Staffordshire University: Creative Communities Unit Newsletter

PEN Comment: News from our friends at the CCU.

The Creative Communities Unit at Staffordshire University is currently developing a collaborative project with the University of Warsaw.  Last year, as part of the planning for the project, Mark Webster and Penny Vincent from the team were invited over to Poland to participate in events celebrating the culmination of the University of Warsaw’s two-year European Union funded project called ANIMATOR.   As a follow up to ANIMATOR in February 2009 Warsaw University are sending a group of students and arts practitioners to Staffordshire University to participate in a number of projects alongside local students and community organisations.  The aim is to give the Polish group the opportunity to observe how we undertake arts and regeneration projects in partnership with the local community. The project, called Handmade, will involve Polish arts practitioners being placed with local community arts organisations for two weeks to work alongside Staffordshire artists and students from the Creative Communities unit.  The students from Warsaw University will visit a number of local projects on research visits and get the chance to meet with local people to talk about how the arts helps them to achieve their aims and objectives.  It is hoped that the project will lead to a more substantial three year inter-university collaboration involving direct links between communities in Stoke and communities in Warsaw.

You can find out about the ANIMATOR and Handmade projects by visiting the website: www.culturalanimation.com