#WeTheRural

#WeTheRural is a research cluster based within the Institute for Creative Arts Practice which brings together different strands of creative arts practice and research associated with the materiality, representation and imagination of rurality. We aim to support an interdisciplinary dialogue across arts, humanities, the social and natural sciences about what creative arts practice might offer in rural contexts, and how this in turn might be linked with wider research and policy agendas of social justice and sustainable development in the countryside.

Our collaborative expertise draws on environmental music, folk, sound art, film and creative writing associated with rural areas; architecture, design research and visual art situated in rural and heritage landscapes; participatory and rural site-specific artworks; and, wider, creative arts practice that explores rural lives, challenges local and regional development narratives, and questions the social construction of rurality.