Julie's interest in research practice began with a postgraduate in development studies. A wake up to the multiple scales of our connectedness, the programme introduced her to interdisciplinary theories and practices of development, and relational perspectives for challenging any folly of separateness. From here, she worked as an evaluation consultant for local authorities, arts councils and environment agencies. Keen to challenge policy metrics for ‘measuring’ the art experience, Julie returned to study, taking an anthropological PhD in Planning: ‘Beyond Targets: Articulating the role of art in regeneration’ (2012). Informed by Pragmatism and Actor-Network Theory the ethnography of her thesis follows the traceable connections between human and non-human actors. In this study she challenged the symbolic perspective of art in urban studies, to rather describe the making of public art as a process of knowledge production.
As an arts manager, Julie's portfolio included working as: Programme Director of Artists Newsletter (now a-n The Artists Information Company), Executive Director of Waygood Gallery & Studios (now BALTIC 39), Development Manager of Forma Arts & Media and Co Director of Midwest; alongside an independent practice as an art commissioner, evaluator and OD practitioner working with local authorities, arts councils, housing associations, environment agencies and arts organisations. During this time, she also taught on the inquiry based Manchester Sustainable Cities programme at the University of Manchester; and Managing at the Top (British Council/DfID), an experiential learning programme for senior Civil Servants of Bangladesh. Julie has presented her work at academic conferences and professional events internationally.
My Research
I am a multi-disciplinary ethnographer who undertakes research from within visual arts practice(s).
By increasing philosophical and empirical scrutiny around ‘practice(s)’ – both in the sense of artwork and art work, the strategic ambition of my research is to inform the art sector’s responsiveness in relation to social and environmental challenges towards equitable modes of living. By attending to practice ontologies, I ask how we might re-formulate the extractive dualities of the arts as part of the so-called creative and cultural industries across its workaday and policy discourse.
In academia my project requires a multiplicity of disciplinary translations between art practice and the practice concerns and orientations of the social sciences and social studies of science, which helps explicate the values of art practice/research in academia beyond the broad field of art studies or artistic research specifically. To do this work I take guidance from classical pragmatism and its heritage, across neo-vitalist philosophy. This primary (metaphysical) informant shapes the way that I work with others – via land, academic, and professional collaborations.
Primarily situated in the visual arts field, my practice orientation has developed around several sub-themes which I have published around already or am currently in the process of doing so:
My work is published in journals such as the Journal of Rural Studies, Sociologia Ruralis, Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, Landscape Research and the Journal of Visual Art Practice. I am also the author of the Routledge monograph Art Worlding: Planning Relations (2022).
Multi-disciplinary Background
This trans-disciplinary translation is informed by the multi-disciplinarity of my education across visual art practice and the social sciences and social studies of science: I hold a BA in Fine Art from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art Dundee University; MSc in Development Studies from University of Manchester; and PhD in Planning and Landscape (Beyond Targets: Articulating the Role of Art in Regeneration (2013)) also from the University of Manchester, which was supervised within the pragmatist/Latourian paradigm of the Manchester Architecture Research Group (Centre) where I was a Sustainable Consumption Institute DTC scholar.
At Northumbria University/Prior Academic Posts
As Associate Professor at Northumbria University I am Head of Art Practice and Conservation in the Department of Arts, which brings together BA Fine Art, MA Creative and Cultural Industries Management, MA Fine Art Conservation, and our inter-disciplinary PGR community. Before joining Northumbria as a lecturer in the Department of Arts in 2015 I previously held research posts at University of Gothenburg, University of Newcastle, and University of Manchester. I have been awarded competitive visiting research fellowships at Moore Institute, University of Ireland, Galway and Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart. I have also been an invited research consultant at the Centre for Rural Economy, Newcastle University; and Birmingham Institute of Art and Design.
Prior professional practice
My interests and commitments as an academic are informed by my prior professional career where I worked across a range of producing roles in the visual arts including working at a-n The Artists Information Company (Artists Newsletter) and FORMA Arts & Media; and also as a freelance consultant to local government consortia, arts organisations, and funders for over ten years.
I am Interim Head of the School of Design, Arts and Creative Industries. Prior to taking this role I was Deputy Head of DACI and Head of Subject for Art Practice and Conservation.
My Research
I am a multi-disciplinary ethnographer who undertakes research from within visual arts practice(s).
By increasing philosophical and empirical scrutiny around ‘practice(s)’ – both in the sense of artwork and art work, the strategic ambition of my research is to inform the art sector’s responsiveness in relation to social and environmental challenges towards equitable modes of living. By attending to practice ontologies, I ask how we might re-formulate the extractive dualities of the arts as part of the so-called creative and cultural industries across its workaday and policy discourse.
Multi-disciplinary Translations
In academia my project requires a multiplicity of disciplinary translations between art practice and the practice concerns and orientations of the social sciences and social studies of science, which helps explicate the values of art practice/research in academia beyond the broad field of art studies or artistic research specifically. To do this work I take guidance from classical pragmatism and its heritage, across neo-vitalist philosophy. This primary (metaphysical) informant shapes the way that I work with others – via land, academic, and professional collaborations.
Primarily situated in the visual arts field, my practice orientation has developed around several sub-themes which I have published around already or am currently in the process of doing so:
My work is published in journals such as the Journal of Rural Studies, Sociologia Ruralis, Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, Landscape Research and the Journal of Visual Art Practice. I am also the author of the Routledge monograph Art Worlding: Planning Relations (2022).
Educaton
This trans-disciplinary translation is informed by the multi-disciplinarity of my education across visual art practice and the social sciences and social studies of science: I hold a BA in Fine Art from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art Dundee University; MSc in Development Studies from University of Manchester; and PhD in Planning and Landscape (Beyond Targets: Articulating the Role of Art in Regeneration (2013)) also from the University of Manchester, which was supervised within the pragmatist/Latourian paradigm of the Manchester Architecture Research Group (Centre) where I was a Sustainable Consumption Institute DTC scholar.
Prior Academic Posts
Before joining Northumbria as a lecturer in the Department of Arts in 2015 I previously held research posts at University of Gothenburg, University of Newcastle, and University of Manchester. I have been awarded competitive visiting research fellowships at Moore Institute, University of Ireland, Galway and Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart. I have also been an invited research consultant at the Centre for Rural Economy, Newcastle University; and Birmingham Institute of Art and Design.
Prior professional practice
My interests and commitments as an academic are informed by my prior professional career where I worked across a range of producing roles in the visual arts including working at a-n The Artists Information Company (Artists Newsletter) and FORMA Arts & Media; and also as a freelance consultant to local government consortia, arts organisations, and funders for over ten years.
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