Creative Exchange Lab (CEL)

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Under the theme of 'People and Places', this research project will focus on the mechanisms for effective exchange within the Creative Industries, linking in particular, academic research in the creative sector with creative professional practitioners who operate as solo artists and micro-business enterprises. Through a series of extended residencies located in disadvantaged communities across Northern Ireland, academic practitioners and postgraduates from the University of Ulster and Queen's University will work together with professional artists to explore ways in which contemporary digital and non-digital arts can have a transformative impact on liminal communities and districts. Areas of specific interest include art and public art in local communities, the role of art in a post-conflict society, and the role that art can play in regenerating a region such as Northern Ireland. A key outcome from this work will be the potential to share ideas, activities and experiences with other international contexts which are already looking to Northern Ireland as an example of a post-conflict region. The collaboration between Queen's and Ulster, established through a new Creative Exchange Lab (CEL),will enable projects in music, film, drama, creative writing, fine art, to be developed and delivered in communities across Northern Ireland. Each one will involve workshops, creative collaborative projects designed in association with the practitioners and conceived around local issues, histories and contexts. The outcomes of the residencies will be presented in a major festival and exhibition hosted across both institutions at the end of 2013 which will showcase the creative outcomes of both practitioners and community participants. Individual projects will later be presented in regional venues for local communities to experience and they will be archived and made available on-line.A longitudinal study running alongside the residencies will document and report on the creative practice landscape for lone artists and practitioners, creative clusters and networks, and the relationship of these activities to academic research. The study will be explored in a wider regional and national government context for the creative industries whereby funding and support is targeted at SMEs and 'close to market' activities and rarely identifying the needs of solo practitioners and and micro businesses. In addition to the study, the residencies will also lead to the generation of new knowledge and working methods about artist and academic engagement in specific communities which are often historically remote from both contemporary arts practice and academia. The breadth creative activities available through both institutions will ensure a wide spread of community projects across Northern Ireland. The public engagement aspect of these residencies will also be beneficial to the participating postgraduate students.