Conference session

This workshop explores the diverse practices of research-creation within academic and creative communities. If research-creation within universities is understood as a process of asking questions and building insights through creative practices, then artists and creators outside universities are also, already, doing this too. Rather than treating academic research-creation and creative/artistic practices as separate or unrelated, this session invites participants into a dialogue about what these realms have in common and where they diverge.

Participants will engage in a facilitated creative exercise inspired by research-creation and makerspace methods, responding to a shared prompt by making a tangible artifact — a drawing, collage, or paper sculpture — that embodies their research and/or creative identities and practices. By sharing these creations and the stories behind them, participants explore how their practices intersect, how embedded they are in academic contexts, and how much influence the outside world has on their creative and research journeys.

The workshop serves as an introduction to Creative Encounters, a three-year SSHRC-funded partnership between The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University and UBC Okanagan, which aims to foster connections between research-creation practices within universities and those existing outside academic institutions. Colleagues who engage in or supervise research-creation projects will leave with new perspectives on how institutional structures shape creative inquiry, and help contribute to this ongoing dialogue.