SEEDED: UCL East

Artist or creative practitioners working in any discipline or medium with a socially engaged practice. No prior experience of working in a HEI setting or collaborating with a researcher is required, but they should have some experience of co-creation or community engagement. They should have an interest in collaborative ways of working, furthering their socially engaged practice, engaging with UCL research and working accessibly and inclusively.  

The resident will be joint hosted by:  

Dieter Deswarte, a filmmaker, artist, and Associate Professor in Non-Fiction Film at UCL East. He is interested in how non-fiction storytelling creates spaces for dialogue, care, and social change. As former Head of Public Anthropology, he played a central role in developing the section at UCL East. Public Anthropology is an interdisciplinary section of UCL’s Anthropology Department that brings together academics, curators, entrepreneurs and creative practitioners to explore new ways of producing and sharing knowledge.  He also contributes to the development of the UCL East Community Cinema, and is founder of Spectra, a queer non-fiction film club at UCL. Through his teaching, filmmaking and community initiatives, Dieter explores how storytelling can function as a bridge between academia and the public, supporting more inclusive, engaged and socially responsive forms of knowledge production.

Melanie Davies, Community Engagement Manager in the Public Art, Cultural and Community Engagement team at UCL East. The team invites researchers, artists, students and members of the public into the same room to ask big, open questions together. We support projects that connect different kinds of knowledge, experience and artistic approaches to spark new ideas and ground UCL’s research in the real world. The artworks, exhibitions and events we produce animate UCL’s spaces, reflect on the university’s past and present, and imagine possible futures.

Across the East Bank SEEDED Residency Programme, the primary theme for all partners is social and community engagement, but UCL East would particularly like to hear from artists with an interest in: 

• Developing shared knowledge through creative conversation 

• Building community through collective making  

• Centring care and listening in their practice

• Applicants should have up to five years’ experience in their chosen creative practice 

• Applicants from any creative discipline or medium can apply, but must have a socially engaged practice and some practical experience of co-creation or community engagement 

• Applicants should have an interest in working across disciplines and different forms of knowledge, and a commitment to working in equitable and accessible ways