Creative Spaces Work Area
Meeting Minutes
Meeting
24.10.2012, 2-4pm, IAS Foyer, Millburn House
Purpose
The main purpose of the meeting was to gauge interest in setting up projects under a
Creative Spaces/Sustainable Cities banner, discussing funding options, research
methods/forms/outputs (including possible impact initiatives) and strategies
In attendance
Nicolas Whybrow (CS lead)
Liese Perrin
Susan Brock
Sarah Shalgosky
Georgina Green (Jon Mee)
Emma Francis
Silvija Jestrovic
Michael Pigott
Benoit Jones
Nadine Lewycky
Louise Campbell
Nese Ceren Tosun (administrative assistant)
Not present but indicating an interest in being involved:
Charlotte Brunsdon, Donal Cooper, Graeme MacDonald, Jonathan Vickery, Kirsty
Hooper, Loredana Polezzi, Lorenzo Pericolo, Louise Bourdua, Margaret Shewring,
Rashmi Varma, Roza Salzburg, Sean Allan, Susan Haedicke, Nadine Holdsworth,
Janelle Reinelt, Cath Lambert, Nick Monk
General Summary
This was the first meeting of Creative Spaces Group, working on one of the seven
themes under the Sustainable Cities GRP. Each work area is at different stages of
projects that link with each other or might in the future.
The main purpose of the meeting was to exchange interests and discuss possible ways
to proceed, including funding applications for projects on Creative Spaces.
Current need for the group is to self-organize around clusters of interests and think of
mini-projects as well as ways of implementing them. GRP is a Warwick generated
research initiative. The group is open to anyone with an interest in cities and
sustainability, with a particular focus on Creative Spaces.

Three main strands of interest have been expressed so far:
1) Venice and Sustainability
Nicolas Whybrow, Louise Bourdua, Donal Cooper, Lorenzo Pericolo, Rosa
Salzburg, Kirsty Hooper (possibly), Loredana Polezzi (possibly), Michael
Pigott (possibly)
2) Urban Health, Sustainability and Creativity
(with Warwick Drinking Studies Network –suggested by Rebecca Earl prior to
the meeting)
3) Role of Arts in Sustainable Cities / in Urban Futures
Nicolas Whybrow, Janelle Reinelt, Jonathan Vickery, Benoit Jones, Sarah
Shalgosky, Louise Campbell, Silvija Jestrovic, Emma Francis, Michael Pigott,
Georgina Green (John Mee)

Key points of discussion around the Role of Arts in Sustainable Cities:
•
Sustainability as an engineering concern providing the framework for
decision-making
•
Moral issues around sustainability, benevolence of sustainability
•
The productive paradox of arts and sustainability: arts with an emphasis on
ephemerality and sustainability as a concept that suggests permanence and a
sense of fixity
•
Construction work in the city as a major cause of change: is it possible to tell
the story of this change? -(film) documentation of Thames Tide Scheme
•
The link between city infrastructures and the desired cultural infrastructures of
the respective periods
•
Aesthetics, narratives and economies of cities’ undergrounds, tunnels:
exploring/discovering the underside of the city
 There is a need to link projects of the group with either already existing projects
or emerging ones, both within and outside of the university
•
•

Emma Francis mentioned possible links with the Queen Mary (QMUL).
Nicolas Whybrow will look into possibilities of establishing a video link with
Monash, with the assistance of IATL.
Funding
GRP Scheme has seed funding available for three years, to be used for developmental
events/invited speakers/research visits leading to larger funding application projects.
The seed funding is currently being used to pay the p-t administrative assistant Nese
C. Tosun, who will seek to maintain the CS webpage profile once project content
becomes available.
Depending on the kind of projects that arise from the sub-groups, following funding
options are available:
- AHRC Networking Grants
(Smaller grants with 1-2 years scope for more contained projects)
- AHRC Knowledge Exchange Grants (Emphasis on Creative Industries)
- AHRC Larger Grant Applications such as Care for the Future in Spring Term (if one
of the groups mature and would like to implement bigger size projects including PhD
students, exhibitions, etc.)
 The agenda of the group is in line with and can benefit from collaboration with
the following internal initiatives/projects:
•
Cooperation with Monash including IATL, Green Steps
•
Warwick Cultural Value Strand
•
Susan Haedicke’s project as part of the Food Security GRP (allocating campus
spaces to students for fruit and vegetable cultivation)
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/gpp/foodsecurity/research/theatre/
•
Mead Gallery Summer Exhibition (Sarah Shalgosky) to which we could
contribute with a symposium
Agenda
• Next joint meeting to be held in January 2013, specific date TBA.
Formation of sub-groups working on specific mini-projects.
Meeting participants to come forward with concrete ideas for projects and how
to take them forward.