Xiaohongshu
Step into a powerful exploration of creativity, community research and collective action with this hands-on field trip to Creative Voices, Activist Voices — an inspiring community research exhibition in the heart of East London.
🗓️Tuesday 10 March
⏰15:30-18:00
📍Arbeit Studios, 1 Trowbridge Road, London, E9 5LD (Just a 5 minute walk from Hackney Wick Tube Station)
🕓 Duration: 2.5 hours
🪙 Ticket Price: £5, including a free hot drink and snack at the lovely Arbeit Studios
💬 Led by: Fun Palaces (an award winning movement and campaign), Dr Katy Pilcher (sociologist), and the Community Research Initiative team at the SU
Whether you’re curious about what community research looks like in the real world, want to see academic community collaborations, or just looking to connect with others interested in activism, creativity, social inequality, and social impact, this field trip will leave you inspired and ready to harness your inner community researcher.
What to expect?
🖼️Snack and Learn
Grab some yummy community café snacks and take part in a special guided tour of the exhibition ‘Creative Voices Activist Stories’ exhibition with lead researcher Dr Katy Pilcher.
Discover how Katy used the power of research to craft an exhibition with Fun Palaces exploring the intersections between creativity, activism, and social inequality. The photographs, stories, and objects featured in this community exhibition have travelled all across the UK. The exhibition's final stop is here on the doorstep in East London, so it’s your last chance to learn first-hand about the impact of this unique community-driven exhibition.
👂Listen
After immersing yourself in this exhibition, it’s time to listen and find out why - and crucially how - communities shaped what you've seen from Fun Palace lead Rachel Attfield.
How did this exhibition help break down the barriers that once stopped people from stepping into activism? How did creativity become the key that unlocked people’s inner activist? And what made people feel empowered to share their stories on their own terms? You'll find out about the powerful role that art, storytelling, and community participation played in turning curiosity into social action.
🎨Craft
Get your hands dirty by trying out actual creative research methods!
Inspired by all that you've heard, we'll design placards and learn about how lino printing can transform fabric into a force for a fairer future. Fuel your creative fire and explore first hand how the power of art brings people together across social, cultural, and community divides.
What will I gain from this event?
👂Listen with empathy to understand different perspectives, practices, and the power of community research
🤝Network with lived experience partners, academics, and fellow students by adapting your language and thinking with, and for, different audiences and contexts
🪴Grow your social impact mindset by engaging with organisations and researchers who use their work to drive positive change
🎨Give creative research methods a go as your creative activist projects will spark conversations about how we can collectively empower each other to become the community researchers and changemakers of tomorrow.
How can this event help me as a....
🎓Inspiring researcher: Explore research methodologies rooted in genuine community collaborations and co-creation. You might go on and draw on these approaches for your own research and dissertations.
🪴Future change maker: Meet innovative community organisations who make grassroots empowerment their core mission. Find out how you could use your career to transform lives and communities here in London and beyond.
🖼️Exhibition expert: Maybe a career in the GLAM sector is for you (you know, people who work in Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums). This event will introduce you to innovative exhibition practices and spaces from ground breaking academics and organisations.
🖊️Budding storyteller: If you’re interested in using creativity for social change, or exploring how communities tell their own stories, you’ll leave inspired. Expect fresh ideas for your own storytelling, whether that’s on social media, in your course, or in creative projects.
How will YOU help other students?
As this is our first time running an immersive field trip, we’d love your input. What you tell us will shape our future trips. We’d also LOVE to hear from you if you know about an amazing academic community collaboration which you think we should spotlight. We want this to be the first of many field trips guided by you.
About the Community Research Initiative
We are a part of the Students' Union Social Impact Team. We bring people together across the student-community divide to explore the possibility of creating socially impactful research with and for the community. From discovering new ways of working to co-creating research with local communities, we are here to walk with students through their community research journey.