Public Engagement

Public engagement is absolutely at the heart of what I do. For over ten years I’ve worked on numerous  projects connecting both my own work and that of others to communities outside academia. I believe that research is better when it is shared and collaborative, and that it enriched by coming into contact with different views and perspectives.

Via Being Human festival and other projects, I have worked with thousands of researchers across the UK, providing opportunities and support to help them create events in partnership with the communities around them. I’ve delivered training, overseen arts commissions, and set up projects as far afield as Orkney Islands, Paris and Melbourne. I have sat on various national funding panels for and am often invited to speak about public engagement at conferences and other events.

My interest in cultural and community collaboration is long standing. In Manchester I was involved in the Autonomous Arts movement, which made good use of the city’s plentiful supply of abandoned industrial buildings by turning them into temporary arts spaces. Moving to Nottingham, I later worked with the charity Nottingham City Arts (2011-2013), assisting with their Arts on Prescription Service, and spent some time working at the city’s Museum of Nottingham life. In London since 2013 I have worked with a wide range of institutions, researchers, artists and community groups on cultural and public engagement commissions, and overseen collaborative projects funded by Arts Council England.

Collaborators have included Parkour Generations, D-Fuse, Age UK, the AHRC, Arts Emergency, BBC Radio 3, the British Academy, British Museum, Glastonbury Festival, Institute of Physics.