Catherine Coulthard, Strategic Director, Prism Arts

Prism Arts has worked with the University of Cumbria for many years, we highly value our partnership both in terms of creating opportunities for our artists with disabilities to develop new skills but also the university has been a critical partner in developing our workforce through graduate placements with illustration, fine art and performing arts students.

Example 1: Graduate placements and workforce development: We have collaborated to develop pathways for students to develop skills in inclusive arts practice.  We have worked with lecturing teams to work with young people at the very start of their careers to add depth and experience in delivering inclusive practice as part of their learning experience. To date 20% of our workforce are UoC alumni.  This is of huge value to our arts organisation, and also enables us to retain talent in our area.

Example 2: Creative opportunities for our learning disabled artists to access exhibition, equipment and technicians, and experience higher education opportunities.  Through a ground breaking project called Step Up (Funded by Esmee Fairbairn foundation) we worked closely with the UoC institute of the Arts team to develop learning experiences and development pathways for our participant artists. This work resulted in a Symposium, new collaborative experiences for students and participant artists and deepened our collective understanding of how to apply inclusive practice within higher education centres.  Without the University partnership this project could not have taken place, it was a transformative experience for our artists, students and participants.

University of Cumbia continue to make a huge impact in the city.  We wish them every success and very much look forward to developing future opportunities to work together as the new campus project develops.

It is a wonderful thing to have a university with the vision of University of Cumbria in the city!