CoLAB Artist in Residence at Kettle’s Yard

In the summer of 2022, I was appointed as CoLAB artist-in-residence in Kettle’s Yard, for a project which connected North Cambridge’s local community with researchers at the University of Cambridge.

During the course of the residency I transformed the Clore Learning Studio at Kettle’s Yard into a creative research laboratory, where I collaborated with local communities to explore research currently being investigated by Dr Louise Hickman at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy. Dr Hickman uses ethnographic, archival, and theoretical approaches to examine how access is produced for disabled people.

As part of the project we collected perspectives of people from across Cambridge with lived experiences of disability or sensory impairment, their carers, and people working in care. I worked with a group of Community Collaborators to learn from their perspectives of the collection, as well as wider Kettle’s Yard audiences including children, adults and families.

CoLAB formed a meeting ground between research at the University of Cambridge, contemporary arts practice, and local communities in North Cambridge. The project resulted in formation of a CoLAB ‘ Living Archive of Work - Community Toolkit’ of co-created resources and tools made with the Community Collaborators, which will enable Kettle’s Yard to become more accessible to audiences with diverse set of needs.