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      Dr Loraine Leeson

      PhD, FHEA
      ROLE: Senior Lecturer in Fine Art
      DEPARTMENT: Visual Arts
      TELEPHONE: +44 (0)20 8411 5832
      EMAIL: L.Leeson@mdx.ac.uk
      1. Biography &
        Qualifications
      2. Learning &
        Teaching Interests
      3. Research Outputs &
        Interests
      4. Funded Research &
        Knowledge Exchange Projects
      5. Engagement &
        Impact

      • Biography &
        Qualifications

        Dr. Loraine Leeson is a visual artist who works through social engagement. This specialism underpins her role as programme leader for MA Art and Social Practice and module leader for the exit degree BA Fine Art Social Practice in the Department of Visual Arts - also her previous appointment as Fulbright Scholar in Residence at University of Washington Tacoma, where she introduced community engagement into its programmes. Loraine is director of the arts charity cSPACE, and chair of the strategy group Arts for Labour plus the film and video production and training centre Four Corners. Her research focuses on the role of art in social and environmental change through bringing community-based knowledge into the public domain. She is particularly known for her work in support of the campaigning communities of London’s Docklands in the 1980’s, and her later use of digital media and the Internet to explore collective creativity. A retrospective exhibition celebrating thirty years of her practice toured Berlin, London, Toronto and Dublin 2005-08. Her art practice with people has been recognised through a Media Trust Inspiring Voices award and Olympic Inspire Mark, while her public artwork The Catch involving 300 children became a London 2012 Landmark and Active Energy received the 2016 RegenSW Arts and Green Energy award. 2017 saw her 1970s photomontage work in support of health campaigns exhibited at ICA London as well as the Routledge publication of her book Art:Process:Change – inside a socially situated practice.


        Languages Spoken

      • Learning &
        Teaching Interests

        Teaching and Supervising

        Programme leader MA Art and Social Practice

        Module leader for exit degree BA Fine Art Social Practice

        Specialist pathway in social practice with Alberto Duman Year 2 BA Fine Art

        PhD supervision/ Director of Studies relating to research in social practice.

         

        Examining

        External examiner for MA Art and Social Practice and BA Fine Art, University of Highlands and Islands

        External examiner for PhD in Art History and Cultural Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario (2015)

        External examiner for PhD in Environmental Studies, York University Toronto (2014)

        International PhD referee/assessor, University of Catalunya (2013)

         

        Publishing on Social Practice Pedagogy

        ‘Active Energy – art practice into pedagogy’ in Provocations, Pedagogy, and Other Strategies for Teaching Ecological Art, International Ecoart Network. (forthcoming)

        ‘Experience as Art: Fine Art Social Practice Modules at Middlesex University’ in Principals and Practices of Teaching Social Practice, Allworth Press, New York. (2018). Collaboration with Alberto Duman.

        ‘Giving More Than You Take: a conversation about the ethics, responsibilities and practicalities of facilitating student participation in community-based projects’ in The Tetley Feast, Leeds College of Art. (2015).

      • Research Outputs &
        Interests

        My research focuses on the role of art in social and environmental change through bringing community-based knowledge into the public domain.

        I welcome applications for PhD supervision relating to research in social practice, particularly where this is practice-led.

         

        Recent and current projects include:

        JAL! Celebrating Cultures of Water in Rural Rajasthan (current)

        CoI/ Lead Artist in AHRC networking project to bring the arts to bear on urgent issues of water conservation in Rajasthan’s desert regions https://rajasthanwater.weebly.com.

         

        Active Energy: Three Mills 2008 – ongoing

        A ten-year project with The Geezers seniors group and an extended interdisciplinary team to harness tidal energy from the Thames. www.active-energy-london.org.

         

        Hydrocitizenship 2014 -17

        Artist consultant on AHRC funded project led by Bath Spa University. The project explored roles for the arts in investigating how citizens and communities live with each other and their environment in relation to water. https://www.hydrocitizenship.com

         

        Lambeth Floating Marsh 2014 - 15

        Art/science collaboration addressing issues of biodiversity through construction of a floating reed bed on the River Thames with moving images of river organisms projected along the Thames embankment. www.lambethfloatingmarsh.org.uk

         

        A more comprehensive account of my reserach and practice can be found at www.cspace.org.uk and in my monograph Art:Process:Change – inside a socially situated practice (Routledge, 2017).

        Publication Feed

        Art as a tool for social change: The Docklands Community Poster Project and its legacy

        Leeson, Loraine (2019) Art as a tool for social change: The Docklands Community Poster Project and its legacy. In: Royal l Docks l Works, 22 Jun 2019, The Good Hotel, Royal Victoria Dock, Western Gateway, Royal Docks, London E16 1FA.

        Participation and collaboration in contemporary art practices

        Leeson, Loraine (2019) Participation and collaboration in contemporary art practices. In: Construir complicitats: Pràctiques artístiques col·laboratives [BUILDING COMPLICITIES: Collaborative artistic practices], 30 May 2019, Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona. (Accepted/In press)

        From photo-murals to water wheels: a role for art in strategies of change

        Leeson, Loraine (2019) From photo-murals to water wheels: a role for art in strategies of change. In: For Walls with Tongues: an oral history of Street Murals 1966-1985, 14 May 2019, University of Greenwich, London, UK.

        Docklands Community Poster Project

        Dunn, Peter and Leeson, Loraine (2019) Docklands Community Poster Project. [Artefact]

        Our Land: creative approaches to the redevelopment of London’s Docklands

        Leeson, Loraine (2019) Our Land: creative approaches to the redevelopment of London’s Docklands. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 25 (4). pp. 365-379. ISSN 1352-7258

        View more publications

      • Funded Research &
        Knowledge Exchange Projects

        • Relations of Care in Rajasthan’s Traditional Water Infrastructures, AHRC Networking Award, led by University of West of England, £58,000, 2017-18. COI.
        • Hydrocitizenship, AHRC standard grant led by Bath Spa University, £1.5m. 2014-17. Consultant.
        • Concepts brought to life: Using mobile digital photography to enrich students’ theoretical understanding, Learning and Teaching Research and Scholarship Grant awarded by Middlesex University, £6311, 2015-16. Member of cross-faculty project team.
        • From 2000 – 2016 I raised over £600,000 in funded grants and contracts through The cSPACE Trust or independently from funding bodies including National Lottery, Arts Council of England, Western Riverside Environmental Fund, Royal Docks Trust and Jack Petchey Foundation.

      • Engagement &
        Impact

        ORGANISATIONS AND MEMBERSHIP

        RECENT BROADCASTING

        • The NHS: A People's History, BBC FOUR 1st July 2018
        • Suite (212)- panel discussion on Cultural Democracy for Resonance FM 20th November 2017
        • The GLC Story – Presentation recorded by Resonance FM 15th December 2015
        • NuSound Radio (interview) 1st April 2010

        ARCHIVES AND COLLECTIONS

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