At the Centre for Applied Research in the Arts we take a productive, collaborative approach in conjunction with faculties and research institutes across the University.
Our project-based collaborations include those with the Energy and Environment Institute, Institute for Clinical and Applied Health Research, the School of Education, the Faculty of Science and Engineering and the Faculty of Health Sciences.
Research projects explore the application of arts research methods and/or the creation of research-driven, arts-practice outputs that intersect directly with current social, environmental, economic or educational needs.
Key research areas include
- Ecological and environmental arts
Including arts research methods and outputs that relate to issues such as global warming and climate change; plastics or other petrochemical pollution; patterns of natural (i.e. non-human) migration; and the sustainability of flora, fauna and particular global or local environments.
- Arts, health and wellbeing
Including the intersections between arts research and creative outputs that have potential applied impact in relation to physical and mental health; levels of fitness and emotional wellbeing; social cohesion; work/life balance; the arts and mental, physical or intellectual resilience and/or mental and emotional transcendence.
Including projects that have a direct bearing on the ways in which current communities and cultures teach or learn; and the development of alternative pedagogies, or modes of engagement with education. These include enhanced uses of digital and distance learning and teaching; the uses of Forest Schools and environmental education; performance and/as pedagogy in school and university curricula; music in education; and theatre and drama in education.