Pairing industry experts in contemporary performance-making and visual arts with areas of academic expertise.

Alongside the independent research of individual colleagues, we encourage collaborative, interdisciplinary and public-facing research initiatives. We work extensively with communities both locally and globally, and alongside our archival, ethnographic, and critical research work, our projects encompass creative energy through performances and exhibitions.

We also connect research to our programme through post show discussions and wrap around activity.

Research is a key priority within our artistic policy, built into our Programming Process criteria and into our Open To Ideas scheme. Why is research important and how does it connect to LAC? Arts-based methods and approaches can provide invaluable insight into the lived experience of individuals and communities to answer big questions and to inform approaches to mental health and wellbeing and the challenges of our times. For example, the UKRI Newton Fund project ‘Mobile Arts for Peace (MAP) at Home: online psychosocial support through the arts in Rwanda‘ led by Professor Ananda Breed used arts-based methods and online platforms to engage mental health service users and mental health service providers during the pandemic.

Research is a key priority within our artistic policy, built into our Programming Process criteria and into our Open To Ideas scheme.

Please see other examples of current projects below:

Current Projects

Mobile Arts for Peace with Professor Ananda Breed

Mobile Arts for Peace is a four-year international, multi-disciplinary Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) project which provides a comparative approach on the use of interdisciplinary arts-based practices for peacebuilding in Kyrgyzstan, Rwanda, Indonesia and Nepal. It is a collaborative project between universities, cultural artists, civil society organisations and young people across the world. The video clip displayed on this page is a research VLOG that was created by one of our youth researchers from Indonesia during the MAP conference held at LAC in November 2023.

Vina Puspita

Vina Puspita is a PhD student in Fine and Performing Arts, School of Creative Arts, College of Arts. She is one of the recipients of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) PhD studentship in connection to the international project Mobile Arts for Peace (MAP): Informing the National Curriculum and Youth Policy for Peacebuilding in Kyrgyzstan, Rwanda, Indonesia, and Nepal (2020-2024). Her study explores the use of mural art for peacebuilding with young people at risk of violence in urban Jakarta, Indonesia, to promote just, peaceful, and inclusive societies. Her practice-based research seeks to engage children in conveying their voices through a democratic artistic process and defining meaningful participation in peacebuilding. She looks at the considerable potential of public art to engage young people, paying attention to the participatory method in actively provoking a new understanding of collaboration and power-sharing. The research project encouraged young people to take an active role in art and decision-making, from identifying youth issues and discussing mural themes to engaging in the mural painting process for youth advocacy. More importantly, the mural becomes a means for dialogue with the community and policymakers, aimed at overcoming prejudice and influencing policy.

Dr Amy Culley to exhibit at British Academy Summer Showcase

Amy was successful in her application for the Summer Showcase, following on from being awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship in 2019 for the research project – ‘Narratives of Old Age: Women’s Late Life Writing 1800-1850’

The research recovers narratives of older age in journals, correspondence, memoirs, and biographies by early nineteenth-century women in both manuscript and print. These sources provide rare insights into women’s ageing in a period in which gender and old age is currently under-researched and that has important legacies for contemporary conceptions of later life.

Transforming The Lives of Young Fathers

Dr Anna Tarrant is an Associate Professor in Sociology and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, Round 2. Based in the School of Social and Political Sciences, her research has broadly focused on men’s care responsibilities and support needs, particularly in low-income families.