19 in 20: Conversations on Community, Creativity and COVID-19 in 2020
Researchers at the School of Arts, Languages and Culture were awarded a small grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Impact Acceleration Account to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on artists working in community and socially engaged art.
Dr Alison Jeffers and Dr MaoHui Deng, both lecturers in the School’s Drama department, facilitated conversations between artists which took place over Zoom. The conversations were then edited into eight short films now available to watch online.
Drs Jeffers and Deng said, “We think that the conversations capture some of the very mixed thoughts and emotions about what was going on in the middle of the pandemic. We’re interested in your responses and whether you think there’s anything that can be taken away from the experiences of artists and communities as we seem to be emerging from the worst aspects of the disease and from lockdown more generally. We’d be very happy to hear your feedback on these conversations and we’d love to know whether you will use them maybe in teaching, workshops or other settings. This is important to us because we really want to know what impact they might have had on your practice or your thinking.”
You can send feedback via the site below or email directly to or
Watch the videos and find out more about the project here: