Creative research & evaluation
CSR supports creative, participatory and collaborative approaches to research and evaluation.
We are interested in methods that enable different kinds of knowledge and experience to become visible and that create meaningful opportunities for people to participate in research. This can include arts-based and visual methods, participatory approaches, creative workshops, storytelling and other approaches developed in response to particular communities, places and research questions.
Creative methods are not just a way of making research more engaging; they can help researchers and organisations ask different questions, involve people whose voices may be poorly represented by conventional approaches, and understand complex experiences that can be difficult to capture through standard measures alone.
Evaluating green social prescribing
CSR led the evaluation of Greater Manchester’s Nature for Health programme, part of the national Green Social Prescribing Test and Learn initiative.
The work explored the benefits and challenges of connecting people with nature-based activities and combined evaluation of wellbeing and economic outcomes with attention to the experiences of participants, providers and commissioners.
The evaluation has continued to influence knowledge exchange and engagement following completion of the original project and is now being developed as a potential REF impact case study.
Creative research and evaluation with partners
CSR also works with cultural, community and voluntary-sector organisations to develop creative approaches to research, evaluation and knowledge exchange.
Our relationship with Liverpool’s Bluecoat has supported activities bringing academics, artists, practitioners and community organisations together to explore creative research and evaluation. These activities contribute to a wider programme of work developing practical approaches and resources for researchers and organisations interested in participatory and creative methods.
Developing creative practice
CSR provides opportunities for members and partners to experiment with methods, share practice and develop new collaborations. We are particularly interested in approaches that cross conventional disciplinary boundaries and in methods that recognise embodied, experiential, community and place-based forms of knowledge.
VOICES_Ed
The VOICES_Ed project utilizes a photo-elicitation methodology to explore meanings, perspectives and understandings of inclusion, and exclusion, in school settings. The project began with the creation of photographs and accompanying comments, key words and vignettes or scenarios that prompted exploration of how schools and other education settings engage with children and young people’s ‘voices’, concerns and priorities.
Art is Everywhere
Victoria Foster was a Co-Investigator on this knowledge exchange project led by Dr Marisa de Andrade at the University of Edinburgh, funded through the AHRC Place Programme. Partners included North Lanarkshire Council, NHS Lanarkshire, Scottish Community Safety Network, Youth Theatre Scotland, Voluntary Action North Lanarkshire, and Tron Theatre. Using a range of arts-informed approaches, we engaged with communities in North Lanarkshire to address inequalities through the arts.
The project commissioned artists who worked with communities using dance, theatre, photography, film and visual arts. A key project impact was co-producing North Lanarkshire’s first ever strategy to tackle health inequalities through the arts (2023-2028), which is currently being embedded across Council departments. The Strategy outlines six strategic aims and, for each aim, learning cycles are being co-produced. Amongst other outputs, our project has provided training for Council staff that were previously not engaging with the arts to tackle inequalities in areas including social justice, community learning, and health.
The project continues to grow, engaging with hundreds of community members across the socio-economic spectrum, community organisations, North Lanarkshire College, local artists working across every medium, and more.
Creating Sustainable Futures: A photovoice project with young people in Wigan
This was a collaboration between Edge Hill University, Wigan Council and the local social enterprises Wigan and Leigh Community Charity, Embrace Wigan and Leigh and Made in WN8. It also had input from the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES). Together with a group of marginalised young people, we explored ideas of community wealth building and some of the possibilities that social enterprises might offer in furthering social and economic justice. We employed a photovoice methodology and the young participants took photos and told stories about their lives and experiences of work and worklessness, community, and their hopes for the future.
Feminist Imaginaries Research Network
Reimagining gender justice through creative and arts-based adult education, research and curation in museums, libraries, heritage sites, universities and communities.