Woven Communities: the warp and the weft of Scottish vernacular basketry

Lead Research Organisation: University of St Andrews
Department Name: Philos Anthrop and Film Studies

Abstract

Woven Communities: the Warp and the Weft aims to draw on practical basketry as an important tool for enhancing public engagement with museum collections and as a means of extending reminiscence work within museums and promoting design thinking. We will work with the Scottish Basketmakers Circle (SBC), our partners from an earlier project, and 5 new partners: National Museums of Rural Life, the Highland Folk Museum, the Scottish Fisheries Museum, Shetland Museum, and An Lanntair, a multi-arts centre on Lewis.

The project has four key aims. First, we will carry out a series of public engagement activities in museums linked to their basketry collections with the aim of eliciting life histories and social memories, and thus increasing audience engagement. We have found that making and demonstrating craft activities such as basketry are very productive in reminiscence sessions. Yet while artefacts are often employed as important reference points for eliciting social memories, the actual practice of making such artefacts is only now being considered. Secondly, we will draw on the technical benefit of basket-makers working with museum curators to enhance knowledge of early 20th century Scottish basketry collections. Thirdly, we aim to explore the significance of basketry for design thinking. Because basketry is not replicable by machine, many design processes such as planning, problem-solving and innovation are embedded in the practical act of basket-work. This has led us to consider the value of thinking-in-practice and dynamic problem-solving attendant on basketry, as an important aspect of design thinking. In discussion with CraftScotland and the Craft Council, we will develop a paper for informing craft policy on this theme. Finally, the interactive nature of our website has led to us being approached by An Lanntair, Lewis, which has requested we contribute to their bi-lingual (Gaelic/English) dementia project, drawing on our practical basketry skills for eliciting hand-memories with elders with dementia on Lewis

To achieve these aims we will conduct practical reminiscent events focussed around workshops and replica making in each venue. These will range from making Easter straw bonnets, fishing creels and sculls, to Traveller basketry, exploring the whole process from gathering raw materials (such as heather) to finished product, and involving all generations. Through the regionally specific nature of these events, it may even be possible to link artefacts in collections with descendants of former users or producers. We will invite a Masters student from Museum Studies in St Andrews to document and upload the data as part of their dissertation project. We will video record practitioners making key basket forms to further document memories and discussion linked to the events. This will also enable us to extend our capacity for conveying skills, and provide legacy material for use by museums.

Outcomes will include increased public engagement with museum collections, and therefore enhanced impact, as more regional public contribute to knowledge about their own social history through practical engagement. This will lead to new and accessible insights to the social history of collections. Through working with makers, curators will gain improved documentation of collections. There will be greater understanding of the benefits of handwork for working with people with dementia; and of the value of handwork for design thinking through our policy document for craft and design education. Several of our partners have agreed to host study days tailored to their collections, which will further extend impact and public engagement, as will the international symposium which will form the culmination of the project. Several of our partners have also expressed a keen interest in developing a touring exhibition and catalogue following the project. We also aim to produce an illustrated and accessible book as further legacy of the project.

Planned Impact

Through working with our partners, we will have access to and engagement with audiences across Scotland, from the Central Lowlands, the Northern and Western Isles, the Highlands to the east coast. Impact from the project will extend through our public engagement projects beyond museums and galleries to their audiences, substantially increasing access to collections.
1. The practical reminiscence sessions hosted by our partners will enhance public engagement with museum collections and generate new cultural knowledge. Thus, more regional public will learn about their social history through basketry, a fabric of society intimately bound up with their community's past skills and practices. They will also learn more about their local museum collection and its links with other museums at a national level.
2. These activities will develop new contexts for use of the collections through the local histories elicited in interaction with the public. Both 1&2 will enhance audience engagement and attendance.
3. We will develop understanding of and techniques for making significant, but no-longer made basket forms such as sculls, mudags and ciosans, extending this knowledge through our makers to curators, museums and their communities.
4. By updating the new material generated for museums with illustrated records, we will ensure enhancement of museum information and improve curatorial knowledge which will have benefit beyond the life of the project, while at the same time training a student for the future.
5. The NMoRL and Highland Folk Museum have collections from across Scotland. Collaborating on a national project will enhance communication between national and regional museums, developing regional knowledge exchange and enabling organizations to learn more about the extent and connections between their collections.
6. Our document for crafts educational policy on the value of craft practice for memory and design thinking will further extend impact through educational and craft networks.
7. All our partners encourage best use of their collections through public events, including study days and exhibitions. We will enhance impact by running a series of study days and an international symposium. These include one study day at NMoRL, Creating a Reminiscence Space, aimed at craft, educational and social history professionals, including the Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group, Scottish Working People's History Trust, and Social History Curators' Group. A second at the NMoRL, with demonstrations of materials and harvesting, will be open to the wider public. The international symposium, Basketry: Making, Memory, and Mind, at St Andrews will synthesize findings from the whole project, inviting national and international participants, including anthropologists, craft-and design-historians, ethno-botanists, social historians, art students, curators, craft experts, psychologists, policy makers and the general public.
Each event will be advertised widely and open to the public, and we will ensure maximum audiences through the museums' publicity.
8. We also aim to curate a small exhibition of the project. At this stage we cannot commit to this taking place within the timeframe of the project. The National Museum, Shetland Museum and An Lanntair have expressed interest in this.
9. Our interactive website, which we will continue to update during the project, will further extend audiences. All partners will have links to the website.
10. We will produce an illustrated accessible volume, with input from our basket-makers and curatorial partners, on the social history of Scottish communities through baskets.
11. Each museum will have a much stronger, more accessible knowledge base for contextualisation and publicizing its collections to encourage new audiences to engage with them beyond the timespan of the project.
 
Title Exhibition: Cuimhne/Memory 
Description Multimedia exhibition which included museum pieces and contemporary atrworks. It included historical baskets and snares from the Highland Folk Museum and art installations by Caroline Dear on the theme of Memory Snares and Memory Plaids The public engaged with the event by writing memories and attaching them to the snare and plaid. "You will never learn all the is to learn about rope" was one attachment. 
Type Of Art Artistic/Creative Exhibition 
Year Produced 2018 
Impact Increased awareness of our project 
 
Title Exhibition: Making and Mending Baskets and People 
Description Photographt exhibition which drew parallels between making and mending baskets and nets and groups of Scottish working people in the form of kinship diagrams. 
Type Of Art Artistic/Creative Exhibition 
Year Produced 2016 
Impact Increased awareness and engagement with our project 
 
Title Exhibition: Woven Communities: a Fabric of Society 
Description Exhibition at the Scottish Fisheries Museum on the links between basketry and fishing 
Type Of Art Artistic/Creative Exhibition 
Year Produced 2016 
Impact increased public engagement with our project 
 
Description Woven Communities is an anthropological research project which, through an AHRC funded Connected Communities Project, began by collaborating with basket-makers from the Scottish Basket-makers Circle and Scottish museum curators, using practical basketwork to engage the public in learning about Scottish cultural history and heritage through its basketry - a key fabric of society until the recent past. Our initial aims were to use practical basketry experience and hands-on work to improve knowledge of museum basketry collections; to elicit new memories about Scottish social history through practical engagement of the public with basketwork; and to explore the intangible, 'forgotten' heritage in museums' basketry collections by working with basket-makers in collections.

Along with this, through developing our innovative public engagement methods of bringing practical basketry to almost every aspect of our research, including our symposia, we came to realize the significance of hand work such as basketry for diverse aspects of cognition. Thus, our 2016-7 AHRC Woven Communities the Warp and the Weft project aims were to explore the value of practical basketwork as means both of eliciting historical and cultural memories, and also of exploring the relationship between handwork and cognition. We were concerned to learn more about the role of handwork such as basketry as an aid to discussion, memory, recovery and in innovative constructive practices such as design thinking, through bringing practices from two ostensibly different realms of experience - handwork and cognitive learning - together. This development in our research has impact for such diverse areas as: developing understanding of the role of 'hand-memories' for elders living with dementia; the gestural aspects in geometric and spatial understanding; and providing new insights for the value of craftwork for occupational therapy.

Our project has been successful on multiple levels, as follows:

Heritage
Through public engagement and knowledge exchange events, including demonstrations, public workshops, 'skills-gatherings', reminiscence days - all using practical basketwork with the public, - along with exhibitions and our interactive website www.wovencommunities.org , we have worked with Scottish Travellers, the Scottish Woman's Rural Institute, Shetland elders' groups, Comann Eachdraidh (Western Isles Historical Societies), schools, museums, the Royal Scottish Institute for the Blind, care homes, the general public and invited experts from across the world. The outcome has been greatly enhanced cultural understanding about Scottish baskets and basketry culture at local, national and international levels, with shared knowledge about collections between museums across Scotland, the UK and the world - our international symposia, international lectures and website enabling us to engage in international debates and with Scottish diasporic communities.

At a local level, our communities may be both participants and audience, sometimes coming to talks and then providing us with more data about baskets' use or cultural history; sometimes attending workshops, then realising people's relatives made similar artefacts; sometimes attending exhibitions then contributing new knowledge about artefacts; and through these activities being motivated to learn more. Working with basket-makers in museum collections has uncovered many significant finds, from a unique horsehair St Kilda puffin snare which gives insight to island subsistence and the value of materials such as horse hair; to a World War 1 wicker shell casing masquerading as a fish trap, also revealing resourcefulness at a time of scarcity; to identifying key local makers and their work through specific 'basketry signatures' and techniques.

Our Skills Gathering research has enabled us to provide new data about basketry techniques, and also enthused young volunteers to learn about how to make those baskets which are no longer made, along with the associated cultural practices. We have also learned a great deal about materials through our 'From Plant to Basket' projects, most especially working with Lewis maker on marram grass, and through working with Skye basket-maker Caroline Dear with heather and hair-moss.

Nationally, through collating documentation about artefacts and images from each collection, with the help of student interns, we have enabled museums to share data and learn more about artefacts in their collections from beyond their own regions. This has been enhanced by accessing our Woven Communities website which has information about each region, form, material and the cultural relevance of each kind of basket.

Thus, for our heritage work, our project has been successful and continues to be so. Audience sizes at exhibitions and events indicate significant public engagement with our project, as do the many 'hits' on our website. Museums across Scotland now know significantly more about their collections through our research, skills-gatherings and sharing of data between museums nationally. Communities across Scotland now know more about the significance of basketry for local heritage through public engagement events, exhibitions and talks. Internationally, communities know about our research though our symposia, film and website, and contact us, adding further data and feeding iteratively into our research. 'We now know that we have in our collections a piece of World War I history that we were completely unaware of before... a perfect example of what can happen when researchers in different fields get together to swap and share knowledge.' Scottish Fisheries Museum. This is one example of many supportive messages.

The website has had great value at an international level, with enquiries and new information from the USA, Australia, even Tasmania and elsewhere across the world. We have had many thousands of hits and very, very positive feedback. Through maintaining practical basketry as part of our research tool-kit, even at academic events, we have been inspired to put together new combinations of ideas and develop new understandings about the relationship between heritage and memory, and thought and practice. It is these connections which began our further journey into the relationship between handwork and cognition.

Hand memory work with people living with dementia
We were approached in 2016 by An Lanntair, the Lewis Arts Centre, to work with Arora, their Dementia Friendly Community project on the Hebrides, exploring the relevance of basketry for 'hand-memories' with elders in care homes. Our 'hand-memory' work with Arora and basket-makers and elders with dementia, has shown how skills learned through the hands in early years can be remembered and effectively reapplied, despite memory difficulties, when people are much older. Furthermore, practicing skills from a person's youth, such as net-mending or twining, can enhance communication and discussion through the specific kind of attention and memories basketry entails, when a person has lapsed into not speaking. Access to local plant materials, archival photographs and both old and new skill learning sessions, drew elders to speak and share memories about their lives, tell us about past artefacts such as Uist marram horse collars, and tell basketry-related stories about their pasts. It also inspired people to learn new skills.

Through a development project with additional funding from the St Andrews KE and Impact Fund, we further collaborated with An Lanntair on their Cuimhne/Memory exhibition and symposium on Lewis, bringing the unique St Kilda puffin snare held by the Highland Folk Museum back to the Hebrides for the first time in 100 years. Basket-maker Caroline Dear led sessions making memory snares and memory plaids to capture memories with the public, and Dawn Susan made local creels and ciosans. See, for example, https://dfclanntair.wordpress.com/2018/06/ At the symposium were also able to share our methodology with elders with Dementia and carers from across Scotland and the UK, and learn from the input of participants. We put some of their methods, such as the use of Diaries, into practice in our work with Raigmore Hospital.

The success of this element of our research is partly reflected in An Lanntair being awarded the prize for the best Scottish Dementia-Friendly Community Project of 2016 by the Life Changes Trust and in Arora's continued involvement of basket-makers in their ongoing projects, resulting in an ongoing legacy for this work. See, for example, https://dfclanntair.wordpress.com/2017/04/19/woven-communities-report/ and https://dfclanntair.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/woven-communities-report-updated-3.pdf

Geometric/spatial understanding and design thinking
Following our two interdisciplinary symposia, where basketry practice was an essential element, as discussed above, we developed, the proposition that handwork can enhance cognition, learning, memory and innovative thinking. One of our aims was to explore the relationship between modalities of creative bodily engagement and hand-work for mathematical learning. Our proposal was that the rhythmic, dexterous, constructive hand-work of weaving baskets is important for creative thinking, spatial understanding, and innovative combinations of ideas. We further argued that the specific form of attention and learning that basket-work (which cannot be made by machine) requires and the gestural movements of both hands and body, along with the attendant problem-solving activities and hand-to-eye coordination, reveal a critical relationship between craft-work and spatial understanding.
During this part of our research we founded the Anthropology and Geometry research group along with Professor Tim Ingold from the KFI project in Aberdeen, Dr Ray Lucas from the University of Manchester and Professor Ricardo Nemirovsky and colleagues at Manchester Metropolitan University. Nemirovsky's work provides an important interdisciplinary and complementary perspective to our own, exploring how the active human body, through gesture, manipulation of tools, craftwork and mobility in the classroom, can enhance, or co-produce with others, mathematical thinking and learning. This interdisciplinary meeting point enabled us to trial our ideas using basketry.
Our work with schools on Shetland and Uist revealed how basket-work and cord making, from the simplest form and structure to complex braiding and plaiting, have relevance for mathematical cognition. From counting to spacing, angles to pattern-making, and from tension to weight-bearing, learning and practising basketry enhanced the incorporation of mathematical insights. (This has been confirmed also by our work with people with brain injuries, to be developed in the next section.) The children also enjoyed the process thoroughly. "Testing some newly made rope two boys (from Sgoil an Iochdar, Uist) were towing one of the classroom tables across the room. Very impressed with the strength of it..this class were very industrious, interested and engrossed. I looked around the room at one stage and all five adults were observing with no need to say a word or do anything. The children and their enthusiasm were leading the workshop." Maggie Smith, Gaelic interpreter.
Our research into basketry and maths culminated with 'Tinkering with Curves' (also funded by St Andrews KE and Impact fund), - a 'learning lab' or 'practorium' open to the public where 30 invited participants explored the insights basketry can reveal about curves, from the strength, and tension of woven circles and spirals to moments of singularity. We worked with basketry group, Basketry and Beyond, maths STEM ambassador and basket-maker, Mary Crabbe, postgraduates, and researchers from across Scotland, the UK and Europe
The success of this element of our research has been revealed through children and educators across Scotland being enabled to experience connections between hand-skills, mathematical learning and problem-solving through the workshops and events we have held. This research was recently prominently featured on the AHRC stand at London Design Week. One child commented: "I want to join your club!" - "What club?" "The marram grass and rope-making club"
Basketry work with people with Acquired Brain Injury and Stroke
During our WW1 Basketry and Occupational Therapy research project with the University of Hertfordshire (Basketry Then and Now), Dr T Palmer, a retired consultant and basket maker, became involved with our research into recovery. This involvement, along with the papers on rehabilitation presented at our second symposium, inspired him to set up a volunteer project at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, doing basketry with stroke patients. This was supported by Dr A. MacAden, senior consultant at the Stroke Recovery Unit. This again indicates the impact and 'knock-on effect' of our research. Additional funding from the St Andrews KE and Impact fund enabled Woven Communities, working with the hospital and additionally with basket maker and Occupational Therapist Monique Bervoets, to trial the impact of this work, studying the effect of basketry for patients with acquired brain injury and stroke, and develop a handbook for future volunteers to continue basket-work with such patients. Dr MacAden comments that, "The uniqueness of what we are doing is that we are exploring an activity which was introduced (in the early 20th C) and then taken away from rehabilitation units (from the 1960's onwards) without evidence for either. This time we're doing it with evidence."

This work on basketry and recovery at the Stroke Recovery Unit, Raigmore Hospital, Inverness also employed the gestural aspect of basketry. In basket-weaving, one hand helps the other, while attention 'crosses the middle' line from left to right, and vice versa, forming a basis for assisting recovery in brain-injured patients, particularly stroke sufferers, where damage to one side of the brain affects the other side of the body. Basketwork encourages the brain and body to work together as attention moves from one side to the other (see for example, Bolte-Taylor). This is important for neuro-plasticity and aiding development of new neural pathways. Dr Palmer and Ms Bervoets have developed unique step-by-step tasks, which enable patients to begin at a level they can manage and to build on their skills. This technique also mirrors the patterning and rhythmic feature of spatial learning and numerical 'translation' we have developed in our maths research. Thanks to the ongoing efforts of Dr. Palmer, Headway, an organization for volunteers working with brain injured patients, have become involved, bringing new volunteers to continue the work and ensure continuity; talks have been given to consultants across Scotland about the work; and it was recently featured at the 450th Anniversary event of the Worshipful Company of Basket-makers.

The success of this element of our research is that through qualitative research, we have begun to accumulate nuanced documentary evidence for the effectiveness of basketry for people with brain injury; the work is being rolled out and developed by new volunteers; and it clearly inspires patients and hospital staff in Inverness, including physiotherapists and OTs, who tell us of the value of basketry hand-work for recovery. That it is being taken up by volunteers and new participants will also ensure legacy and sustainability, clearly a significant impact. As with the two above elements, we'd like to expand our study, and in this case extend it to at least 40 participants.
1. "This [the basketry]really helps; everything helps, hospital, physio, everything. But the basketry really makes a difference. It helps you learn." Patient 5.
2. "I can't put my finger on it, but something helped them to change. Was that the routine, - they had to get up? Was it the rhythm of the work? Was it the production of something with their time?" Consultant MacAden.
3. Asked "Is the basketmaking helping you?" He replied "Yes, quite definitely." Asked why or how, he said "It gets me mobile and I'm learning a skill. But it is also helps my brain pull together. And it makes a great deal of difference to the boredom. And you end up with something for your time." Patient 4.


Our Methodology
There are 6 key features which make our methodology particularly unique and effective:
1. Use of practical hand-skills alongside scholarly research. This has been a feature of our project from the outset. It has been important for the knowledge such skills bring to museums, but also for the effect practice has on the way we think through what we do, and this has led to the impact practice has on the people we have worked with.
2. Collaboration and open-ness to new partners. Our research has been open-ended, following on from the approach we began when funded by the Connected Communities Programme. This means we have always brought our community of basketmakers and those communities we connect with along with us. This has enriched our research by bringing our context into our research and .
3. Interdisciplinarity brings important new combinations of ideas and new perspectives on problems. As anthropologists, it is important to acknowledge context and the influences on what we all bring

Specific techniques include
4. Skills gathering research, invaluable for work with Intangible Cultural Heritage. What is key here is that expert and Master-basket-makers can improvise enough at the level of skill they have to develop strategies to understand the process in making old artefacts,
5. From plant to basket. One cannot separate the plant from the basket. To understand how to make baskets, you need to know how to manage the plant.
6. Use of pattern and colour in breaking down techniques for maths and for rehabilitation. Movement and rhythm are key in this area of research, which is in effect, and act of translation from numerical to spatial awareness.

Carrying out research in one textile form, activity, or medium - basketwork, - has revealed how handwork can enable us to understand the relationship between the cognitive and the practical. In this project, there is just one activity, basket-weaving, yet it can elicit memories; the bi-lateral, bi-manual activity has significance for learning, recovery and rehabilitation, for neuroplasticity; the rhythmic, constructive, patterning of hand-weaving is important for mathematical understanding, creative thinking, and creative forms of thought, enabling innovative combinations of ideas emerge. These outcomes suggest that hand-skills are of relevance for the 21st century and have an important place alongside other forms of learning, creativity, healthcare, and recovery, and that educationalists and health workers need to take this seriously. This is a holistic project with a methodology which aims to be truly collaborative and interdisciplinary, and which sees these processes as integrated. For me, this process has been successful and shows the importance of the kind of academic study which makes connections, and our aim is to continue with this important work.
7. Additional information about the relationship between mathematical cognition and handskills. This will be ongoing during the new project
Exploitation Route It is already being taken forward, since it was a development on from our original project work. I see further development through further research in both the education and health areas. This could be achieved by a larger project with postdoctoral researchers who learn the methods we have developed and can spend a year of more each part of the project, devoting research to one element. I'd like to also hold a series of network events to highlight the project. and I would like to build on the opportunity to showcase this work to the All-party Parliamentary subcommittee for craft
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Healthcare,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
URL http://wovencommunities.org
 
Description Researchfish narrative impact - How have your findings been used? Background The initial aim of Woven Communities was to research Scottish social history and heritage through the lens of its basketwork as a fabric of society. The project began in 2006, received AHRC Connected Communities funding in 2012, and AHRC Follow-On funding in 2016. Dr Bunn led the project, working with Scottish basket-makers and with numerous regional museums, art galleries, archives and even botanical gardens across Scotland, in order to learn the diverse ways memory is embedded in hand-skills in Scottish vernacular basket-work. Aims Along with achieving these initial aims, the project has developed new ways of: i) using craft practice and artefacts as an innovative new methodology to engage the public for researching social history; ii) using craft practice and artefacts as an innovative new methodology to explore creative and recuperative cognitive practices through hand skills; and iii) a study of how and why the very experience of doing, or even watching basketwork, provides significant impact on the relationship between skill, memory and cognition. This includes the relationships between basketry and memory, mathematical and creative thinking, and rehabilitation. Outcomes and impact a) Heritage 1. We have improved curatorial understanding of Scottish museum basketry collections and archives through engagement with practitioners in museum collections, identifying materials, techniques, regions and forms of baskets. Museums we have worked with include Shetland Museum, the Scottish Fisheries Museum, the Highland Folk Museum, National Museums of Scotland, Lewis Museum, Arbroath Signal Tower, and Mintlaw Collections Centre (Aberdeenshire). Artefacts highlighted and identified include a hair-moss basket' from the Roman occupation at Hadrian's Wall; unusual materials from 'bent grass' (marram), heather, dock and gloy (black oat straw); Traveller-made frame baskets; quarter-cran herring measures; 'grtlin' fishing baskets; fruit punnets; fisher lassies' back-creels; Western Isles bent grass ciosans; woven basketry shell casings transformed into fish-traps; a puffin snare from St Kilda; and woven baby-weighing baskets; along with the varying ways of life evidenced through basketry use. 2. We have shared knowledge and information between these museums through data collation by our student interns, enabling museums and their publics to share and identify comparable baskets, their uses, materials and sometimes even makers. 3. Museums across Scotland also now know significantly more about techniques used in their basketry collections through our Skills-Gatherings/Intangible Cultural Heritage events, where master basket-makers have renewed baskets no-longer made and explored the skills involved. 4. Communities across Scotland now know more about significance of basketry for local heritage through public engagement events, including heritage acrion days and reminiscence sessions with retired Fishermen, the Scottish Womens' Rural Institute and the Traveller community working with Mecopp. These have encouraged people to engage with the project and also share their own past experiences and historical knowledge of basketwork, including knowledge about how people's relatives made or used baskets in the past. Communities include the Outer Hebrides, Shetland, East Coast Scotland, the Highlands and Central Belt. 5. Communities across Scotland now know more about significance of basketry for local heritage through 3 museum/gallery exhibitions and associated lectures, engagement events and symposia, with the Scottish Fisheries Museum, An Lanntair and the University of Aberdeen. These have encouraged people to engage with the project and also share their own past experiences and historical knowledge of basketwork. Communities reached include the Outer Hebrides, East Coast Scotland, the Highlands. 6. The work with museums and galleries drew in over 4500 (conservative assessment) members of the public when demonstrated or offered as one of 18 public engagement workshops, 7 public lectures and keynote speeches, 3 exhibitions and 1 place at the AHRC stand at London Design Week, along with our representation at the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers 450th Anniversary Trade Fair. Further lectures include two public addresses at the Textile Society of America; 2 international Woven Communities symposia; lecture at the Artists Workers Guild to Basketmakers Association/Worshipful Company of Basketmakers. 7. Our interactive website of the project: www.wovencommunities.org launched in 2014 has had a very high number of hits and continues to do so. Dialogues with website users continue to produce additional material for our project. b) Developing understanding of the value of basketry hand-work for design, mathematical and creative thinking 1. Through our explorations of basketry skills in problem-solving and design with young people in schools, children from Shetland and Uist, and educators across Scotland see the connection between hand-skills, mathematical learning and problem-solving. 2. Through our public engagement events, people across the UK see the connection between hand-skills, mathematical learning and problem-solving through workshops and events in Scotland, Oxford and the London Design Week exhibit. 3. We have experimented with and demonstrated how enhanced understanding of mathematics can develop through using basketry as modality of bodily engagement in our Tinkering with Curves event and Anthropology and Geometry Network. This has significance for future mathematical education which we are developing with Basketry and Beyond, Professor Nemirovsky at Manchester Metropolitan University and Dr Lucas at University of Manchester. 4. We have directly worked with over 200 children and 60 adults in this work. c) Hand memory work with people living with Dementia. 1. Working with An Lanntair on Lewis, we have highlighted the value of basketry as a hand skill which can help elicit 'hand-memories' and improved communication with people with dementia in care homes on Uist. 2. We have introduced basketry practice to the hand-memory work of An Lanntair and its sister organisation, Arora, contributing to their being awarded the Best Scottish Dementia-Friendly community project in 2016. 3. We led intergenerational events between schools and care-homes, extending awareness of elders' skills, and enhancing young people's interest in their knowledge. 4. We have raised funding towards a collaborative exhibition and symposium, Cuimhne (Memory) at An Lanntair, which brought regional artefacts, including the St Kilda puffin snare from the Highland Folk Museum Collection, back to the Hebrides for the first time. 5. Cuimhne symposium speakers and audience included people living with dementia who participated in panel sessions and engaged with the keynote speech we gave at the event. 6. We also brought in cross-links with other partners including Highland Folk Museum and Tim Ingold of the Knowing from the Inside Project, University of Aberdeen, who also gave a keynote speech at the symposium. 7. Our partners An Lanntair have continued working with our makers, young people and elders with dementia in care-homes on the Hebrides beyond our own funding period, extending the activities to Lewis. 8. Our work has impacted on 850 people across the islands. d) Developing new methods and techniques for using basketry with patients with acquired brain injury and stroke at the Stroke Recovery Unit, Raigmore Hospital, Inverness. 1. We have shown how basketry can enhance health outcomes and wellbeing for stroke recovery patients at Raigmore Hospital Inverness, including how working with both hands in basket-making assists neuroplasticity in the brain; enhances insight, reflection, and wellbeing. Patients reported improved ability to concentrate, patience and enhanced wellbeing. At least 3 patients who had not been anticipated being able to live unassisted, improved enough after our work to live at home. 2. Positive and encouraging response from staff in the ward and the hospital more broadly who look to help us to implement and continue this research. 3. Voluntary work in Raigmore is being continued beyond the project led by our partners Dr sPalmer and MacAden, and supported by Headway. 4. We have developed an online downloadable Handbook for volunteers with Headway for future work with stroke patients. 5. There have been initial discussions between our partners in Raigmore and Headway for setting up a centre at Raigmore for craft and recovery. 6. 4 Presentations given by Dr Bunn on the project: 1. at the Textile Society of America bi-annual conference (September 2018); 2. the Basketmakers Association AGM with the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers at the Art Workers Guild, London, (October 2018); 3. Departmental Seminar at the University of St Andrews November 2018; 4 Royal Anthropological Institute international conference Art, Materiality and Representation at the British Museum, June 2018 7. 4 presentations given by Dr Palmer on the project: 1. the Basketmakers Association AGM with the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers (October 2018); 2. Scottish Basketmakers Association Autumn Gathering October 2018; 3 Raigmore Hospital Audit Afternoon February 2019; 4. to be given to the Scottish Association of Rehabilitation Physicians AGM at Raigmore Hospital, (June 29th 2019). 8. Film of our work Basketry and Therapy displayed online at University of Hertforshire's Everyday Lives at War: Basketry Then and Now website: https://everydaylivesinwar.herts.ac.uk/films/ 8. Display on the project at the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers 450th Anniversary Trade Fair at the Guildhall, London February 2019. 9. see also new Minister of Health opening speech on parallel outcomes with music in regard to the significance of creativity for health and recovery. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the- power-of-the-arts-and-social-activities-to-improve-the-nations-health?utm_source=Permanent+- +Comms&utm_campaign=cd922af0f9-CCHQ+Weekly+Roundup+ +20July+2018_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_56c50d25fe-cd922af0f9-85933701 We would be very pleased if he could extend his sphere of influence to crafts such as basketry. 10. Although our research has involved a comparatively small cohort of patients (10), a very high number of members of the public (over 1000) are now aware of the significance of our work through our public engagement events. e) New methodologies Our practical methodologies are innovative for connecting themes as diverse as heritage, maths, memory-work and recovery, as well as being of value to each subject area in itself (as outlined in the above entries in this section). 1. The PI was awarded the 2018 prize for innovative public engagement methods by the University of St Andrews. 2. We have been invited to speak and lead workshops on practical methodology at Educere/Educare (University of Oxford) 2017; British Museum C-DaRe Annotation event 2019; Stitching Together Research Network 2019; IONA Vancouver 2019; Care in Design Workshop (2) Tokyo, Japan 2019. 3. This indicates that that our methodology is now being taken up by leaders in our field in the UK and abroad and that our work has international reach. 4. We have developed a toolkit of activities to carry out with museums. These include: i) Skills gatherings, where master basket-makers work with objects no longer made in order to renew the baskets and develop an understanding of the intangible cultural heritage embodied in the artefact. ii) 'From plant to basket' events, where we explore the ecology of the basket as a whole, from the management of the material, to its harvesting, sorting, making and use in basketry. This gives insight to the whole life history of the artefact. iii) How many ways to make a.? For example, a piece of string, where we consider simple twining, palming, windlassing and so on, all of which can create the same outcome. iv) Netting bees etc. Here, extending our work with basketry-related techniques such as netting, we work in museums using techniques linked to their artefacts and local history, engaging with the public as a form of 'heritage action day'. v) Many of these techniques are translatable or relevant for use in other areas of our research. For example, in our work with maths, with people with dementia, or for recovery. 5. Our maths and design work has trialled a range of methods for studying how basket techniques can aid mathematical cognition. These include: i) Contrasting learning styles. For example, we might use instruction sheets, observation of practitioners, use of 'formers', or free experimentation/play with materials in order to examine how attention, bodily movement, talk and comprehension varies in each approach. We record these sessions with film. ii) Exploring diverse 'basketry' techniques in relation to cognition. For example, considering the different cognitive implications of the moves of weaving, plaiting, folding, rope-making, knotting, looping and how these might give insight to tension, stretch, compression, load bearing, strength and so on. iii) Themed events and practoria. For example, the 'Number 5', 'the Line', and 'Tinkering with Curves'. The latter, our most recent event, lasted 2 days, and explored the link between materials, techniques and curves, including the relations between spirals, number and braiding; and between material, tension and singularities. iv) Drawing and diagramming moves. Exploring the translations of movement, inscription and gesture as means of expressing the bodily understanding of mathematical concepts 6. We have developed a range of methods through working with An Lanntair on Lewis with people living with dementia,. i) Hand memory work. Working with a Gaelic speaker, using simple hand skills from people's pasts, along with tactile work with materials, photo images, artefacts and simple basketry techniques such as twining to elicit memories and stories. ii) Learning from elders. Our partners on Lewis have since built on our work, using creels and stories to learn new skills from elders. For example, in the past, it was fairly usual for women carrying peats in creels to knit as they walked. By referencing these memories, An Lanntair have been learning traditional sock-making from elders with dementia, enabling the value of their memories to be realised. iii) Memory boxes. Memory boxes are also being developed to link to the hand memory work. iv) Intergenerational sessions. Young people doing, for example, rope making for maths work, or a 'From plant to basket' project using marram grass are invited to show this work to elders and also learn from them. 7. Recovery. With Raigmore Hospital Stroke Recovery Unit, we have developed new ways to gather data qualitatively while at the same time conducting a programme using practically basketry to assist patients on recovering both mobility and cognitive function. Methods include: i) Practitioners keep diaries or journals documenting each session. This has the important result of gathering data from one situation from a variety of perspectives (eg Occupational therapist, basket-maker, consultant and anthropologists). ii) Use of film as a means of observing the impact of our research iii) Working with occupational therapists, basket-makers and consultants together to devise practical exercises for brain injury recovery. iv) We have compiled a handbook for Headway volunteers to do this work with patients in the future v) Techniques for recovery we have devised include: use of verbal instruction; showing by example; how to breakdown learning sequences; use of visual aids; use of reflection and allowing patient to lead the process. 8. Reasoning behind our methodology: i) Craft practice such as basketry is a very direct form of tactile learning, where skill becomes embodied, tacit, embedded, and is almost automatically recoverable (see Heidegger's notion 'ready to hand'; Polanyi on tacit knowledge); ii) Working with practitioners in heritage work, enables us to provide new perspectives on museum artefacts, adding information to museum data and assisting curators in their work. For example, basket-makers may identify materials, techniques, or 'basketry signatures', which can in turn assist in identifying locality, date and even maker of artefacts iii) Craft practice such as basketry is also pleasurable, enjoyable and performs as a kind of meditative practice, a turning the attention outwards. it also acts as a means of gathering a sense of personal space for the practitioner. It also has a strong rhythmic quality and the materials are sensuous and flexible. These factors, along with basket-work's capacity for total absorption means it has been increasingly recognized as means of calming the mind and focusing attention in. (See for example, Ewan Thompson, The Embodied Mind; Clare Hunter, Threads of Life; Betsan Corkhill on knitting.) iii) People are drawn to craft practice and skill, they respect it. This can reflect a kind of nostalgia, but at a deeper level it also triggers a sense of history and concern for human knowledge and experience. Relevant for heritage and museum research, object- and photo-elicitation are becoming more widely used research methods. We have developed this approach a step further and bring in practical learning of the skill entailed in construction of artefacts under consideration, ie baskets alongside these other methods. iv) Craft-workers themselves value crafts such as basketry as significant skills, as important human capacities. Through practice they are caused to care about the skill, this human quality, and to want to learn more. Many of the basket-makers we have worked with have conducted their own autodidactic research into the history and nature of basketry from a practitioner's perspective, which is invaluable. v) The act of making also produces a result, a tangible outcome which the maker engages with and sees as productive. vi) As a research method, this form of practice conducted alongside theory and discussion, supports important cognitive developments and associations. It helps make connections between mind and body and between analogies across disciplinary boundaries. This can help discussion, and in contrast with analysis, which is a kind of breaking down into constituent elements, brings together ostensibly diverse elements in new ways and combinations, enabling us to explore new connections and resonances. All these outcomes of our practical methodology have impact on how to do research through public engagement as well as on the research we do itself. The greater engagement of practice and a qualitative approach has impacted on all our audiences and partners.
First Year Of Impact 2012
Sector Education,Healthcare,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Other
Impact Types Cultural,Societal
 
Description APEX: Royal Society
Amount £98,599 (GBP)
Funding ID APX\R1\191142 
Organisation The Royal Society 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2019 
End 07/2021
 
Description University of St Andrews KE and Impact Fund
Amount £5,230 (GBP)
Organisation University of St Andrews 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 12/2019 
End 06/2020
 
Description University of St Andrews Knowledge Exchange and Impact Fund
Amount £12,400 (GBP)
Organisation University of St Andrews 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 02/2018 
End 12/2018
 
Title 1. Overview of our methods 
Description 1. We use craft practice, specifically basket-work, as a research tool. This is the core of our methodology and this in itself enables an interdisciplinary approach used alongside theory and other practices in our research areas. Our practical methodology is innovative for connecting themes as diverse as heritage, maths, memory-work and recovery, as well as being of value to each subject area in itself (as outlined in subsequent entries in this section). There are several reasons why we consider this practical, direct-learning, craft-centred approach to be so effective for our research: i) Craft practice such as basketry is a very direct form of tactile learning, where skill becomes embodied, tacit, embedded, and is almost automatically recoverable (see Heidegger's notion 'ready to hand'; Polanyi on tacit knowledge); ii) Craft practice such as basketry is also pleasurable, enjoyable and, when examined in more depth, performs as a kind of meditative practice, a turning the attention outwards. At the same time, it acts as a means of gathering a sense of personal space for the practitioner. It also has a strong rhythmic quality and the materials are sensuous and flexible. These factors, along with basket-work's capacity for total absorption means it has been increasingly recognized as means of calming the mind and focusing attention in. (See for example, Ewan Thompson, The Embodied Mind; Clare Hunter, Threads of Life; Betsan Corkhill on knitting.) iii) People are drawn to craft practice and skill, they respect it. This can reflect a kind of nostalgia, but at a deeper level it also triggers a sense of history and concern for human knowledge and experience. iv) Craft-workers themselves value crafts such as basketry as significant skills, as important human capacities. Through practice they are caused to care about the skill, this human quality, and to want to learn more. Many of the basket-makers we have worked with have conducted their own autodidactic research into the history and nature of basketry from a practitioner's perspective, which is invaluable. v) The act of making also produces a result, a tangible outcome which the maker engages with and sees as productive. vi) As a research method, this form of practice conducted alongside theory and discussion, supports important cognitive developments and associations. It helps make connections between mind and body and between analogies across disciplinary boundaries. This can help discussion, and in contrast with analysis, which is a kind of breaking down into constituent elements, brings together ostensibly diverse elements in new ways and combinations, enabling us to explore new connections and resonances. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2016 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact it has increased to reach of our work and changed debate on how to conduct work using practice in an interdisciplinary way 
 
Title 2. Heritage and Museum work, methods overview 
Description For heritage and museum research, object- and photo-elicitation are becoming more widely used research methods, yet they are still considered innovative. We have developed this approach a step further and bring in practical learning of the skill entailed in construction of artefacts under consideration, ie baskets alongside these other methods. This is compelling to many local (and wider) audiences, who may be attracted to become involved through the skill itself, or reminded of a practice or activity from their own background or life-histories. It also enables new practitioners to gain new insights to artefacts. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2016 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact it has increased the reach of our research, providing a new way in for audiences who at the same time may be compelled also to give us data. 
 
Title 3. Practitioners advise in the museum stores 
Description Working with practitioners in heritage work, we are are able to provide new perspectives on museum artefacts when practitoners are brought into museum stores to give comment. This adds a great deal more information to museum data and assists curators in their work. For example, basket-makers may identify materials, techniques, or 'basketry signatures', which can in turn assist in identifying locality, date and even maker of artefacts. these connections can then be shared with different museums, providing enhanced knolwedge of collections across Scotland. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2016 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact increased knowledge of museum collections for curators within and between museums as we collate each museum's collection and share it between museums. 
 
Title 4. Development of a tool-kit of methods and activities to carry out with museums 
Description 4. We have developed a toolkit of activities to carry out with museums. These include: i) Skills gatherings, where master basket-makers work with objects no longer made in order to renew the baskets and develop an understanding of the intangible cultural heritage embodied in the artefact. ii) 'From plant to basket' events, where we explore the ecology of the basket as a whole, from the management of the material, to its harvesting, sorting, making and use in basketry. This gives insight to the whole life history of the artefact. iii) How many ways to make a.? For example, a piece of string, where we consider simple twining, palming, windlassing and so on, all of which can create the same outcome. iv) Netting bees etc. Here, extending our work with basketry-related techniques such as netting, we work in museums using techniques linked to their artefacts and local history, engaging with the public as a form of 'heritage action day'. v) Many of these techniques are translatable or relevant for use in other areas of our research. For example, in our work with maths, with people with dementia, or for recovery. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2016 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Enhanced reach of knowledge about museum collections in terms of: intangible cultural heritage; enhanced reach and understanding of ecology or artefacts; enhanced knowledge of techniques. 
 
Title 5. methods linked to basketry handwork and cognitions 
Description 5. Our maths and design work considers the gestural moves of basketwork as modalities of bodily learning for spatial and geometrical problem-solving. Working with our partners An Lanntair, Shetland Museum, Professor Nemirovsky from Manchester Metropolitan University, and the Anthropology and Geometry research group, we have trialled a range of methods for studying how basket techniques can aid mathematical cognition. These include: i) Contrasting learning styles. For example, we might use instruction sheets, observation of practitioners, use of 'formers', or free experimentation/play with materials in order to examine how attention, bodily movement, talk and comprehension varies in each approach. We record these sessions with film. ii) Exploring diverse 'basketry' techniques in relation to cognition. For example, considering the different cognitive implications of the moves of weaving, plaiting, folding, rope-making, knotting, looping and how these might give insight to tension, stretch, compression, load bearing, strength and so on. iii) Themed events and practoria. For example, the 'Number 5', 'the Line', and 'Tinkering with Curves'. The latter, our most recent event, lasted 2 days, and explored the link between materials, techniques and curves, including the relations between spirals, number and braiding; and between material, tension and singularities. iv) Drawing and diagramming moves. Exploring the translations of movement, inscription and gesture as means of expressing the bodily understanding of mathematical concepts 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Increased national awareness of links between handwork and cognition; eg see our invitation to consult for the British Museum; featuring at London Design Week and in Crafts Magazine; national and international invitations to lead workshops on our methods (eg Educere/Educare (University of Oxford); Does Design Care? (Tokyo); Stitching Together Network. 
 
Title 6. Handwork methods for working with people living with dementia and with An Lanntair on Lewis 
Description 6. Our methods developed through working with An Lanntair on Lewis with people living with dementia, has been to use basketwork, twining, net-mending and weaving, along with artefacts and photos to explore 'hand-memories'. The basis of this is that handwork learned when young, such as net-mending or basketry twining, may be recalled when older, even when a person's memory is less good or they are not even able to speak. In such cases, elders with dementia have been known to begin speaking again, even after months of no communication. In telling us their stories, they also contribute their knowledge to our research and events associated with the project and become significant contributors. i) Hand memory work. Working with a Gaelic speaker, using simple hand skills from people's pasts, along with tactile work with materials, photo images, artefacts and simple basketry techniques such as twining to elicit memories and stories. ii) Learning from elders. Our partners on Lewis have since built on our work, using creels and stories to learn new skills from elders. For example, in the past, it was fairly usual for women carrying peats in creels to knit as they walked. By referencing these memories, An Lanntair have been learning traditional sock-making from elders with dementia, enabling the value of their memories to be realised. iii) Memory boxes. Memory boxes are also being developed to link to the hand memory work. iv) Intergenerational sessions. Young people doing, for example, rope making for maths work, or a 'From plant to basket' project using marram grass are invited to show this work to elders and also learn from them. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Enhanced interaction with community members living with dementia; enhanced community value of elders with dementia; gathering of new data from elders with dementia. 
 
Title 7. Working methods for conducting research and rehabilitation with people with acquired brain injury and stroke 
Description 7. Recovery. With Raigmore Hospital Stroke Recovery Unit, we have developed new ways to gather data qualitatively while at the same time conducting a programme using practically basketry to assist patients on recovering both mobility and cognitive function. Methods include: i) Practitioners keep diaries or journals documenting each session. This has the important result of gathering data from one situation from a variety of perspectives (eg Occupational therapist, basket-maker, consultant and anthropologists). ii) Use of film as a means of observing the impact of our research iii) Working with occupational therapists, basket-makers and consultants together to devise practical exercises for brain injury recovery. iv) We have compiled a handbook for Headway volunteers to do this work with patients in the future v) Techniques for recovery we have devised include: use of verbal instruction; showing by example; how to breakdown learning sequences; use of visual aids; use of reflection and allowing patient to lead the process; change of scale. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Enhanced practical and journal-led qualitative research methods to study the value of hand-work in recovery work with people with acquired brain injury or stroke; enhanced hand-work methods for recovery when working with people with acquired brain injury or stroke; publication of on-line hand book for volunteers doing this work with Headway. 
 
Description Woven Communities the warp and the Weft 
Organisation National Museums Scotland
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution I was the lead applicant researching into skill, heritage, cognition and embodied knowledge through handwork/basketry practice. We provided basket-makers to contribute new knowledge about their basketry collections. We introduced basketry practice and provided basket-makers for public workshops to elicit memories in Reminiscence days with the Scottish Women's Rural Institute and the general public. We collated all information and images gathered about their collections with the assistant of student interns for the use of the museum.
Collaborator Contribution They provided access to facilities, collections, and staff time. They contributed additional innovative ideas for our collaborative research. They provided space and resources for all our public engagement events.
Impact Before current project, for which the contributions in kind refer, previous access to collections and staff time, leading to publications, website, symposium, see relevant section. During research project outputs included Reminiscence day with Scottish Women's Rural Institute
Start Year 2012
 
Description Woven Communities the warp and the weft 
Organisation Highland Folk Museum
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Lead applicant researching into skill, heritage, cognition and embodied knowledge through handwork/basketry practice. We provided basketmakers to contribute new knowledge about their basketry collections. Our Woven Communities website enabled their interns to update the information on their basketry collection subsequent to the project. We introduced basketry practice and provided basketmakers for public workshops as a way to elicit memories in Heritage Action days. We provided basketmakers to work with local elders and Travellers on Reminiscence Days. Through post-project fund-raising and inter-project collaboration, we enabled artefacts from their collection to return to their source communities on loan for the Cuimhne Exhibition.
Collaborator Contribution They provided access to collections, facilities, and contact with local Travellers Groups and staff and volunteers to assist us. They extended our collaborative activities beyond the length of the research project by using our Woven Communities website with interns to update the information on their basketry collection subsequent to the project. They loaned their artefacts to An Lanntair for the Cuimhne/Memory Exhibition
Impact Before current project to which contributions in kind refer: publications, symposium and website, see relevant section. During project they provided facilities for: public engagement event with Scottish Travellers Group, 2 Heritage Action Days making creels and Traveller brushes at the museum. Public workshop at the museum exploring Traveller frame baskets. Contribution to Cuimhne (Memory): Exhibition and Conference at An Lanntair Gallery and Arts Centre, Lewis. April 2018
Start Year 2012
 
Description Woven Communities: the warp and the weft 
Organisation An Lanntair
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution - Lead applicant researching into hand-memory work and embodied knowledge through handwork/basketry practice with elders living with dementia on Uist and Lewis. - We have introduced basketry practice to the hand-memory work of An Lanntair and its sister organisation, Arora, contributing to their being awarded the Best Dementia friendly community project in 2016. - Our work has included sensory workshops, bringing in materials (including local marram grass/murrain), artefacts and photographs to encourage elders to share their memories and past skills, held in the hands and recalled by renewed practice. - We have led intergenerational relationships with school children and elders linked to these skills. - We have raised funding towards a collaborative exhibition and symposium, Cuimhne (Memory), which brought regional artefacts, including a St Kilda puffin snare, back to the Hebrides from the Highland Folk Museum Collection for the exhibition, and given a keynote lecture at the event. - Also brought in cross-links with other partners including Highland Folk Museum and Knowing from the Inside Project University of Aberdeen.
Collaborator Contribution They provided access to local knowledge and local design project with people living with dementia. They provided links with local organisations, including schools and care homes. They contributed additional innovative ideas for our collaborative research. They extended our collaborative activities beyond the length of the research project by continuing this work with elders and local basketmakers. They helped link us with local arts organisations such as Taigh Chearsabagh Museum and Arts Centre on Uist where we were able to hold an open evening about our collaborative work and Lewis Museum. They organised, hosted, fundraised and collaborated with us on Cuimhne/Memory events at An Lanntair.
Impact 'From plant to basket' event at local school. Hand-memory sessions at care homes on the Uists. Intergenerational events between schools and carehomes Public engagement event with Kildonan Comann Eachdraidh (History Society). Public lecture, Taigh Chearsabagh Museum and Arts Centre, North Uist. 2016. Cuimhne (Memory): Exhibition and Conference at An Lanntair Gallery and Arts Centre, Lewis. April 2018. An Lanntair/Arora contribution to Woven Communties the Warp and the Weft Symposium, St Andrews. January 2017.
Start Year 2016
 
Description Woven Communities: the warp and the weft 
Organisation Basketry and Beyond
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Basketry and Beyond are a basketmaking and basketry research organisation comprising Hilary Burns and Geraldine Jones. In this collaboration, we provided: Links with Anthropology and Geometry research group Fund-raised fees to support our collaboration. Participation in Woven Communities: Making, Memory and Mind symposium January 2017.
Collaborator Contribution Links with University of Hertfordshire Everyday Lives in War: Basketry Then and Now project. Skills, materials and innovative ideas for three Basketry and Geometry sessions
Impact Contribution by Hilary Burns to Woven Communities: Making, Memory and Mind symposium January 2017 (to be included in The Material Culture of Basketry) Contribution by Geraldine Jones to Woven Communities: Making, Memory and Mind symposium January 2017 (to be included in The Material Culture of Basketry)
Start Year 2016
 
Description Woven Communities: the warp and the weft 
Organisation Manchester Metropolitan University
Department School of Healthcare Science
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We have been working with Manchester Metropolitan University, Department of Education since 2017 when we received the University of St Andrews KE and Impact Fund award. This was to develop our AHRC Woven Communities the Warp and the Weft Research Project into the Woven Communities Braided Practices project in order to focus on the impact of our work with Maths, Memory and Recovery. The project was inspired by links made at the Woven Communities: Memory, Making and Mind Symposium, January 2017, the KFI Gathering, May 2017, and links with other partners, including Basketry and Beyond, which pointed to collaboration . We brought finance from this award and from the University of Aberdeen KFI Project to the collaboration. This enabled us to pay two basketmakers Basketmaking sessions with Basketry and Beyond to explore the gestural elements of mathematical cognition with the Anthropology and Geometry Research group. We provided inks with the Anthropology and Geometry Research Group. We set up the process and working methods to explore the relevance of basketry moves for mathematical cognition. We provided documentation of the process
Collaborator Contribution Mathematical knowledge and understanding to explore links between basketry and maths Innovative ideas for practorium sessions Links with postgraduate students whose work was relevant to our project
Impact Paper: 'Forces in Translation' given at University of Manchester inaugural meeting of Anthropology and Geometry Research Group (April 2017) Basketry Practorium at University of Aberdeen for second session of Anthropology and Geometry Research group, hosted by KFI project. Tinkering with Curves: a public event and basketry practorium exploring Basket-weaving in relation to curvature at the Byre Theatre, University of St Andrews (April 2019). 3rd session of Anthropology and Geometry Research group A working paper on the research and its links to the other areas of our research in process)
Start Year 2017
 
Description Woven Communities: the warp and the weft 
Organisation Raigmore Hospital
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Hospitals 
PI Contribution We have been working at the Stroke Recovery Unit at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, Scotland, since 2017 when we received the University of St Andrews KE and Impact Fund award. This was to develop our AHRC Woven Communities the Warp and the Weft Research Project into the Woven Communities Braided Practices project in order to focus on the impact of our work with Maths, Memory and Recovery. The project was inspired by links made at the Woven Communities: Memory, Making and Mind Symposium, January 2017 where a consultant from the hospital saw the research we had been doing into recovery with Basketry and Beyond and the University of Hertfordshire. We brought finance from this award and from the University of Aberdeen KFI Project to the collaboration. This enabled us to pay two basketmakers (who are also occupational therapists and consultants) to trial basketry moves with people with acquired brain injury and stroke at the unit to explore the benefits of embodied basketry skills for for brain injury. At the same time, we were able to document this process in qualitative and quantitative ways to explore the benefits of this work. we are now working on a paper to publicise our work, and also on a handbook for Headway, a charity who work with people with acquired brain injury and stroke.
Collaborator Contribution The consultant at the Unit, Dr Ashish Macaden, is a co-researcher and he has selected patients for us to work with, provided a room and other facilities at the hospital, negotiated with hospital authorities to enable us to work there. he has done all the relevant hospital and NGS administration. He also enabled to build on a volunteer project set up by consultant Tim Palmer which was an outcome of the Woven Communities project and symposium. Ashish has taken an overview of our work and contributed his knowledge, advice and expertise at every step.
Impact Handbook for Headway (Charity for working with people with acquired brain injury and stroke) in preparation Academic Paper for Medical journal (in process). Academic paper for Anthropological journal (in process). Link made with Headway by Dr Tim Palmer to provide volunteers to carry on the work. 3 Presentations by Dr Bunn on the project: 1. at the Textile Society of America bi-annual conference (September 2018); 2. the Basketmakers Association AGM with the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers at the Art Workers Guild, London (October 2018); 3. Departmental Seminar at the University of St Andrews November 2018 4 presentations given by Dr Palmer on the project: 1. the Basketmakers Association AGM with the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers (October 2018); 2. Scottish Basketmakers Association Autumn Gathering October 2018; 3 Raigmore Hospital Audit Afternoon February 2019; 4. to be given to the Scottish Association of Rehabilitation Physicians AGM at Raigmore Hospital, (June 29th 2019) 1 display on the project at the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers Trade Fair at the Guildhall, London February 2019.
Start Year 2017
 
Description Woven Communities: the warp and the weft 
Organisation Scottish Basketmakers Circle
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Lead applicant on Woven Communities research project into social memory, heritage, cognition and design thinking through basketry craft practice. I developed links with all other partners for our collaboration, including regional museums and national bodies. I organised, facilitated, fundraised and administered all events. I contributed scholarly input and historical knowledge for the research to balance with their craft input and knowledge.
Collaborator Contribution They provide the hand-skills, which formed a core element of our methodology. Their autodidactic research provided the interdisciplinary context and knowledge of archives and museum collections. They provided access to their archive of images of Scottish baskets During the project, they provided input to our research methodology and co-constructed events with other partners, including An Lanntair, Scottish Fisheries Museum, National Museums of Scotland, Highland Folk Museum and Shetland Museum.
Impact Before current project to which contributions in kind refer: publications, website, symposium, exhibition; see relevant section. For this funded project, outputs include collaborative public engagement events with all our partner museums, including: Skills Gatherings (intangible Cultural Heritage events), workshops, Netting Bee, and Reminiscence Events at the Scottish Fisheries Museum; workshops at The Museum of Scottish Rural Life; Heritage Action Days and Reminiscence Events at the Highland Folk Museum; public lectures with local arts centres and Comann Eachdraidh (History Societies), hand-memory sessions in care homes, intergenerational workshops with schools and care homes, 'From plant to basket' event, contributions to Cuimhne/memory Symposium and Exhibition with An Lanntair; and intergenerational events with Shetland Museum. local elders and schools across the islands. They also contributed to lectures and led hands-on sessions at the Woven Communities: the Warp and the Weft Symposium, January 2017.
Start Year 2010
 
Description Woven Communities: the warp and the weft 
Organisation Shetland Museum and Archives
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Lead applicant researching into hand-memory work and embodied knowledge through handwork/basketry practice with young people and elders on Shetland. We introduced basketry practice as a way to elicit memories in heritage sessions in schools working with museum collections and local elders We also explored new and repurposed materials (such as 'ghost' fishing nets) for making traditional basketry forms.
Collaborator Contribution They provided access to collections, archives, staff time. They also provided the links with local schools and history societies. They contributed additional innovative ideas for our collaborative research. They participated in all public engagement events.
Impact Before current project, to which contributions in kind refer: publications, symposium, website see relevant section. They contributed a paper to Woven Communities: the Warp and the Weft Symposium, St Andrews. January 2017.
Start Year 2012
 
Description Woven Communities: the warp and the weft 
Organisation University of Aberdeen
Department Department of Economics
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution This collaboration was with the University of Aberdeen, Department of Social Anthropology, Knowing from the Inside Project (KFI) (ERC funded). We provided: Practical sensory workshops linked to the craft/skill theme of their research at University of Aberdeen. Practical activities for researchers in their KFI Kitchen event, June 2016 Access to basket-makers for their Anthropology and Geometry event April 2017. Access to our partners, especially the SBC, An Lanntair and Basketry and Beyond.
Collaborator Contribution Some funding for our research with An Lanntair The opportunity and funding to present our project at the Department of Education, University of Aarhus, Copenhagen, December 2016 Space to film our film with Dr Catherine Paterson on World War 1 Occupational Therapy and Rehabilitation, June/July 2017 (beyond the lifespan of the project) Keynote speech at Cuimhne (beyond the lifespan of the project) Funding beyond this project for our research into Basketry and Geometry(beyond the lifespan of the project)
Impact KFI contributions to Woven Communities: Making , Memory and Mind symposium January 2017 Exhibit at Making and Mending Baskets and People Duncan Rice Library, Aberdeen, May 2017 (ie beyond the lifetime of the project) Public engagement activities at Hall of Bedlam event, University of Aberdeen, May 2017 (ie beyond the lifespan of the project); Several further public engagement outcomes linked to further funding ie beyond the lifespan of the project in 2018 (including Basketry and Geometry event at University of Aberdeen, Cuimhne, Tinkering with Curves).
Start Year 2014
 
Description Woven Communities: the warp and the weft (2016 - Still Active) 
Organisation University of Hertfordshire
Department Science and Technology Research Institute (STRI) Hertfordshire
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Coordination of research about the use of occupational therapy in World War 1 with basket-maker Tim Palmer and occupational therapist from Robert Gordon University, Dr Catherine Paterson (author of Opportunities not Prescriptions) for use on their Everyday Lives in War website. Organisation, including sourcing access to a venue through our 7th partner KFI, for filming the video Basketry and Therapy for their Everyday Lives in War: Basketry Then and Now website Participate in Woven Communities: Making , Memory and Mind symposium January 2017.
Collaborator Contribution Funding to pay Tim Palmer to research basketry and rehabilitation, coordinated by Woven Communities Film crew and filming of Catherine Paterson and the team in Basketry and Therapy film.
Impact Contribution by Hilary Burns to Woven Communities: Making , Memory and Mind symposium January 2017 (to be included in The Material Culture of Basketry) Film: Basketry and Therapy https://everydaylivesinwar.herts.ac.uk/films/ Web article by Stephanie Bunn: Basketry as occupational therapy Web article by Tim Palmer: Basketry and rehabilitation https://everydaylivesinwar.herts.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Basketmaking-and-rehabilitation-Tim-Palmer.pdf
Start Year 2016
 
Description Woven communities: the warp and the weft 
Organisation Scottish Fisheries Museum
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution I was the lead applicant researching into skill, heritage, cognition and embodied knowledge through handwork/basketry practice. We provided basketmakers to contribute new knowledge about their basketry collections. We introduced basketry practice and provided basketmakers for public workshops to elicit memories in Reminiscence days. We provided basketmakers to work with retired fishermen, the public and students during Netting Bees. We found experts to participate in the Skills Gathering event, to discover the forgotten skills and Intangible Cultural Heritage in baskets in their collection.
Collaborator Contribution They provided access to facilities, collections, volunteers and staff time. They contributed additional innovative ideas for our collaborative research and helped with publicity. They contributed by linking us with their extensive network and community of interested public. They provided space and resources for all our public engagement events. They co-curated the exhibition Woven Communities: a Fabric of Society during the project.
Impact Before current project to which contributions in kind refer: publications; website, symposium, see relevant section. During research project outputs included: Public workshop into fender making; Netting Bees with students from University of St Andrews and general public; 'Skills Gathering' event exploring Intangible Cultural Heritage in basketry artefacts with local expert basketmakers; Reminiscence days with retired fishermen, basketmakers, and the public; Exhibition, Woven Communities: a Fabric of Society, September - December 2016; They contributed a paper to Woven Communities: the Warp and the Weft Symposium, St Andrews. January 2017; Public Lecture at the Museum: Woven Communities, February 2017
Start Year 2012
 
Description 'Basketry, memory and skill': University of Nottingham Trent Department of Design (Departmental Lecture, June 2017) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Basketry, memory and skill: University of Nottingham Trent Department of Design (Departmental Lecture, June 2017). 20 staff and students attended this departmental lecture which sparked questions and a discussion afterwards. The department reported increased skill in the subject afterwards.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description 'Basketry, memory and skillfullness', Keynote lecture for the 'Weaving Basketry and Robots' seminar at the University of Aarhus Education and Robotics Research group, (June 2017) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 'Basketry, Memory and Skill', was a public keynote lecture for the 'Weaving Basketry and Robots' seminar at the University of Aarhus Education and Robotics Research group, June 2017. This was a seminar which grew out of the dialogue with Professor Hasse which we had begun in December 2015 when I had visited her department as part of the KFI research project. The research group leader, Professor Hasse had then come to present a paper at the 'Woven Communities: Making, Memory and Mind' symposium (2017) and had invited me for a return visit to her department for an interdisciplinary session on 'Weaving Basketry and Robots'. 20 people attended. The discussion was fascinating, and we explored the relationship between weaving and developing robotics, a dialogue which we are continuing.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description 'Woven Communities' Scottish Basketmakers' Circle Autumn Gathering (public lecture October 2016) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact This was a lecture given to Scottish Basketmakers Circle Autumn Gathering, October 2016. About 50 people attended. The whole group is very supportive of the project with lots of suggestions for future ways to develop.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description 'Woven Communities: Making, Memory and Mind' (Symposium 2: January 2017, University of St Andrews) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 'Woven Communities: Making, Memory and Mind' (Symposium 2) was held on January 2017, at the University of St Andrews. Core themes included: Materials; Basketry and Maths, Heritage and Memory; Rehabilitation; Creativity and Innovation. This was an extremely successful event which combined discussion with practice. One outcome is the book, 'The Material Culture of Basketry' commissioned by Bloomsbury Press, which will include several papers by presenters, including Professor Hasse from Aarhus, Professor Ingold, from Aberdeen, and Dr Walpole, along with presenters from the first Woven Communities symposium, August 2012, including Professor Wendrich from UCLA. Over 50 people attended. Several new links and projects also developed through connections made at the symposium, including the recent research into basketry and recovery from acquired brain injury and stroke through the Woven Communities Braided Recovery project at the Stroke Recovery Unit, Raigmore Hospital, Inverness.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Anthropology and Geometry Research group: Public lecture 'Forces in Translation: on Basketry and Geometry'. (University of Manchester, April 2017) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Public lecture 'Forces in Translation: on Basketry and Geometry' for the Anthropology and Geometry Research group (University of Manchester, April 2017). I co-founded this interdisciplinary research group at this inaugural session in Manchester, along with Professor Ingold and Dr Lucas, both from the KFI Project. I brought my experience of basketry and geometry to the group, and the outcome was two subsequent sessions, one at a KFI event (January 2018) and one Tinkering with Curves (April 2018), see above. 40 people attended this event which prompted requests for further development of the themes raised. We are continuing to seek funding to support this research further.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description British Museum C-Dare Lecture 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact presentation on working methodology to other practtitoners and media
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Continued to work with basket-makers in museum collections to develop better curatorial and public understanding of collections (ie knowledge exchange March -December 2016) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Continued to work with basket-makers in museum collections to develop better curatorial and public understanding of collections (ie knowledge exchange March -December 2016)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Cuimhne/Memory Exhibition and Symposium, at An Lanntair Arts Centre, Lewis, from 21st April 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was a collaborative exhibition and symposium with our partners An Lanntair on Lewis. It was funded by the Woven Communities Braided Practices element of the St Andrews KE and Impact fund Award. The aim of the exhibition was to invite the local population and people across the UK to see the work of An Lanntair and ourselves in our work on memory with people living with dementia on the Hebrides. Woven Communities contributed our knowledge of Lewis-related artefacts to the exhibition and, supported by the St Andrews KE and Impact fund, we brought over artefacts from St Kilda, Lewis and Uist from the Highland Folk Museum (another partner) for the exhibition. These included a puffin snare and a ciosan meal measure. We also introduced 2 basketmakers from Woven Communities, Dawn Susan and Caroline Dear, to lead workshops and public engagement events during the symposium on 'memory snares'.
The symposium was on and about work with people living with dementia, who also participated and contributed to the event. For the symposium, I, as PI, gave a keynote speech on our work with An Lanntair on hand memories. We also linked Professor Ingold from the KFI project in Aberdeen with An Lanntair and he gave a second keynote speech on memory. Particpants with dementia said they thought our work on hand memories was both important and helpful.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Display on the Woven Communities project, and our work with heritage and recovery at the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers' 450th anniversary Trade Fair at the Guildhall, London. {February 2019}. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Display on the Woven Communities project, and their work with heritage and recovery at the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers Annual Trade Fair at the Guildhall, London February 2019.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Led practical intergenerational sessions 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Led practical intergenerational sessions, developing new skills, material knowledge, and memories with children in schools, through working with contemporary basketry artists and engaging with elders who are communicating basketry's relevance for the past (Shetland, Uist). This research process has been so successful, that we consider we have developed a whole new methodology and approach to gathering research material collaboratively through our methods of public engagement in craft through practice. (September -November 2016)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Lewis care homes and Lewis Museum, public workshops November 2016 to January 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Lewis care homes and Lewis Museum, public workshops November 2016 to January 2017. These were events initiated by our partners Arora/An Lanntair with basketmakers, people in care homes and the Lewis Museum following our work with An Lanntair in Uist.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014,2017
 
Description Making and Mending Fishing and People: Exhibition at the Duncan Rice Library, University of Aberdeen, from April-August 2017. Part of the Unfinishing of Things exhibition 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Part of The Unfinishing of Thing KFI exhibition, Duncan Rice Library, University of Aberdeen May to August 2017
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Patient group workshops at Raigmore Hospital Stroke Recovery Unit (2017-2-19) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Patients, carers and/or patient groups
Results and Impact We have been working at the Stroke Recovery Unit at Raigmore Hospital since 2017 when we received the University of St Andrews KE and Impact Fund award. This was to develop our AHRC Woven Communities the Warp and the Weft Research Project into the Woven Communities Braided Practices project in order to focus on the impact of our work with Maths, Memory and Recovery. The project was inspired by links made at the Woven Communities: Memory, Making and Mind Symposium, January 2017 where a consultant from the hospital (Dr Tim Palmer) saw the research we had been doing into recovery with Basketry and Beyond and the University of Hertfordshire and began to develop a volunteer project to explore our methods with patients at the hospital. The groups were small, just 2 or three and along with one basketmaker and a filmmaker, we worked with each group for 10 sessions.
We worked with two basketmakers (who are also occupational therapists and consultants) and with people with acquired brain injury and stroke at the Unit to trial the benefits of embodied basketry skills for for brain injury. At the same time, we were able to document this process in qualitative and quantitative ways to explore the benefits of this work. This engagement activity showed very positive results with patients reporting benefits. While at this stage it is a small scale project, we see it as both having had specific patient benefits, an impact on other staff who thought our work was very positive and with the support of the consultant/basketmaker, Tim Palmer who initiated the project, it will have a future legacy.
The group is now linking with Headway, a charity for work with people with acquired brain injury and stroke to gather volunteers to continue the project. We are also working on a handbook for Headway volunteers to use.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Public lectures: What's in a Scottish basket? and Improvement or Relief: Basketmaking with Stroke Patients at Raigmore Hospital Inverness, for the Basketmakers Association and Worshipful Company of Basketmakers, Artist Workers Guild, London. (October 2018) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Two public lectures: 'What's in a Scottish basket?' (by Dr Bunn, the PI), and 'Improvement or Relief: Basketmaking with Stroke Patients at Raigmore Hospital Inverness', by (Dr Palmer, the consultant and basketmaker at Raigmore Hospital), for the Basketmakers Association and Worshipful Company of Basketmakers AGM, at the Artist Workers Guild, London. These lectures took place at the most prestigious annual basketry event of the year and to leading members of both societies. There is a possibility that, through meetings made at this event, we can make contact with the All-Parliamentary Sub-Committee for Craft, about our research about the significance of our research for cognition.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Public workshops: University of Aberdeen Annual Public Festival at Hall of Bedlam (May 2017) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Public workshops: University of Aberdeen Annual Public Festival at Hall of Bedlam (May 2017) linked to Making and Mending Baskets and People Exhibit at Duncan Rice Library.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Sacred Heart Care Home, South Uist, Trianaid Care Home, North Uist, Eochar Primary School (Sgoil an Iochdair), South Uist (public engagement events, June and November 2016 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Patients, carers and/or patient groups
Results and Impact At Sacred Heart Care Home, South Uist, Trianaid Care Home, North Uist, and Eochar Primary School (Sgoil an Iochdair), South Uist we conducted a series of intergenerational engagement events with people with dementia and school children between June and November 2016. We included about 100 adults and children in our project. We did basketwork with elders which brought out hand memories of the past to share. We did similar work in the school, which brought the local environment and its former uses to the attention of the children and enabled them to explore significant technical properties of local materials and handmade rope and braids. Both groups came together in a very inspiring event and Sacred Heart Care Home. Many groups of elders gave u their time and knowledge. Everyone felt of value and valued the skills we shared.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Scottish Fisheries Museum (public lecture February 2017) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Scottish Fisheries Museum (public lecture February 2017). This was a follow-on from the 'Woven Communities: a Fabric of Society' exhibition. 30 people attended and brought many questions and also information to a discussion about East-Coast fishing.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Shetland Museum and Shetland Schools intergenerational workshops with elders and museum professionals 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Three Shetland schools were involved in the project which entailed intergenerational workshops with community elders and museum professionals, (September to November 2016). Artist Lois Walpole and local basketmaker Ewen Balfour led the events which focussed on materials: local rush and black oat straw and local recycled fishing nets and ropes, aiming to make the connection between past and present practices and artefacts in the museum collection. This brought up a great deal of discussion about family histories with fishing; use of local materials and local ecology; local knowledge and the local museum collection.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Stitching Together: collaborative research through textiles 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Forum for scholars and policy makers working collaboratively with textiles
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Taigh Chearsabhagh, North Uist (Public lecture May 2016) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Taigh Chearsabhagh, North Uist (Public lecture May 2016). About 50 people attended and asked about the project, and several contributed knowledge, stories and information, inviting us to their homes.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Textile practice and mathematical learning session at Educere?Educare Event, University of Oxford. (November 2017) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was a public workshop to show and trial our educational and research methodology to professional educators for the Educere/Educare Group at the University of Oxford.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Tinkering with Curves: Basketry and Geometry event at the Byre Theatre, University of St Andrews, April 16-17 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 60 participants attended this two day 'practorium' which explored experimentally the relationship between the gestural moves of basketwork and mathematical cognition on the themes of 'curves'. Key leaders of the session were Dr Stephanie Bunn from St Andrews University and Professor Ricardo Nemirovsky from Manchester Metropolitan University Department of Education. We have had great interest in this event and are planning future collaboration. Participants came from the UK and Europe (France, Spain). The event was partly supported by the University of St Andrews KE and Impact Fund as a part of the Woven Communities Braided practices project, and partly by the University of Aberdeen Knowing from the Inside Project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Two presentations at Raigmore Hospital to Scottish Physicians 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact These two presentations are to be given by Dr Palmer about the stroke and rehabilitation work done with Woven Communities at Raigmore Hospital Stroke and Recovery Unit, at 1. Raigmore Hospital Audit Afternoon February 2019; 2. the Scottish Association of Rehabilitation Physicians AGM at Raigmore Hospital, (June 29th 2019)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description University of Hertfordshire, who approached us 2016 to participate in their Everyday Lives at War (WW1): Basketry Then and Now Project. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact In 2016 we developed work with a further new partner, the University of Hertfordshire, who approached us to participate in their Everyday Lives at War (WW1) Basketry Then and Now project. Their concerns matched our own research focus into the therapeutic uses of basketry in rehabilitation and development of cognition. Linked to this, members of our group have worked with the Scottish War Blinded and members of Robert Gordon University to explore the relevance of basketry for rehabilitation. (September-October 2016, March-September 2017). we worked with Dr Catherine Paterson, founder of the Occupational Therapy Department at Robert Gordon University, basketmaker Tim palmer and the University of Hertfordshire to make a film on Basketry and Therapy which is hosted on their website, and linked to the Woven Communities website
Outcomes have included:
Contribution by Hilary Burns to Woven Communities: Making, Memory and Mind symposium January 2017 (to be included in The Material Culture of Basketry)
Film: Basketry and Therapy https://everydaylivesinwar.herts.ac.uk/films/
Web article by Stephanie Bunn: Basketry as occupational therapy https://everydaylivesinwar.herts.ac.uk/
Web article by Tim Palmer: Basketry and rehabilitation https://everydaylivesinwar.herts.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Basketmaking-and-rehabilitation-Tim-Palmer.pdf
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016,2017
URL https://everydaylivesinwar.herts.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Basketry-as-Occupational-Therapy-S...
 
Description Used hand skills with elders in care homes 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Patients, carers and/or patient groups
Results and Impact Used hand skills with elders in care homes to gather their social memories evoked by basketry and net-making sessions (Uist and Lewis). June, November 2016 public engagement. An important methodology which draws on the capacity of working with the hands to elicit memories with elders.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Work of Woven Communities: Making, Memory and Mind showcased on AHRC exhibit at London Design Week, 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact We were invited By Professor Paul Rogers of the University of Lancaster to present our work as a part of the AHRC exhibit at London Design Week. We contributed images and artefacts to this event.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Worked practically with The Scottish Fisheries Museum to develop 'Skills Gatherings' sessions 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Worked practically with the Scottish Fisheries Museum, Anstruther and with professional Scottish basketmakers through 'Skills Gatherings' sessions to uncover the lost skills and intangible cultural heritage embedded in artefacts in their collections (Scottish Fisheries Museum) October 2016 knowledge exchange, public engagement.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Working with the public across Scotland 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Working with the public across Scotland, we conducted public engagement events and workshops, including: reminiscence workshops with Traveller groups August 2016, the SWRI July 2016, retired fishermen August 2016; Heritage Action Days; and practical basketry sessions and demonstrations. Through these practical workshops, knowledge exchange events and public engagement sessions, we gathered new memories and information about Scottish basketry heritage and its place in Scottish social life, while at the same time garnered interest in our project and inspired people to visit museum collections to learn more about their pasts. These events took place at Highland Folk Museum; Scottish Museum of Rural Life; and the Scottish Fisheries Museum, Anstruther.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Woven Communities: a Fabric of Society: Exhibition Scottish Fisheries Museum (September to October 2016) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact This was a co-curated exhibition with the Scottish Fisheries Museum and Woven Communities held at Scottish Fisheries Museum (September to October 2016). During the exhibition, Woven Communities led two linked public engagement events. The first was a Skills Gathering, where expert Scottish basketmakers chose examples of baskets from the museum's collections which were no longer made. They renewed these baskets, drawing on their own skills and expertise. This was an extremely valuable exercise in exploring Intangible Cultural Heritage. The second was a series of Netting Bees, where we learned net-mending and making skills from retired fishermen and led public events with 20 local people and 30 St Andrews University Undergraduates in net-mending. This sparked discussion with the public and students about the level of hand-skills required to be a fisherman.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016