LCAR

The ‘Laboratory for Civic Arts Research’ (LCAR) is a training project for researchers in any discipline and staff of any job family interested in civic engagement through arts tools and methodologies.

The programme has been devised and led by Dr Viviana Checchia (Director of Void Art Centre and expert in socially engaged art practices), with Casi Dylan (ARC Events and Engagement Manager), Dr Dominic Paterson (Senior Lecturer, History of Art / The Hunterian, C&CA Committee Convenor), and Dr Kevin Leomo (College of Arts & Humanities Community and Engagement Manager). The programme builds upon a successful pilot, supported by Thinking Culture / Collaborations & Cultural Activities Committee, School of Culture & Creative Arts.

The principal objective of LCAR is to enhance the civic impact of academic research through bespoke modes of dissemination and circulation, drawing from practices in the arts.

LCAR collaborates with other partners and groups across Glasgow with a view to opening up new ways of seeing, making and participating in the cultural life of the city. LCAR will also act as a support structure for further development of deeper connections between academic research and civic life, delivered by a multitude of contributors and partners from around the world. 

The overarching aims of LCAR are:

  • To critically assess where, when and how research takes place, within and beyond institutions today. The group will take a particular focus on how LCAR can utilise research, and what form a mutual exchange with researchers might take.
  • To act as a platform for profiling and giving visibility to researchers and their attendant research practices across the arts in Glasgow and Scotland, on an individual and collective basis. A page will be created on the University of Glasgow website with information on the meeting group, profiling individual members and their current research.
  • To facilitate members to form pairings and clusters, to establish common ground (or antagonisms) between their research approaches and practices.
  • To initiate collaborations and partnerships with other spaces throughout Glasgow for events and projects. 

2023/24 Cohort 

2022/23 Cohort