Tagged / connected communities

AHRC Connected Communities Festival 2016

ahrcTaking inspiration from the 500th anniversary of the publication in 1516 in Latin of Thomas More’s Utopia, as well as a Connected Communities/ Care for the Future Symposium on ‘Utopias, Futures and Temporalities: Critical Considerations for Social Change’ held in May 2015, the 2016 Connected Communities Research Festival will have a central theme of Community Futures and Utopias. The Festival is being undertaken in partnership with The Somerset House Trust as a part of Utopia 2016: a year of Imagination and Possibility – four seasons of events, exhibitions and new commissions celebrating the idea of Utopia to mark the 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s influential text. Utopia 2016 is a partnership between the Somerset House Trust and its neighbours King’s College London and the Courtauld Institute and Gallery.

The 2016 Festival will support high quality participatory arts research and research co-production activities across the UK on the theme of community futures and utopias and will provide an opportunity to explore creative ways to build upon, and widen and deepen community engagement with, research being undertaken by the Connected Communities Programme and with wider AHRC/RCUK–funded research.

Expressions of Interest (EOIs) are now invited to contribute to the Festival which will run from February 2016 through to June 2016, culminating in a major weekend-long Utopia Fair at Somerset House on 24th-26th June. This call for EOIs will support participatory arts research and research co-production activities through two main strands of the 2016 Festival:

  1. A Programme of Local Festival Activitieswhich bring together at a regional / local /community level researchers from the arts and humanities (and other disciplines where appropriate), research organisations, community groups, creative practitioners and other community partners. These local activities can take place at any time from February 2016 to late June 2016 and will be brought together as a UK-wide Festival programme of local activities
  2. Participation in the Utopia Fair, 24th-26th Junethrough the partnership with The Somerset House Trust as a part of Utopia 2016: a year of imagination and possibility. Building on local Festival activities EOIs are invited to include ideas for participatory arts research co-production projects which will produce creative, co-produced/ participatory, research outputs which can be showcased at a weekend Festival, The Utopia Fair, to be held in the Edmond J Safra Fountain Court at Somerset House in London which will take place on 24th – 26th June 2016. The Utopia Fair will bring together representatives of contemporary utopian movements, celebrating projects already flourishing in the margins and liminal spaces around the UK, and the importance of the spaces that artists create for dreaming. It will enable visitors to join in and taste utopia now, inspiring them to take a piece of utopia home with them and into their lives. 25 stands are available at the Utopia Fair to showcase creative community –co-produced outcomes from local Connected Communities Festival activities. As well as the stands, there are also opportunities to showcase other outputs, such as film screenings or performances, at the Utopia Fair

Proposals which additionally or alternatively propose to showcase creative co-produced outputs locally or at other relevant events regionally or nationally in 2016 will also be welcomed.

Closing Dates

Closing Date: 16/12/2016

How to make an application

Applications should be submitted through smartsurvey using the following link http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/AHRCConnectedCommunitiesFestival2016/ at the latest by 12 noon on Wednesday 16th December 2015, and will need to go through the BU institution submission process.  Please contact your RKEO Funding Development Officer if you are interested in applying.

Full guidance detailing the awards available and requirements for submission of proposals can be found in the EOI call document.

Further Information

Further information on The Somerset House Trust Utopia 2016 season Utopia 2016: a Year of Imagination and Possibility can be found at utopia.somersethouse.org.uk or from the press release at www.somersethouse.org.uk/press-releases

Contacts

Please contact connectedcommunities@ahrc.ac.uk with any questions.

Pre-Call Announcement for AHRC Connected Communities Research Festival 2016

ahrcThe AHRC has announced that a Connected Communities Research Festival will be held in 2016. A call for Expressions of Interest (EOIs) to participate in the Festival will be issued in early November 2015.

Taking inspiration from the 500th anniversary of the publication in 1516 in Latin of Thomas More’s Utopia, as well as a Connected Communities/ Care for the Future Symposium on ‘Utopias, Futures and Temporalities: Critical Considerations for Social Change’ held in May 2015, the 2016 Festival will have a central theme of Community Futures and Utopias.

As with the 2015 Festival, the call for EOIs will support high quality participatory arts research and research co-production activities across the UK. Local activities can take place at any time from February 2016 to late June 2016. In addition, AHRC will be inviting projects to propose ideas for producing creative, co-produced, research outputs from their local activities which can be showcased at a high profile public event in London in late June 2016.

The call for EOIs will be open to a wide range of interpretations of the theme of Community Futures and Utopias, including – for example – :

  • what ‘utopia in the 21st century’ means for diverse communities;
  • past visions of the future and the role of the past in community futures;
  • the future as a lens or safe space for exploring challenges facing communities;
  • community fears and aspirations for the future;
  • the role of the future in bringing together or dividing communities;
  • utopia as participatory/ creative method;

and many other creative research ideas.

As well as providing opportunities to build on Connected Communities research, the Festival will provide an opportunity to link to other AHRC and Research Council-funded inter-disciplinary research, including under all other AHRC themes (such as Care for the Future and Translating Cultures) and priority areas (such as design, heritage, languages, etc.).

Expressions of interest will be encouraged to describe:

  • How they will build upon past research and work with local communities to co-produce new research insights on the theme of community futures and utopias, and the role of participatory and collaborative research methods in these processes
  • How the proposed festival activities will help to broaden and deepen community research engagement and partnerships – in particular, how projects will reflect and engage with diverse minority community groups and cultures
  • For those proposals involving more extended participatory arts approaches to research co-production, how they might use the opportunity of a high profile national showcase in London for community projects on utopias, and/or other similar event, to engage wider publics with the outcomes of their local activities.

Funding Available

AHRC anticipate that EOIs will be invited for two types of funding:

  • up to £5,000 to support a wide range of participatory/ co-produced research activities with diverse communities around the UK between February and late June 2016 on the theme of Community Futures and Utopias
  • up to £15,000 to support more ambitious local participatory / creative arts co-produced / collaborative research projects producing high quality creative / artistic outputs and the showcasing of these outputs at a two day high profile national public event on Community Utopias in London over a weekend in late June 2016.

Expected Timetable for the Call

AHRC expect to issue the full call for Expressions of Interest in early November. The planned outline timetable for the call is below:

Mid October Festival theme announced
w/c 2 November AHRC issues call for expressions of interest to participate in the Festival
w/c 7 December Closing date for EOIs (via SmartSurvey)
By end of January 2016 Notification of Outcomes of EOIs
February- June 2016 Festival events take place around the UK
24 -26 June (tbc) Showcase of creative outputs from selected local projects at weekend public event in London
Tbc Cross-theme Utopia 500 academic conference

This Festival will form part of a wider series of Connected Communities and collaborative activities on the theme of community futures and utopias, including a conference on ‘Utopia in the 21st Century’. Further details of these other events will be announced in early 2016.

If you intend to submit an expression of interest you will need to have your plan costed by the Funding Development Team and so please contact them in the first instance.