A Knowledge Transfer Fellowship, led by Dr Maggie O’Neill at Loughborough University, set out to explore the social role of the arts in social change, and in the space between ethnographic, participatory research and arts-based work, with a focus on enhancing the lives of recent arrivals to the East Midlands.
Impacts included:
• Raising public awareness on the lived experiences of refugees and asylum seekers to counteract the often negative messages in the mainstream media.
• Increasing number of people visiting the university as a consequence of the exhibition being documented on the Guardian Online, raising the profile among those who would not otherwise visit the university, and developing cultural and social benefits for visitors.
• Engaging with and feeding into public policy based on the deeper understanding of the reasons behind people’s migration to the UK and insight into how refugees and asylum seekers cope with being a stranger in a strange land.
• A number of participating refugees found employment as a direct result of the project.
Arts-based research produced by, and with, refugees and asylum seekers can effectively highlight the cultural competencies and skills brought to the UK by new arrivals. By highlighting the different notions of culture, art and belonging that are held by both new arrivals and more established communities, arts-based research can provide a basis for overcoming cultural prejudice and misunderstanding. The project brought together a number of arts and community organisations in the East Midlands, as well as researchers and migrant groups.
An “Artists’ Diversity Pool” event was held to aid networking and employability of artists and to launch the production of a directory of artists in exile and artists with experience of working with new arrivals, refugees and asylum seekers. The directory is also located online and now serves as a hub and repository for regional research and arts activity in the area of arts, migration and diaspora.
Simultaneous performance events in different locations saw new arrivals talking a walk with a local dignitary/resident from a place they call home to a special place in their city/town. The walks were followed by a series of workshops focussing on the sense of belonging, including place, place-making, home, belonging and identity. Activities culminated in an exhibition reflecting the experiences of moving to the East Midlands through a series of artworks inspired by the project.
Further information:
www.beyondbordersuk.com
www.makingtheconnections.info
www.guardian.co.uk/society/gallery/2009/jan/13/sense-of-belonging-exhibition?picture=341562670
Further information:
These short overviews have been produced as an aid to understanding some of the impacts arising from arts and humanities research. The examples are taken from existing AHRC projects, ranging from small awards up to large Research Grants and Centres. They are not exhaustive; impact from research takes many forms. It can occur at any stage of the research process, from its beginning to well after the research itself has finished.
The Research Councils define impact as the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy. This definition accords with the Royal Charters of the Councils and with HM Treasury guidance on the appraisal of economic impact. Impact embraces all the extremely diverse ways in which research-related knowledge and skills benefit individuals, organisations and nations by:
• fostering global economic performance, and specifically the economic competitiveness of the United Kingdom
• increasing the effectiveness of public services and policy, and
• enhancing quality of life, health and creative output
These case studies offer some, but in no way all, of the diversity and variety of those impacts. They are not, however, intended as guidance on completing the Impact Requirements sections on proposals, for which you should refer to the Je-S guidance for Standard Grant proposals and Fellowship proposals.
It should also be remembered that the impacts described here will not necessarily be replicated by undertaking the same activities. The pathways to impact are as diverse and varied as the impacts themselves. These examples can, however, provide some illustration of what can be achieved.