Training and Development

Corsham Court, Lecture Room
Tuesday 6 March 2018
Organised by Dr Yiota Demetriou and Hannah Sackett

The workshop was an enjoyable and informative event. We were lucky to have an excellent group of speakers – Esme Betamax (Director of the Bristol Comic and Zine Fair), Simon Moreton (artist and zine maker), and Laura Little (Bath Spa's Senior Lecturer in Publishing and maker of artist’s books). The afternoon book-making session was expertly led by Angie Butler from UWE, with a wonderful display of artist’s books and zines from the library collections.

The workshop participants also contributed a huge amount to the day. People from across the university attended the session – with a mix of PhD students, academics and university staff. Feedback from the session showed that the combination of talks and a practical session worked well, and everyone was very pleased with the books they made on the day.

It was an excellent opportunity to meet other people interested in small press and book-making, and we hope that the many conversations and connections made on the day will be continued in future research, events and projects.

Elen Caldecott, Bath Spa University PhD Researcher, produced a large training event called “Wild Things” which was an opportunity to celebrate – while learning from – the wealth of expertise that Bath Spa University offers on the topic of young people and creativity.

Through an all-day programme, which featured a masterclass by Professor David Almond, our participants examined the creative cycle, answering such questions as; how is art for young people made and disseminated, how is it used by educators and practitioners, and how do we encourage young people to become future artists and innovators themselves?

Elen noted: 

"I was pleased with the range of speakers, although they did end up being more Creative Writing heavy than I had anticipated in my bid. If I did this again, I would work harder to communicate with people in performance, heritage and art and design.

The responses on the day were good, with emergent themes and ideas that demonstrated that our concerns are overlapping enough to be part of a research community. Many of audience were inspired by the speakers and workshop leaders, and impressed by the quality of work. There was a celebratory atmosphere."

The final Seed Fund Workshop was organised by Rachel Beale, Bath Spa University PhD Researcher, regarding how to research your own research questions!

Feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive, noting that Patrick was a “superb speaker and facilitator, super energising" and that the workshop was "excellent and informative! Really useful, accessible and interactive".

Rachel comments that:

"I felt passionately that the event, Researching and Questioning Research Questions, was important for researchers at every stage of their career because research questions are the basis for any research project. However, the generosity of time, knowledge and support shown by all involved in bringing this project to reality was remarkable.

Running the event had challenges, including developing different writing styles and finding solutions on my own and through collaborations. It was a positive and exciting learning curve. The process has produced academic partnerships that I had not experienced before, including meeting Dr Patrick White, our external speaker, which opened possibilities of building future links and connections lasting beyond the Seed Fund Event.

It was a highly valuable, formative, broadening and memorable experience, for which I am very grateful. Thank you to all concerned."

A short summary of this workshop by Wen-Hsi Chen.

As a Bath School of Art and Design practice-led PhD student in Ceramics, I realised that studying creative research was a challenging experience. Therefore, I decided to submit a proposal for the Seed Fund to share my experience with other students.

I would like to thank my second supervisor Dr. Conor Wilson and fellow PhD student Roxanne Jackson for their support during my project.

It was a great learning opportunity to organise the workshop and to share my knowledge and experience about artist-residencies. I learnt how to design an online game through
Kahoot to engage with my audience, which provided a fun environment in which to learn a little bit of history about artist-residencies.

It was nice to meet other researchers and artists on that day, and we shared our experiences and thoughts during the workshop. Also, I learnt from the Researcher Development Team about how to order the room, catering and to negotiate with the finance office about payment for artist fees.