Find more staff
Role:
Department staff:
Collaborations:
- Qualifications:PhD in Education, University of Nottingham; MA Contemporary Art Theory, Goldsmiths, University of London; BA Art History, University of Nottingham; Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, University of Gloucestershire
- Position:Research Fellow - Art Partnerships
- Department:ACE - Creative and Cultural Industries
- Email:Nicky.Sim@uwe.ac.uk
About me
My role is focused on developing research and facilitating knowledge exchange and professional development activity across the UWE-Spike Island partnership. My current research explores comparable partnerships between art schools and cultural organisations around the UK, and how these respond to the challenging conditions facing today’s students and graduates.
Beyond UWE I am an independent researcher and evaluator with a background in public programming. Much of my research work explores how artists and arts institutions can play a role in civic life and address social urgencies - particularly across education contexts, youth/play work, social care services and high street spaces. I’m currently working as a researcher/evaluator with Bath Spa University on their AHRC-funded Creative Policy Fellowships programme – which places artist researchers in policy contexts to understand how creative practice research can inform local policy and create change. I’m also working as a researcher for Creative Break Time, a three-year project led by Southend arts organisations Focal Point Gallery, Metal and The Other MA (TOMA) – exploring what happens when teachers are given space for ‘deep hanging out’ on residential breaks with artists and arts workers during term time.
I frequently work on projects around art and mental health, including 2.8 Million Minds with MadLove, Chisenhale Gallery and Bernie Grant Arts Centre, commissioned by the Mayor of London; and Balmy Army (led by the vacuum cleaner, commissioned by Manchester International Festival) – looking at how youth-led art, activism and mutual care can be used to imagine a better mental health system. I have also worked with Wellcome Collection to evaluate exhibitions and projects relating to intersecting mental and physical health needs, and with Holocaust Centre North to develop policies and practices that support practitioner mental wellbeing.
Across all of my projects, I’m interested in the politics of partnership working between different fields of practice and how collaborative work can be more equitable, inclusive and critically engaged. I have worked with many organisations around these issues, including the Universities and Heritage Partnerships Network, Great Ormond Street Hospital, South London Gallery, Chisenhale Art Place, Battersea Arts Centre, Tate, Create and Oasis Adventure Playground.
Creative and professional development is another core strand of my work and I have evaluated a number of programmes supporting emerging and mid-career practitioners, including the Freelands Artist Programme, V&A Innovate, UP Projects: Constellations, Somerset House's Creative Industry Placement schemes and Artisa Foundation's Curatorial Fellowships.
In 2017 I completed an AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Partnership with Tate and The University of Nottingham. My PhD focused on investigating partnerships between visual arts organisations and the youth sector, using national programme Circuit as the context for a multi-sited ethnographic study. Galleries involved were Firstsite in Colchester, Kettle's Yard and Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridge, Mostyn in Llandudno, Nottingham Contemporary, The Whitworth in Manchester and all four Tate galleries across London, Liverpool and St Ives.
I was previously Curator of Public Programmes at Whitechapel Gallery where I ran an extensive programme of events, produced project exhibitions and managed the Writer in Residence programme. I have also worked as Schools Officer at Whitechapel Gallery and other temporary gallery education roles at various institutions.
www.nicolasim.co.uk
Area of expertise
Creative and inclusive research and evaluation, art practice in civic contexts, partnership working, art and mental health, public programming in galleries and museums, creative labour and livelihoods.
Publications
Publications loading...