The aim of this Sandpit and Networking Lunch is to scale up the Building Bridges through Contemporary Arts – Africa (BBTCA-A) initiative into the Building Bridges through Contemporary Arts – Global (BBTCA-G), a novel initiative grounded into The University of Nottingham’s growing commitment to interdisciplinarity, internationalisation and impact of our research and knowledge exchange.

This Sandpit and Networking Lunch is an opportunity to build bridges between knowledge held within our Faculties of Social Sciences and Arts and Humanities.

As the brainchild of Prof. Marina Novelli and Maria Pia Bernardoni, BBTCA-A was born in 2020, with the aim to facilitate a contemporary art-based dialogue between key stakeholders from Africa and Europe. Drawing on academic and ecosystem players’ personal and professional local and global perspectives, BBTCA-A stimulated reflections that not only informed innovative and meaningful collaborations between the contemporary arts world and academia in Africa and Europe during the pandemic, but also created a synergic space to expand our critical understanding about the subject, from a social sciences, humanities and arts perspectives.

Drawing on the rich knowledge and impact generated by the BBTCA-A initiative and in response to the need of moving beyond a ‘dialogue’, we are inviting colleagues and ecosystem players to join us in a new phase of the BBTCA initiative aimed at scaling it up into a globally oriented one. You do not have to be an expert in the field of contemporary arts – your expertise and creative interest in the proposed interdisciplinary collaboration is what we are looking for and will make the difference.

Facilitated by Prof. Marina Novelli, this event will benefit from a participatory approach to:

1. Identify existing knowledge and potential interests to support the development of BBTCA-G
2. Map shared expertise/interests against R&KE priorities and funding streams
3. Expand our network beyond the BBTCA-Africa context through the consolidation of existing and/or the development of new collaborations and partnerships at local, national and international level
4. Identify creative methods and approaches to support the development of BBTCA-G
5. Form teams to champion the transition from BBTCA-A to BBTCA-G through the organisation of collaborative R&KE activities (e.g. R&KE grant applications, events organisation, PGT and PGR engagement and focused scholarships, etc.)

Programme:

11.00am – 11.10am: Intro of Aims and Objectives of the Workshop/Sandpit (Marina Novelli, facilitator).

11.10am – 11.30am: Learnings from and Impact of the BBTCA-A and where from it (Maria Pia Bernardoni)

11.30am – 12 noon: Participants to introduce their work/research interests (this does not have to be necessarily directly linked to the theme of this Workshop/Sandpit) and expectation form this event – 1 min each (ALL).

12 noon – 12.45pm: Get participants to join three rounds of a World Café group discussion (10 mins each + 5 mins discussion) Round 1 – What are my key R&KE interests that may be in line with the proposed BBTCA-G initiative? Round 2 – How will I contribute to the BBTCA-G? Round 3 – Which R&KE funding could/should we target?

12.45pm – 13.00pm: Discussion and close.

13.00pm – 14.00pm: Networking Lunch

Please register by clicking HERE and familiarise yourself with the Building Bridges through Contemporary Arts – Africa (BBTCA-A) initiative. We have only 30 spaces for this event, so should you be unable to attend after registering please let us know, so that we can free the space for somebody else.