Case study: Inclusive art - theory and practice

Natalia Agote Urquia, a former Inclusive Arts Practice MA student, shares how her research project provided an opportunity to undertake mutually beneficial work with women with learning difficulties. It gave her the opportunity to explore and develop her research together with her participants. It also enabled Natalia to strengthen her research skills while facilitating a process that was truly inclusive.

Our students in the community

Former student: Natalia Agote Urquia

“According to senior lecturer Alice Fox, inclusive arts can be defined as ‘supporting creative opportunities between marginalised and non-marginalised people through artistic facilitation and collaboration as a means of challenging existing barriers and promoting social change.'

Alongside my own creative practice I have been working with marginalised community groups in India and the UK for many years, including older people, children in care, refugees, street children and adults with learning disabilities. In the second year of the course we were required to organise and facilitate an action-based research project. This is intended to be a vehicle for self-reflective investigation, refining our practice, while undertaking mutually beneficial work with marginalised community groups or individuals.”

A space to experiment: An action-based research project

“My vision was to organise an inclusive project for women with learning disabilities that would promote expression, equality and knowledge exchange between the participants and myself. I wanted to facilitate an environment in which they would play a key and active role in influencing the creative processes and direction – informing and contributing to the research as active participants instead of passive subjects.

The university ethics committee responded positively to my proposal. We met once a week at the Phoenix Studios in 91抖阴 to make art together. We have been using ourselves and our experiences as the starting point for much of the artwork, exploring together how the creative process can be a non-verbal vehicle for dialogue and expression.

My vision was to organise an inclusive project for women with learning disabilities that would promote expression, equality and knowledge exchange between the participants and myself. I wanted to facilitate an environment in which they would play a key and active role in influencing the creative processes and direction – informing and contributing to the research as active participants instead of passive subjects. The university ethics committee responded positively to my proposal.

We met once a week at the Phoenix Studios in 91抖阴 to make art together. We used ourselves and our experiences as the starting point for much of the artwork, exploring together how the creative process can be a non-verbal vehicle for dialogue and expression."

Growing as a researcher

"One of my challenges as a researcher has been to negotiate the fine line between directive and non-directive facilitation, balancing the need to hold the framework of the investigation and align it with our chosen themes, while at the same time giving participants the space and creative freedom to express themselves.

The participants and myself adopted a creative language that is primarily non-verbal with which we collect data, evaluate and represent our opinions, and this serves to put us on an equal platform. Because of the participatory methodology of the project our aims and focuses are in constant flux, shaped and re-shaped by the group during the journey of investigation. The group’s active role in influencing our creative developments gives the participants a greater claim of ownership over the research and its outcomes, helping to balance out the power dynamic between participant and researcher.

The project finished with an exhibition of the exciting work that we produced. Not only is it important that wider inclusion and access to the arts is provided to excluded minorities, but it is also key that the work created is supported to filter into the mainstream visual culture as the arts have the power to increase the visibility of marginalised groups in wider society, serving to challenge preconceptions and trigger social change."