Places and Communities

The challenges of the pandemic have often demanded local and place-based responses that can speak directly to the needs of particular communities.  Through Arts and Humanities research, we now know more about the way in which local cultural ecologies and infrastructures function, including how these have been impacted by the crisis. Studies have emphasised the […]

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

The pandemic has highlighted systemic inequalities across society. An interest in exploring and addressing these has been explicit in or threaded through many of the AHRC-funded COVID-19 studies.  Researchers have explored how public health messaging might better reach different communities. They have also shone a spotlight on experiences of racism for people working in the […]

Cultural and Creative Industries

Arts and Humanities research during the pandemic has shown how the crisis is galvanising practitioners and stakeholders in the cultural sector to find new models for producing work and for reaching audiences. However, it has also exposed structural inequalities and exclusions for audiences and for the sector’s workforce.   Technological innovations, including hybrid modes of digital and […]

Arts & Health and Wellbeing

Arts and humanities research during the COVID-19 pandemic has addressed issues of direct relevance for the support of individual, social and community health, mental health and wellbeing.  Findings show that during the pandemic, the social care sector and the NHS have been able to access, benefit and learn from community assets and resources, including those […]

Stay Home Stories: Rethinking the Domestic During the COVID-19 Pandemic

About the project This research recognised the intrinsic domestic dimension of the personal, political and public health response to the pandemic. Researchers documented and analysed the ‘stay home stories’ of adults, young people and children living in diverse homes and households in the UK. They investigated the politics discourse and media coverage of home, as […]

Cultural Translation and Interpreting of COVID-19 Risks among London’s Migrant Communities

About the project This project addressed the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on migrant communities and the difficulty of reaching those communities with public health messages. It studied how different and diverse language and cultural communities receive information about COVID-19, interpreted/translated it according to their conventions and acted upon it through an online survey of 14 […]

Coping Creatively: Arts, Health and Wellbeing

Communities and Wellbeing This group of projects focuses on the impact of arts organisations and grassroots groups on supporting societal wellbeing, mental health and social support issues arising in the pandemic. Spaces and Places This group of projects identify and examine the spatial, geographical and developmental disparities experienced in the pandemic, but also how spaces […]

Ethics, Law, and Governance

An Urgent Review of Single Source Procurement During the Pandemic Recommendations for Best Practice and Reform Dr Luke Butler(University of Nottingham) Children, acceptable health risks and COVID-19 Ethical guidance for a fair policy response Dr Sapfo Lignou(University of Oxford) Combatting Gendered, Sexual and Online Harms and Risks During the COVID-19 Pandemic Developing Resources for Young […]

Re-inventing the Live Event

About the project This project interrogated how artists can re-invent the live event in response to the new conditions of production and altered spacial dynamics of performance created by the pandemic. It involved quantitative and qualitative investigation of artist practice and audience engagement during a live events arts festival, organised and pursued followed Covid-19 restrictions, […]

Outside the Box: Open-Air Performance as a Pandemic Response

About the project This project investigated the potential role of live outdoor performance events in sustainably “building back better”. It used a practice based approach, commissioning environmentally attuned outdoor performance events in the city of Exeter, held in accordance with pandemic regulations, and employed interview and survey research with artists and local authority events officers […]