'A window onto science', Interalia Magazine, May 2021)
A similar approach was taken on the Cardiff University European Cancer Stem Cell Project in Heolddu Comprehensive funded by the Princess Trust in 2014. Here, researchers talked to students leaving education after GCSE about their research into Cancer and stem cells. On its own this would have failed, but by sharing the sessions with an artist the young people were able to make work relating to the researcher’s themes. This neutral and unpressured activity allowed them to find their own way of engaging with the content and an indirect path to learning.
This approach is echoed by the Lead Creative Schools scheme jointly funded by the Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh Government. This is an Artist in Schools scheme inspired by the Donaldson Report. Traditionally these schemes are aimed at pupils. However, this scheme was developed to also help staff in schools to understand the key differences in approach that would be needed to deliver the new Creative Welsh Curriculum designed to provide pupils with skills that would prepare them for an uncertain job market calling for ‘Creative’ skills.
Unlike target-based education, creative learning is a process that is characterised by open-minded exploration, free play and co-production. This involves a creative journey where students and staff build resilience to the experience of risk, failure and uncertainty that are implicit in innovation. I see no reason why this doesn't also apply to students and staff in HE, particularly when the current student cohort will not have had these experiences under the new curriculum in Secondary school.
It is important to recognise that the most exciting and sustainable projects are the ones that allow for a period of research/ play where new process and genuine collaboration can develop through discussion and familiarity. This aspect must be be protected when designing residency or commission arrangements in order to avoid artists and researchers feeling pressured to deliver instrumental engagement activities, rather than ‘playing’ to their strengths.
Finally, a fair proportion of the university’s staff are currently engaged in making artworks, either in addition to their research and role, or related to their research. This work should be championed and given exposure as it demonstrates the wellbeing and creative value in a well-rounded education and research practise.
Conclusion
Most Academics have little understanding of what an Artist does or the many ways in which they could benefit their research. Further complicating this are issues around how to structure, evaluate value for money, and pay for projects with Artists. This may explain why those Academics who do work with Artists choose ones that they know, rather than risk an open process. However, open calls and a professional approach raise awareness of the project and help secure the most exciting and relevant Artists to work with.
Despite the uncertainties, there are still a large number of Academics who wish to work with Artists and see a great value in doing so. However, even in these circumstances collaborations are often hampered by the project-based nature of the funding. This can mean that the experience generated by running an arts collaboration, often by junior researchers with no fixed contracts, is lost from project to project. Controlling these risks, maintaining a body of experience within the institution, supporting Academics and artists through the process, making the work available to an audience and documenting the outcomes would allow many more Artists, Researchers and Academics to see the benefits of engaging in this area.
There is a significant potential body of work that could be addressed with a project to scope the sector, support ongoing projects, develop new projects, raise funds, explore their application in Cardiff and document the benefits to the institution. However, it is clear that Artist Residencies at Cardiff University have already had a significant if under-appreciated role.
Supporting local Arts and enabling the University as a site of exchange and production aligns with the University’s Civic Mission and signals a broad minded, modern, open, exciting, creative and connected institution.
About the author:
Phil Lambert is an award-winning visual artist based in Cardiff and an Engagement Assistant with CASCADE research project, Social Sciences at Cardiff University. He also works on the Lead Creative Schools project run by the Arts Council of Wales. He is an advocate of interdisciplinarity in education. He studied the interdisciplinary Human Sciences BSc at UCL specialising in Human Evolution, before taking a Masters in Fine Arts at Swansea Metropolitan University. He has exhibited internationally and received national funding. He has collaborated with scientists from Cardiff, Bristol and most recently Reading University.
References
Creative Cardiff (2016) ‘Cardiff: Creative Capital – Mapping Cardiff’s Creative Economy’ Cardiff University
Donaldson, G. (2015). Successful Futures: Independent Review of Curriculum and Assessment Arrangements in Wales. Cardiff: Welsh Government. Retrieved from https://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150225-successful-futures-en.pdf
Kings College London (2020), ‘King’s Artists - Toolkit’, Kings University, London 2020
Light J. (2021), 'A window onto science', Interalia Magazine, May 2021
[1] A publicly accessible digital cataloguing of the Universities existing art holdings would also be a good idea and is in line with other Public/Civic Institutions.
[2] This has often been considered the main point of intersection between the Arts and Sciences and can be successful. However, in this relationship the Arts play second fiddle to the aims of the Science. As such, it is not always clear that the Art has to be successful to achieve the aims of the Science. This may not be an issue, but should be considered.
[3] "The Ochre Experience Model (OEM): towards a transdisciplinary perspective on the earth material heritage of ochre" it will be published in Deep time art in the age of Globalization: Understanding Rock Art in the 21st Century. It is a multidisciplinary collaboration around a central theme of ochre use.
[4] See Donaldson Report and the Lead Creative Schools Project (Arts Council of Wales)
Currently, there is no Artist Residency programme at Cardiff University or accepted model of engaging artists in interdisciplinary works.
Yet, the practise of bringing Artists into the institution to work with Researchers and Academics for a variety of purposes has been happening for some time.
For example;
- ‘The Bench to Brain’ 2017, series of activities within the Genomics Research team with artist Julia Thomas and Artist/Psychologist Dr Rhys Bevan Jones.
- Artist Anne Mei-Melis’ workshops with medical Students in anatomy drawing – (on display in the Cochrane Library currently), 2019?
- Bridget O’Brien’s workshops and exhibition at Llandough Hospital celebrating 100 Years of Insulin with Dr Susan Wong in the School of Medicine, 2021.
- Penelope Rose Cowley’s work with Professor Derek Jones in Psychology documenting the arrival of the new 7 Tesla Magnet for Cubric 2 and other works, 2017 – ongoing.
- The use of a Poet in a recent CASCADE Research project working with Children with care experience.
- or my own work with ESCRI on a Princess Trust funded project in 2014 developing workshops for KS4 based on their work.
- To name just a few of the many.
Currently, few Artists, Researchers or members of the public even realise this work is going on. There is no obvious point (physical or virtual) at which an audience could engage with this work. The work remains largely invisible, as few are able to access the opportunities or witness the results. Despite this, there is still significant interest for working together from both scientists and artists.
Other institutions have started to formalise and develop best practice in these arrangements with Artists. These include Leeds University, Warwick, Kings, Birmingham, Exeter and UCL among others. In Swansea University they created a Professor of Creativity role, and he has instigated a variety of Arts and Research collaborations designed to showcase key areas of research at the University and foster wider collaboration.
Catalysed by a role within the university, these activities could be a significant proportion of artistic activity and artistic income in Cardiff and the surrounding area. Given an identity and focus this work could presumably be shared with the public[1] and incorporated in the Universities Civic Mission as a public cultural offering and catalyst to the local arts sector.
The Current Situation at Cardiff University
Nearly all of the opportunities I have come across at Cardiff University have all originated from informal contact between Artists and Academics. There are benefits associated with the relaxed, intimate and informal approach. Loosely defined goals can allow relationships and outcomes to develop naturally, taking advantage of opportunities and finding suitable outcomes as they present themselves. Speaking to Dr Susan Wong about the ‘100 Years of Insulin Project’, she stated that it was precisely this flexibility and lack of pressure in the collaboration that led to the success of the exhibitions and workshops.
However, these informal relationships do not necessarily develop the most interesting work and run the risk of de-professionalising the Arts. This approach can also lead to a perception of bias and influence in recruiting Artists, which could become damaging to the university.
Alternatively, there are a few more academic collaborations involving artists from within other institutions collaborating on bids and projects. The results of these collaborations are often even more hidden from the public. Lastly, it is quite common to involve artists in projects working on workshops with children or the community. These are very visible and very valuable, but as they are often the only visible interaction that the university has with the arts it can lead to the impression that this is the only approach worth considering.
Academics wishing to employ Artists currently have no training or support in making selection decisions or working with the numerous different types of Artist who may wish to work with them. So, even when there are ‘Open Calls’ the brief needs to be written by someone with experience who can identify when there are deficiencies in the information provided and develop suitable contracts.
In other sectors, such as with publicly funded arts, Artists are usually employed as freelancers in something akin to a tendering process with a contract awarded. Within the university this is often cut out with no detailed contract between the artist and the researcher. Trust has always been crucial and I have never seen this deliberately undermined, but the lack of a contract doesn't represent best practise. As it is useful in defining the responsibilities and planning the project.
For example, in a recent example an artist was paid to work on engagement workshops with the public and produced some fantastically powerful poetry, but no production, exhibition or dissemination costs and responsibilities were included. This meant the project was never really successfully concluded and potentially may have let its participants down. Ultimately, the university bears the responsibility of this.
Aside from the potential for more obvious biases and omissions, there are also unintentional pressures that need to be highlighted. Academics with limited experience of the Arts may create preconceptions of what the finished ‘object’ should be when they write their brief or talk to artists, undermining the creative process before an artist has even been engaged. Then after recruiting, the power imbalance in the relationship, where Academics have senior positions, control of the budget and the institutional security can intimidate less experienced freelance Artists and cause them to become more instrumental in their approach than they would have otherwise been.
What is an Artist Residency?
Scratch the surface of the Arts and the different disciplines are as complex and multi-layered as any in the Sciences and Humanities, who is to say that previous projects are getting the best from the Arts sector? What is fair pay? What outcomes should be expected? What different sorts of Artists are there and which are appropriate for different scenarios such as workshops, residencies, engagement or display and for which audiences?
There is no agreed definition of an Artist. Game Designers, Graphic Artists, Illustrators and 3D computer modellers are all Artists, as are Visual Artists, Dancers, Musicians and Poets. Even within Poets, for example, there are street poets, lyricists, spoken word poets, community poets, workshop poets and published poets across numerous styles and sub-cultures. Cardiff University’s ‘Creative Cardiff’ survey on local Creative Industries in 2016 may also have included Tattoo Artists, but what about Chefs, Gardeners, Interior Designers, Architects or amateurs and hobbyists? All of these people have the potential to give exciting and creative responses to the work done in the University. Some artists even make it their role to facilitate and support other local talents or develop skills that already exist in communities and institutions, as part of their ‘social’ practise. If the brief is not written carefully it can exclude large sectors of the arts.
Engaging with artists can take many different forms from workshops to display works and ephemeral interventions. A residency, whether it is a period of days or whether it is a year, is an opportunity for the artist to try and embed themselves in the institution and ‘feel out’ the need for a work. Contrary to a professional artist, such as an illustrator, who is given a brief, here the artist is hired to discover their own brief. The outcomes of a residency can be numerous and wide ranging, including traditional art formats, workshops, public engagement, presentations, collaborative research and many softer outcomes, such as conversations, sharing meals and gentle critique. In my view the best projects incorporate as many of these elements as possible, but obviously this is affected by budgets, durations and the specifics of each project.
In setting up an Artist Residency it is important to establish a brief that defines what form the residency will take and what the expectations are, whilst leaving as much flexibility as possible. The brief can always be revisited after the artist has been appointed to fine tune things. Some questions you may need to consider include;
- Is it outcome driven or should there be opportunities for research and development of new approaches?
- Should the artwork portray the research in a representational way and should it be scientifically ‘accurate’?
- How can different artforms and techniques convey concepts or ‘challenge’ them?
- What are the onsite expectations and resources available throughout the duration of the project?
- What is fair pay and what is the payment tied to?
- What arrangements have been made for Intellectual Property and Public Liability Insurance?
- Who are the audience and how are they to be reached by the project and its conclusions?
- Who will own the work and the publicity rights?
Why are Artists interested in Science?
For Artists, positioning their work in relation to the ‘Avant Garde’ is often important. For many Artists the leading edge of the Humanities and Sciences is a key site for artistic enquiry. For example, some Artists are meaningfully engaging in Health Care and Education, issues of identity, environmental campaigns or they critique ethics in areas such as Bioengineering or body modification. For others, it has been to co-opt the technology to create new artforms, encouraging creativity and self-expression, exploring the Arts as Social Practice or documenting working practises within a History Painting style or through Photography. The potential is limitless.
Another factor to consider is the function of the University as a potential ‘site’ of exhibition or engagement. This can take the form of flagship artworks designed to give identity, as with the exterior of the Psychology building in Cardiff University. Here the artist gets a highly visible career defining opportunity. But, for other artists the University represents a potential preselected audience of staff and students working in a similar area. Sometimes, the Universities own engagement activities will provide a site where an Artist’s interest in social practise or arts workshops can be used to amplify or critique Public Engagement and its effect. Collaborations can also be research orientated to allow Artists to develop new approaches alongside Academics. Here, although outcomes are deliberately blurred, the results are often more original and have the potential to lead to other projects.
One last development worth addressing is the origin of Fine Art PhD’s. This has necessitated a reconceptualising of Arts Practise as research, often drawing on research from other disciplines to do this. As a result, a range of interdisciplinary content is emerging in BA modules, specific MA courses and research programmes. Almost every Art college will now have some recent element of Art Science or Art Social Science specialism. Although, currently this is often taught by Art College staff. In my view, there is a debate to be had whether this way of teaching interdisciplinarity is dumbing down to meet student demand. Ideally interdisciplinarity should be taught by the same staff and assessed to the same standards as it would be on a focused degree pathway using a flexible modular structure. But, either way there is a trend is to produce MA Art Science specialists and related PhD proposals.
What are the benefits to Researchers?
As you can appreciate with the diversity of Artists, residency types and collaborating departments, every residency is unique. However, there are key themes that arise.
Types of Arts engagement have included but are not limited to:
- Enjoyment (Not to be underestimated)
- Legacy portraits
- Documentation
- Mediation between public and researchers
- Engagement with students
- Public Engagement[2]
- Workshops
- Conferences
- Co-authoring papers on common themes (ie. Ochre/Pigment/archaeology[3])
- Co-authoring of papers specifically on public engagement
- Development of field skills
- Positive Mental Health Initiatives
- ‘Broad education’ initiatives
- Creative Learning initiatives[4]
- Fundraising for charity / research
- Fostering a spirit of collaboration
- Media coverage, exposure to new audiences and promoting new areas of research excellence.
- Illustration
- Decoration and Flagship branding projects (I.e. Psych building)
- Competitions / exhibitions for artists and students to showcase their talents (this can build large audiences quickly)
- Fostering an institutional reputation for Creativity and Culture
- Digital Cataloguing of the University’s Art Holdings/Activities for Public Access.
The Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities are necessarily detached and objective, written in the third-person with a precisely worded technical lexicon. For most artists and community groups their experience is personal and first-person. The arts are one of the only tools that can make this personal experience meaningful, significant and communal for both the researcher and the participant. This is their great strength.
Julie Light, an artist who held a residency at Leeds University in 2020, noted that her artwork generated,
“curiosity and enable(d) people to generate questions about the science…it could potentially help to break through people’s expectations about their science literacy.”
Her Collaborator Dr Paul Beale also commentated on the difference between illustration and artworks,
“an illustration of a piece of science, … is still part of the science. An artwork acts almost as a tool, it kind of draws people in and it allows us to explore different things that a person is comfortable with, rather than talking at them about something very technical”. (Dr Paul Beale in. Julie Light, 'A window onto science', Interalia Magazine, May 2021)
A similar approach was taken on the Cardiff University European Cancer Stem Cell Project in Heolddu Comprehensive funded by the Princess Trust in 2014. Here, researchers talked to students leaving education after GCSE about their research into Cancer and stem cells. On its own this would have failed, but by sharing the sessions with an artist the young people were able to make work relating to the researcher’s themes. This neutral and unpressured activity allowed them to find their own way of engaging with the content and an indirect path to learning.
This approach is echoed by the Lead Creative Schools scheme jointly funded by the Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh Government. This is an Artist in Schools scheme inspired by the Donaldson Report. Traditionally these schemes are aimed at pupils. However, this scheme was developed to also help staff in schools to understand the key differences in approach that would be needed to deliver the new Creative Welsh Curriculum designed to provide pupils with skills that would prepare them for an uncertain job market calling for ‘Creative’ skills.
Unlike target-based education, creative learning is a process that is characterised by open-minded exploration, free play and co-production. This involves a creative journey where students and staff build resilience to the experience of risk, failure and uncertainty that are implicit in innovation. I see no reason why this doesn't also apply to students and staff in HE, particularly when the current student cohort will not have had these experiences under the new curriculum in Secondary school.
It is important to recognise that the most exciting and sustainable projects are the ones that allow for a period of research/ play where new process and genuine collaboration can develop through discussion and familiarity. This aspect must be be protected when designing residency or commission arrangements in order to avoid artists and researchers feeling pressured to deliver instrumental engagement activities, rather than ‘playing’ to their strengths.
Finally, a fair proportion of the university’s staff are currently engaged in making artworks, either in addition to their research and role, or related to their research. This work should be championed and given exposure as it demonstrates the wellbeing and creative value in a well-rounded education and research practise.
Conclusion
Most Academics have little understanding of what an Artist does or the many ways in which they could benefit their research. Further complicating this are issues around how to structure, evaluate value for money, and pay for projects with Artists. This may explain why those Academics who do work with Artists choose ones that they know, rather than risk an open process. However, open calls and a professional approach raise awareness of the project and help secure the most exciting and relevant Artists to work with.
Despite the uncertainties, there are still a large number of Academics who wish to work with Artists and see a great value in doing so. However, even in these circumstances collaborations are often hampered by the project-based nature of the funding. This can mean that the experience generated by running an arts collaboration, often by junior researchers with no fixed contracts, is lost from project to project. Controlling these risks, maintaining a body of experience within the institution, supporting Academics and artists through the process, making the work available to an audience and documenting the outcomes would allow many more Artists, Researchers and Academics to see the benefits of engaging in this area.
There is a significant potential body of work that could be addressed with a project to scope the sector, support ongoing projects, develop new projects, raise funds, explore their application in Cardiff and document the benefits to the institution. However, it is clear that Artist Residencies at Cardiff University have already had a significant if under-appreciated role.
Supporting local Arts and enabling the University as a site of exchange and production aligns with the University’s Civic Mission and signals a broad minded, modern, open, exciting, creative and connected institution.
About the author:
Phil Lambert is an award-winning visual artist based in Cardiff and an Engagement Assistant with CASCADE research project, Social Sciences at Cardiff University. He also works on the Lead Creative Schools project run by the Arts Council of Wales. He is an advocate of interdisciplinarity in education. He studied the interdisciplinary Human Sciences BSc at UCL specialising in Human Evolution, before taking a Masters in Fine Arts at Swansea Metropolitan University. He has exhibited internationally and received national funding. He has collaborated with scientists from Cardiff, Bristol and most recently Reading University.
References
Creative Cardiff (2016) ‘Cardiff: Creative Capital – Mapping Cardiff’s Creative Economy’ Cardiff University
Donaldson, G. (2015). Successful Futures: Independent Review of Curriculum and Assessment Arrangements in Wales. Cardiff: Welsh Government. Retrieved from https://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150225-successful-futures-en.pdf
Kings College London (2020), ‘King’s Artists - Toolkit’, Kings University, London 2020
Light J. (2021), 'A window onto science', Interalia Magazine, May 2021
[1] A publicly accessible digital cataloguing of the Universities existing art holdings would also be a good idea and is in line with other Public/Civic Institutions.
[2] This has often been considered the main point of intersection between the Arts and Sciences and can be successful. However, in this relationship the Arts play second fiddle to the aims of the Science. As such, it is not always clear that the Art has to be successful to achieve the aims of the Science. This may not be an issue, but should be considered.
[3] "The Ochre Experience Model (OEM): towards a transdisciplinary perspective on the earth material heritage of ochre" it will be published in Deep time art in the age of Globalization: Understanding Rock Art in the 21st Century. It is a multidisciplinary collaboration around a central theme of ochre use.
[4] See Donaldson Report and the Lead Creative Schools Project (Arts Council of Wales)
