Our proposal for The Harbutt Fund
We're very grateful to have been awarded funding from Bath Spa University's Harbutt Fund. This was our successful application:
Description of the activity you wish to pursue
500 word max
Social knitwork: thinking of the future is a joint application between artist, Lou Baker (MAFA 2019-21), and curator, Kat Dawe Schmeisser (356337, MACP 2018-2021). It’s an ambitious multi-site, socially engaged art project throughout May 2021 which will form part of both students’ final Master’s assessments. Baker’s research explores ways to synthesise the three strands of her knitting practice - sculpture, performance and social engagement; Dawe Schmeisser is interested in art as a vehicle for social engagement and change.
The project focuses on how art can be used to build connections between local communities after the extended isolation of lockdown. The project’s hub is The Art Cohort, a community-facing artspace near Locksbrook campus, founded by Dawe Schmeisser in 2019 as a curator/artist-led space to champion emerging artists.
It will be accessible, inclusive and engage diverse audiences:
To broaden our reach, we’ll also set up a trail of participatory installations in nearby outdoor, public spaces. We’ll invite passers-by to bring something to add next time they walk that way.
Participants will become part of an ongoing socially distanced ‘conversation’, sharing ways we can work together to develop creative strategies for recovery and regeneration as we move beyond the ‘new normal’ of the pandemic. They can add their thoughts and objects to the installations physically or send messages virtually via social media. We’ll also:
Through this project Baker and Dawe Schmeisser will cultivate connections with and between local people and places, and, potentially, a worldwide virtual audience, through sculpture, performance and social engagement. We’ll ‘knit together’ these disparate elements, countering the isolation of current social distancing restrictions and exploring ways to move forward into a post-pandemic future. It will be empowering, fostering a sense of belonging, giving people a chance to have their say and to make art together.
Why have you applied for funding to achieve this activity/project/purchase of equipment?
300 word max
An aspirational project of this scale, reach and duration will be costly and will be hard to facilitate fully without some external funding, especially in these times of financial difficulty and uncertainty for artists and artspaces.
The greatest expenditure would normally be paying Baker and Dawe Schmeisser but we’re both willing to give our time ‘in kind’ to facilitate the project, as part of our MA research.
The exhibition space is usually hired out at £200 a week. The Art Cohort is funding 50% of this cost via crowdfunding through The Art Cohort Patreon platform so we need to secure funding for the other 50% to be able to run this ambitious project fully.
The materials required to make the largescale indoor installation are substantial, as are the materials required to set up the satellite outdoor installations.
Documentation of the project will be very important as it will need to capture the breadth but also the nuances of the different kinds of connections made over the course of the month. Being able to pay a photographer and videographer will free the artist and curator to concentrate on the key aims of the project, making and connecting, and will also mean that there is a professional record of the event.
We consider this project to be a good economic and social investment that will benefit the wider University community and targeted diverse audiences and inform our MA research.
How will this benefit your academic course and subsequent career?
300 word max
Lou Baker – ‘For my final Master’s project, I’m researching ways to synthesise the three strands of my practice - sculpture, performance and social engagement - using knitting as a research method. This project presents a wonderful, collaborative opportunity for me to develop the research findings from my recent lockdown Wishing trees project. It will enable me to trial the synthesis of the different elements of my practice in a public facing setting, in ways which allow for the restrictions of the pandemic, but which will still enable me to engage diverse and eclectic audiences both physically and virtually. The timing of it is perfect as my course finishes in September 2021 and after over a year of extremely limited opportunities to engage with the public or to exhibit, I’ll finally be able to facilitate an aspirational multi-site, participatory art project and use the experience, my research findings and the professional documentation as part of my final submission for my MA in Fine Art in September.
Working with funding from Bath Spa University, in partnership with The Art Cohort, the project will gain recognition and a following locally, nationally and globally through publicity and social media. This can only benefit my future career as a multidisciplinary artist once I graduate.’
Kat Dawe Schmeisser – ‘This project will be the subject matter for my practice-based module Reaching Audiences and may further inspire the final Master’s long study I will complete in the remainder of 2021. The Art Cohort is a platform I have developed for my professional practice during the course of studying for my Master’s degree. This project will further deepen my research in socially engaged and participatory art practice and build awareness and following of The Art Cohort, the platform through which I intend to continue to build my future career.’
Why should we award this to you?
300 word max
This ambitious project is a socially engaged, relevant and timely intervention. After the recent extended isolation, it will foster connections between a local artspace, diverse audiences and the University but also the City of Bath and beyond, via publicity and social media.
Baker’s idiosyncratic research finds that knitting in public is a people-magnet. Knitting is benign, familiar, comforting, associated with reminiscence and personal stories. It involves little eye contact so strangers talk freely. Both Baker and Dawe Schmeisser are experienced art practitioners and connectors, with significant inter-personal skills through which we will actively engage our audiences.
Research suggests that connectedness, creativity and colour are critical for wellbeing. They’re pivotal to this project, will enable participants to develop personal and community resilience and will also be important in recovery after this challenging year.
Currently, facilitating socially engaged art is an enormous challenge. This project is an innovative and highly responsive approach. Its unique concepts allow for flexibility in the levels and kinds of participation, both physically and virtually. We hope to have masked, socially distanced conversations inside, but if we can’t, knitting performances will be outside and the growing installation will be visible through the windows. Whatever the restrictions, local people will still be able to engage independently and safely with the outdoor installations on their daily walks. There will also be a varied programme of online events.
Lou Baker – ‘For over a year, I’ve had limited access to the resources and facilities I had hoped for whilst studying at Bath Spa. It’s meant that my MA experience has been much more limited and isolated than I expected. Being supported financially by the University through The Harbutt Fund to bring this multi-site project to life would be a very aspirational and affirming outcome for my final Master’s project at Bath Spa.’
What is the benefit to the wider university community?
300 word max
We will involve Dance, Photography, Film and other Fine Art students from Bath Spa University in the project. We’ll set up one of the satellite installations, with permission, on the Locksbrook site so that the University community can experience a model of socially engaged art. We’ll promote the project within the University, through knitting performances and targeted social media posts, inviting the wider University community to engage with the participatory elements of the project and join the conversation. Restrictions allowing, we’ll offer small group talks in the artspace and walking tours of the installation trail.
We’re also facilitating a range of online events, some of which will be targeted at the wider University community, so that postgraduate and undergraduate students, and staff, can engage with the project even if they are not able to participate in the physical locations. These activities will include webinars, Instagram Live events, virtual talks, tours and knit-ins, a visual blog, using The Art Cohort website and targeted social media posts. We will also share our research findings with the wider University community when the project is over.
The project will be a public facing showcase of a collaboration between two postgraduate students at Bath Spa and will foster connections between the University and the local community through the public nature of the installations. The public reach of the project may also attract potential benefactors and students to the University.
The Art Cohort is a small, independent artspace working with local emerging artists, providing a gallery space, retail opportunities and a workshop space. It’s five minutes’ walk from the Locksbrook campus. This project will build awareness among the wider University community of this local community artspace as a venue for art students to collaborate, curate, sell and exhibit as a way to build their professional practice.
500 word max
Social knitwork: thinking of the future is a joint application between artist, Lou Baker (MAFA 2019-21), and curator, Kat Dawe Schmeisser (356337, MACP 2018-2021). It’s an ambitious multi-site, socially engaged art project throughout May 2021 which will form part of both students’ final Master’s assessments. Baker’s research explores ways to synthesise the three strands of her knitting practice - sculpture, performance and social engagement; Dawe Schmeisser is interested in art as a vehicle for social engagement and change.
The project focuses on how art can be used to build connections between local communities after the extended isolation of lockdown. The project’s hub is The Art Cohort, a community-facing artspace near Locksbrook campus, founded by Dawe Schmeisser in 2019 as a curator/artist-led space to champion emerging artists.
It will be accessible, inclusive and engage diverse audiences:
- intergenerational supporters of The Art Cohort (families with small children, all ages experiencing social isolation, people wanting to learn and connect, disadvantaged families via The Nest Project)
- general public out walking, including people not normally interested in art
- mailing lists, social media followers, personal contacts
- wider University community
- wider City of Bath/South West via press
- wider art communities
To broaden our reach, we’ll also set up a trail of participatory installations in nearby outdoor, public spaces. We’ll invite passers-by to bring something to add next time they walk that way.
Participants will become part of an ongoing socially distanced ‘conversation’, sharing ways we can work together to develop creative strategies for recovery and regeneration as we move beyond the ‘new normal’ of the pandemic. They can add their thoughts and objects to the installations physically or send messages virtually via social media. We’ll also:
- actively promote conversation by being available and knitting in public
- document the conversations, with permission
- set up a making space
- share progress regularly on social media
- send out ‘participation packs’ via The Nest Project
- tend the outdoor installations
- offer various online events
Through this project Baker and Dawe Schmeisser will cultivate connections with and between local people and places, and, potentially, a worldwide virtual audience, through sculpture, performance and social engagement. We’ll ‘knit together’ these disparate elements, countering the isolation of current social distancing restrictions and exploring ways to move forward into a post-pandemic future. It will be empowering, fostering a sense of belonging, giving people a chance to have their say and to make art together.
Why have you applied for funding to achieve this activity/project/purchase of equipment?
300 word max
An aspirational project of this scale, reach and duration will be costly and will be hard to facilitate fully without some external funding, especially in these times of financial difficulty and uncertainty for artists and artspaces.
The greatest expenditure would normally be paying Baker and Dawe Schmeisser but we’re both willing to give our time ‘in kind’ to facilitate the project, as part of our MA research.
The exhibition space is usually hired out at £200 a week. The Art Cohort is funding 50% of this cost via crowdfunding through The Art Cohort Patreon platform so we need to secure funding for the other 50% to be able to run this ambitious project fully.
The materials required to make the largescale indoor installation are substantial, as are the materials required to set up the satellite outdoor installations.
Documentation of the project will be very important as it will need to capture the breadth but also the nuances of the different kinds of connections made over the course of the month. Being able to pay a photographer and videographer will free the artist and curator to concentrate on the key aims of the project, making and connecting, and will also mean that there is a professional record of the event.
We consider this project to be a good economic and social investment that will benefit the wider University community and targeted diverse audiences and inform our MA research.
How will this benefit your academic course and subsequent career?
300 word max
Lou Baker – ‘For my final Master’s project, I’m researching ways to synthesise the three strands of my practice - sculpture, performance and social engagement - using knitting as a research method. This project presents a wonderful, collaborative opportunity for me to develop the research findings from my recent lockdown Wishing trees project. It will enable me to trial the synthesis of the different elements of my practice in a public facing setting, in ways which allow for the restrictions of the pandemic, but which will still enable me to engage diverse and eclectic audiences both physically and virtually. The timing of it is perfect as my course finishes in September 2021 and after over a year of extremely limited opportunities to engage with the public or to exhibit, I’ll finally be able to facilitate an aspirational multi-site, participatory art project and use the experience, my research findings and the professional documentation as part of my final submission for my MA in Fine Art in September.
Working with funding from Bath Spa University, in partnership with The Art Cohort, the project will gain recognition and a following locally, nationally and globally through publicity and social media. This can only benefit my future career as a multidisciplinary artist once I graduate.’
Kat Dawe Schmeisser – ‘This project will be the subject matter for my practice-based module Reaching Audiences and may further inspire the final Master’s long study I will complete in the remainder of 2021. The Art Cohort is a platform I have developed for my professional practice during the course of studying for my Master’s degree. This project will further deepen my research in socially engaged and participatory art practice and build awareness and following of The Art Cohort, the platform through which I intend to continue to build my future career.’
Why should we award this to you?
300 word max
This ambitious project is a socially engaged, relevant and timely intervention. After the recent extended isolation, it will foster connections between a local artspace, diverse audiences and the University but also the City of Bath and beyond, via publicity and social media.
Baker’s idiosyncratic research finds that knitting in public is a people-magnet. Knitting is benign, familiar, comforting, associated with reminiscence and personal stories. It involves little eye contact so strangers talk freely. Both Baker and Dawe Schmeisser are experienced art practitioners and connectors, with significant inter-personal skills through which we will actively engage our audiences.
Research suggests that connectedness, creativity and colour are critical for wellbeing. They’re pivotal to this project, will enable participants to develop personal and community resilience and will also be important in recovery after this challenging year.
Currently, facilitating socially engaged art is an enormous challenge. This project is an innovative and highly responsive approach. Its unique concepts allow for flexibility in the levels and kinds of participation, both physically and virtually. We hope to have masked, socially distanced conversations inside, but if we can’t, knitting performances will be outside and the growing installation will be visible through the windows. Whatever the restrictions, local people will still be able to engage independently and safely with the outdoor installations on their daily walks. There will also be a varied programme of online events.
Lou Baker – ‘For over a year, I’ve had limited access to the resources and facilities I had hoped for whilst studying at Bath Spa. It’s meant that my MA experience has been much more limited and isolated than I expected. Being supported financially by the University through The Harbutt Fund to bring this multi-site project to life would be a very aspirational and affirming outcome for my final Master’s project at Bath Spa.’
What is the benefit to the wider university community?
300 word max
We will involve Dance, Photography, Film and other Fine Art students from Bath Spa University in the project. We’ll set up one of the satellite installations, with permission, on the Locksbrook site so that the University community can experience a model of socially engaged art. We’ll promote the project within the University, through knitting performances and targeted social media posts, inviting the wider University community to engage with the participatory elements of the project and join the conversation. Restrictions allowing, we’ll offer small group talks in the artspace and walking tours of the installation trail.
We’re also facilitating a range of online events, some of which will be targeted at the wider University community, so that postgraduate and undergraduate students, and staff, can engage with the project even if they are not able to participate in the physical locations. These activities will include webinars, Instagram Live events, virtual talks, tours and knit-ins, a visual blog, using The Art Cohort website and targeted social media posts. We will also share our research findings with the wider University community when the project is over.
The project will be a public facing showcase of a collaboration between two postgraduate students at Bath Spa and will foster connections between the University and the local community through the public nature of the installations. The public reach of the project may also attract potential benefactors and students to the University.
The Art Cohort is a small, independent artspace working with local emerging artists, providing a gallery space, retail opportunities and a workshop space. It’s five minutes’ walk from the Locksbrook campus. This project will build awareness among the wider University community of this local community artspace as a venue for art students to collaborate, curate, sell and exhibit as a way to build their professional practice.
