Creative Collaboration in Policy & Practice
Dr Kirstie Hewlett, Research Associate within Cultural Partnerships & Enquiry and the Policy Institute at King’s College London
Dr Kate Dunton Research and Education Manager at the Cultural Institute at King’s College London
Dr Luke Dickens Lecturer in Urban Futures at King’s College London
Ms Meg Peterson, HE engagement and research at Battersea Arts Centre
Collaboration and knowledge exchange between universities and the creative sector is increasingly being incentivised, be it through the introduction of impact pathways to national policy agendas or the growing number of cultural centres embedded in UK universities. However, from conflicting timelines to misalignment between research goals and the impact felt by the sector, such partnerships often remain fraught with contradictions.
This panel will interrogate such tensions by taking a vertical slice through the theme of collaboration and knowledge exchange to look at how such relationships are being driven within urban universities, from UK policy to front-line practice, drawing on:
-A typology of academic–creative collaboration based on empirical analysis of REF 2014 impact case studies and related indicators of cultural engagement (Kirstie Hewlett, KCL)
-Insights from the sector on the practicalities of developing creative projects in collaboration with academic institutions (Meg Peterson, Battersea Arts Centre)
-An overview of the work of the Cultural Institute at King’s College London, which brokers collaborations between Higher Education and the arts and cultural sector in London (Kate Dunton, KCL)
-A critical case study exploring a collaborative project both located within the city and which takes the city as its theme (Luke Dickens, KCL)
Following these four short position papers, the session will conclude with a ‘flipped Q&A’, where speakers will turn the questions they have been exploring over to the audience to produce a range of possible interventions to tackle some of the contradictions at the heart of such creative partnerships.