9 top tips for artists working in public engagement.
FF do a lot of work with researchers, helping them to share their work with new and different audiences, or to co-create new knowledge with people from outside their discipline.
This kind of activity is often described as ‘public engagement’, which is defined by the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) as “the myriad of ways in which the activity and benefits of higher education and research can be shared with the public. Engagement is by definition a two-way process, involving interaction and listening, with the goal of generating mutual benefit.”
Public engagement doesn’t always involve working with artists, but obviously that’s the point of view that we’ve experienced it from. We wanted to get -and share- a more complete picture. So I spent some time speaking to some of the genuinely brilliant people working in this area, to get their top tips for artists working in public engagement (plus one from FF). They’re not all in complete agreement so you have the freedom to pick and choose!
You might also want to check out The big guide to public engagement and/ for artists, which aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the what, from where and why of this field, and Public Engagement: the tricky stuff, which digs into the thornier questions that come out of this area of work.
Try to grow collaborations organically, rather than forging them over an application form or being extractive.
Will Hunter, Creative Producer and PhD student at the University of Bristol
If possible, start in a place where something has organically grown from a relationship and a conversation with a researcher, rather than going in there thinking that a researcher would be good to collaborate on your art project.
Check your values align with those of the research institution.
Lucy Yates, Public Engagement Lead for the SHIFT project at the University of Oxford
Think about values: is the institution a good match for you? If you can have a conversation with the person leading the project, you'll be able to gauge quite a lot. Do a bit of desk-based research where you look and see, oh that department is funded by X. Look for the money because -not always but often- that will determine some of the possibilities.
Get clear on what exactly it is that the researcher wants to find out through working with you.
Jamie Upton, Senior Public Engagement Officer at The Royal Society
Don’t be afraid to challenge the researcher on what the research question of the activity you’re working on is. And it might be that the research question is just the same as what their non-public engagement research is, but do challenge them on what question they are trying to answer through working with you. The projects that I have seen flounder are the ones where the artist has had carte blanche, with very few parameters in place, and it's just turned into a mess. The more parameters that can be put in place -although it will feel restrictive- the better the outcome will likely be.
Make sure everyone knows their job within the project.
Heather Doran, Public Engagement Manager for the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Dundee
Make sure that people have defined their kind of roles and responsibilities in the project. Academics and researchers are also creative people in their own right and so you get this mix of different types of ideas and creativity. Everyone needs to be clear on what is each person’s area to work on, so that other people aren’t then trying to change something that someone else thinks is their area of expertise.
(As far as possible) pursue work that will feed you as an artist.
Lucy Yates, Public Engagement Lead for the SHIFT project at the University of Oxford
Be really careful about picking projects that you're genuinely interested in. It will show through after a while if you're not. You're going to make less good work than you would have otherwise done. Presumably you're an artist because you want to make your art: you need to think really carefully about the objectives of the project and whether they align with your practice. NB: Lucy totally acknowledged the need to make money and that we don’t always have the luxury of walking away bc we all need to eat.
Be realistic.
Will Hunter, Creative Producer and PhD student at the University of Bristol
Go in with open eyes. Most public engagement is translating science research and even within a collaborative research project, academic research is always going to take priority, in the current state of things. There are ways beyond this, but they’re not all that common.
Don’t assume that the researcher is already thinking about social context.
Jamie Upton, Senior Public Engagement Officer at The Royal Society
Don’t assume that researchers will have thought more broadly about the public context of their research. You don't want to patronise them but at the same time don't make the assumption that they have thought more broadly about what the societal impact is.
It’s about holistic growth, not making the best film/ exhibition/ game/ other artform you’ve ever made.
Simon Watt, Public Engagement Manager at the UCL Hawkes Institute.
Process matters much more than the output. The judgement of the output will always be subjective, but the process must benefit all. A good project is one where all involved grow.
Public engagement professionals are an invisible good; prepare for how you’ll cope if there isn’t (a good) one.
Fast Familiar
Public engagement professionals like the people who’ve contributed to this piece are an invisible good. When you’re working with someone who knows what they’re doing, things run smoothly and you, the researchers and the public have a good and interesting time. You only properly notice the work they do when it’s absent - when communication breaks down, when you can’t get what you need to do your job well and when you feel there are glaring absences of voices who should be present in the project. Avoid projects if your spidey senses tell you not to have confidence in the person responsible for public engagement; or if finances mean you need to take the project (we’ve all been there), triple your budget line for project management because everything that person doesn’t do is going to become your job (if you don’t want to compromise your standards).