The Public Studio uses the artist’s studio as a site for creative problem-solving, offering space for engagement with new ideas, unlikely collaborations, and experimentation with raw materials. The three stages include the observation of a three-way discussion between a researcher, a practitioner, and a moderator, followed by separate small group conversations with one of the speakers, and then finally an open workshop where both speakers and participants apply creative thinking to a complex problem, be it social, political, medical, environmental.

This Public Studio on Resistance features a conversation between Megan Clinch, a social anthropologist working in public health and intervention design and socially engaged practice/art led methodologies; E … and Lois Weaver, artist, activist, and Professor Emerita of Performance Practice at QMUL. Together they will explore the principles of resistance from the points of view of science, health, political resistance, and the arts.  They will then turn to the audience for small group discussions followed by an open creative design session looking at how these various disciplines and languages of resistance might inform new practices and strategies.

Megan Clinch is a Social Anthropologist, who conducts research at the Institute of Public Health at the University of Cambridge, the Faculty of Social Science at the Open University. She is currently the lead of the Global Public Health and Policy Unit, and also the Public Advisory Panel lead. With this, she is co-designing a strategy for socially engaged research and teaching that aims to tackle health inequalities across East London.

E is a multidisciplinary artist, producer and activist. Their work spans across dance, theatre, film, immersive and museum performances, with movement as a core vehicle of expression. They are an organiser within several advocacy groups and create powerful interventions through art and direct action. 

Lois Weaver is an artist, activist and Professor Emerita of Contemporary Performance Practice at QMUL. Her experiments in performance as a means of public engagement include the Long Table, Porch Sitting, Situation Room, Care Café, Public Studio, and her facilitating persona, Tammy WhyNot.

Is It Worth It?

3 short films from People’s Palace Projects about artists working at the intersections of poverty, mental health and environmental catastrophe in Brazil. Films Include VALE (30 mins), Lady Anxiety (5 mins), and On My Feet (5 mins) followed by a discussion chaired by Rosie Hunter, PPP Executive Director.

VALE? (22 mins) - a film by Marcelo Barbosa and Paul Heritage

Through music, poetry and circus performances, five Brazilian artists talk about their grief, fears and hope four years after the Brumadinho Dam collapsed, killing 272 people. This film was produced as part of PPP's Roots of Resilience research project, with follow-on funding from AHRC to support impact from the research.

Lady Anxiety (5 mins)

On My Feet (5 mins)

These two shorts were produced as part of PPP's research project Building the Barricades, from 2018-22, funded by AHRC and ESRC.

Six young poets from Maré worked with Paul Heritage and Catherine Paskell in online creative writing workshops and produced Becos, an audio drama in four acts: a story about joy, opportunities, violence, racism and injustice, and the resilience built by poor Brazilian communities every day. These two short films showcase two poems which formed sections of the drama.