Universities as cultural and civic anchors: using an arts-led approach to place
Off the back of a great article I read recently (more on that below) I’ve been thinking a lot about the role of universities, as places of learning of course, but also as communities that shape the places they are in. A close friend works at a major London university, focusing on its future strategy and our conversations - when we’re getting really serious - drift to thinking beyond lecture halls to the broader role these institutions play.
Between us four Tangrammers, both through our work before and during Tangram, we’ve worked with universities in many different ways. One example that stands out is from our time leading Communications at the London Museum (then the Museum of London). We engaged 700 design and arts students from Ravensbourne University who were challenged to develop ideas as part of their course for programming, events and design for the new Museum, then pitched them to the museum’s senior team in a series of high-energy sessions. The exchange was designed to be mutually beneficial with the museum gaining insight into how this audience thought about the future Museum of London and the students gaining real-life experience from a real brief with their ideas being discussed in future planning meetings. It was fast, a bit messy and genuinely thrilling!
Tangram partner Jamie Reece worked with University of the Arts London on an MA User Experience Design industry brief. While working on Culture Mile for the City of London he developed a brief focused on hidden histories around Smithfield, now the site of the new London Museum. Over a series of sessions students developed proposals that invited new audiences to engage with the area’s history. The ideas ranged from walking tours to public sculpture and interactive formats and the final concepts were exhibited at UAL’s Elephant and Castle campus, with some taken forward in discussion with the City of London Corporation.
Experiences like these make it clear that universities are more than just places of research and formal learning in the classroom. In our museum-based experience they are valuable and insightful partners who are active in their communities. Many are now major civic spaces and cultural anchors often operating like small cities in their own right and, like museums, theatres or galleries, play a big role in shaping local identity and creating space for reflection and exchange.
At Tangram we more often than not approach projects through an arts and culture lens. That way of thinking has helped us and our clients open up new possibilities, not just for cultural organisations but for developers, built environment teams and institutions that might not see themselves in that space. Universities are also employing this approach as part of the civic university movement. A recent Arts Professional article by Sophie Duncan from NCCPE shares insights and examples of how universities are moving from being in a place to being part of it.
The article is behind a paywall so I’ve summarised a few points that I think are interesting:
Arts as a lens for civic engagement
The strongest examples show universities opening up their research and creative practice to the places around them, going beyond simple outreach and focusing on being present in the life of a town or city, building relationships over time.
Arts-based methods play a key role here. Be that through creative-led workshops, storytelling sessions or exhibitions and temporary installations, they all help create ways for people to take part that feel accessible and relevant and surface local stories and people’s priorities that are often missed through more formal consultation or engagement practices. When employed by universities, these approaches can shift their role significantly enabling new platforms for dialogue and shared activity beyond their more traditional role as a provider of knowledge
Two examples from the article stood out. The University of Derby’s Social Higher Education Depot, known as S.H.E.D, takes a mobile approach. It is a public arts and research space that travels into communities and, through workshops, performances and community-led events, has reached thousands of residents. It has supported youth creativity and brought forward stories that might otherwise go unheard. Over time it has helped build a stronger sense of local identity
UWE Bristol takes a different approach. Its City Campus is embedded within the very fabric of the city’s cultural infrastructure working across venues such as Arnolfini, Spike Island and Watershed. Students, academics and creative practitioners share space and work together on exhibitions, outreach as well as live projects. In this model arts and culture sit at the centre of both learning and civic activity with the university playing an active role in the life of the city itself
Co-creation brings mutual benefit
What connects these examples, and those shared at the start of this blog at the London Museum and working with UAL, is a genuine exchange between universities and communities. When people are involved from the start the work becomes more relevant and more widely supported with communities gaining access to space, skills and visibility and universities gaining insight, stronger research and better real-world learning experiences for students.
We’ve seen this in our own work where our arts-led approaches can make collaboration feel open and productive rather than extractive. They create the conditions for people to contribute in different ways and to see their role in shaping outcomes.
Long-term commitment and placemaking
Short-term projects can raise awareness and help drive immediate visitor numbers or income generation but they rarely build lasting relationships. In the cultural sector, trust and relevance come from sustained work over time and the same applies to how universities are interacting.
The article, and I suppose the point of this blog, highlights what many of us already understand, which is the need for long-term commitment, a clear shared purpose and alignment with wider civic priorities such as youth participation, skills building, opportunity and sustainability. The conversation is moving beyond traditional engagement with universities becoming part of the very fabric of the places they serve. This is complex work with many institutions still figuring out how to support and value this work alongside teaching and research on increasingly tight budgets and reduced funding structures.
What’s also clear is this approach isn’t sitting at the margins and there’s a growing shift across the sector to treat this work as core to what universities are for. Initiatives such as Birmingham University's Civic 2.0 point to a stronger focus on embedding civic activity into strategy and leadership, much like the increasing recognition that arts and culture are part of the infrastructure of place itself, shaping belonging and connection in ways that other approaches often can’t.