Summary information

Study title

Pan-African Network for the Arts in Environmentally Sustainable Development, 2021-2023

Creator

Bellwood-Howard, I, Institute of Development Studies

Study number / PID

856128 (UKDA)

10.5255/UKDA-SN-856128 (DOI)

Data access

Open

Series

Not available

Abstract

The project aimed to test a co-creative method whereby policy actors, citizens, artists and researchers co-created artworks about environmental issues. The project aimed to see if such an exercise was possible in multiple contexts, and to explore the effect of working in such an activity on the co-creation of understanding between these groups, for example about their differnet viewpoints on a common issue. The experiment was carried out in country-level workshops in five African countrise. A report was produced on each workshop. Part of the data set consists of original artwork, created by the project partners in the workshops. This includes paintings, photographs, songs, lyrics and videos. Participants in Ghana created one song, with sections in each of 5 languages, about the relationship between livestock herding, peace and environmetal protection. Participants in Kenya worked in small groups to create drawings expressing their views about how milk could be commercialised, and were encouraged by the facilitator to draw containers milk could be sold in. An artist used these drawings to create a painting about the cultural aspects of livestock keeping. Participants in Senegal co-created two paintings, using a collage method, about coastal problems in St. Louis, Senegal. One painting focused on the unequal effects on richer and poorer inhabitants of sea level rise, induced by climate change. One picture focused on the problem of coastal pollution. Participants in Mali created a poem and a painting about water resource depletion. Participants in Mauritania contributed ideas on climate change to a musician who created a song about social cohesion and action on climate change. A music video accompanies the song. Simultaneously, an artist painted a painting about climate change in Mauritania. Part of the data collection includes workshop reports in English and French which show the participants' commentary about the art works they created and describe the process...
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Methodology

Data collection period

01/11/2021 - 31/01/2023

Country

Kenya, Ghana, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali

Time dimension

Not available

Analysis unit

Group

Universe

Not available

Sampling procedure

Not available

Kind of data

Text
Still image
Audio
Video

Data collection mode

We purposively identified up to five each of artists, citizen groups, researchers and policy actors from each of our five study countries. In Mauritania, Mali and Senegal we sampled from a stakeholder list we had made in a preceding project. In Kenya and Ghana we worked with citizen groups we had worked with in a different preceding project, and used snowball sampling to contact artists.Research team members organised national level workshops, each one based on a specific theme of concern to environmentally sustainable development. In the workshops, artists facilitated a co-creative artistic activity, during which workshop participants from all domains worked together to create an artwork and see whether this led them to co-create understanding about an environmental issue, or to appreciate others’ perspectives. The approach in the workshops was participatory arts-led inquiry. Researchers documented the workshops using notes and video and audio recordings, and processed these into workshop reports.

Funding information

Grant number

AH/W006642/1

Access

Publisher

UK Data Service

Publication year

2023

Terms of data access

The Data Collection is available to any user without the requirement for registration for download/access.

Related publications

Not available