Making Art, Making Partnerships

Partnership Studio Days are an important first step in developing new Arts Lab collaborations. At Arts Lab, we believe the strongest partnerships begin by making and looking at art together.

Before developing a collaborative project, we invite potential partners into the Rural Peace Hub studio and gallery to experience our participatory visual arts methodology first-hand – exploring how creative practice can open up communication, strengthen relationships, give voice and build bridges across difference.

This summer, we welcomed Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge and partner Jeremy from South Africa, with whom we are developing a project connecting rural communities in KwaZulu-Natal. During their stay at the Rural Peace Hub, they spent time in the studio exploring participatory visual arts as a tool for voice, inclusion and conflict transformation.

Closer to home, Lyn Horton, Community Strategist and Social Connectivity Developer, and Michael Cunliffe, Creative Health Practitioner and VCSE consultant, joined us to explore the Arts Lab methodology as part of developing a new cross-sector senior leadership programme.

These partnership studio days are an important part of how Arts Lab builds partnerships: through shared experience, experimentation, conversation and making. The activities may look different each time; everyone brings their own perspective, experience and way of making, but the underlying methodology remains the same.

For further reading, see the Art Matters journal post, A Summer Making Art and Building Partnerships.