Clean Break: Women, Theatre, Organisation and the Criminal Justice System
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen Mary University of London
Department Name: Drama
Abstract
Clean Break was established in 1979 by two women serving sentences in HMP Askham Grange. Over the past four decades, Clean Break has become an internationally recognised theatre, education and advocacy organisation that puts the stories of women with experience of the criminal justice system centre stage.
Clean Break has had distinctive phases of organisational practice. From 1979-1986, it was a collective of women making theatre informed by their experience of incarceration. From 1986-1996, Clean Break became an Arts Council England funded organisation with a hierarchical management structure, commissioning arts professionals to develop work for and about women with experience of prison. For the following two decades, 1997-2017, Clean Break established a women-only purpose-built theatre and education centre in Kentish Town, London, pioneering a unique education programme for women with experience of the criminal justice system. In 2018, after considerable consultation with stakeholders and partners, Clean Break embarked on a new phase of organisational practice, with a less hierarchical management structure, explicitly integrating women who have had experience of the criminal justice system ('Members') across all areas of its practice. Clean Break's working organisational model is highly unusual, with leadership management that has embedded processes of consultation and engagement with all stakeholders. Centrally, Clean Break has largely been run for the last 40 years by women for women (although not explicitly 'as' a feminist organisation). Further, in workplace literature terms, it uses an unconventional form, theatre-making, to engage with employers, policy makers, the criminal justice system and arts organisations. Whilst there is industry acknowledgement of the significant impact of the company's distinctive leadership and contribution within theatre and criminal justice (NPC, Tonic Award 2018), there has been limited academic engagement with Clean Break in Theatre and Performance Studies (Walsh, McAvinchey), Criminology (Merrill & Frigon). To date, there has been no consideration at all of this work within Employment Relations or Organisation and Management Studies. The upcoming 40th anniversary of the establishment of Clean Break, and its simultaneous change of operating model, provides a critical moment to assess the company's significance and contribution to new understandings across four distinct areas of focus: contemporary British theatre; feminist organisational practices and implications for employment relations and management studies; women's gendered experience of the criminal justice system; and popular criminology and wider public engagement with women, crime and social justice.
The research will be carried out through:
- Interviews with Clean Break staff and Members, past and present; artists (writers, directors, lighting designers, actors); stakeholders in theatre, the women's sector, criminal justice and organisations which have employed Clean Break Members.
- Archival research. Clean Break has records from 1979. The V&A holds ACE materials from 1980s. CB associates have agreed to share personal archival material.
- A regional tour of the play Sweatbox (Chloe Moss), performed by 3 Clean Break Members in a decommissioned prison van, a catalyst for public engagement through after-show discussions and workshops with 10 university partners.
- Observation of organisational practices e.g. Board meetings, senior management meetings, meetings with partners in theatre, criminal justice, HE and women's services, rehearsals, public events.
Research outcomes will be disseminated through a series of publications, academic symposia, public talks and podcasts with widespread reach and long-term impact, including: a monograph; 3 peer reviewed journal articles; 3 conference papers; an exhibition (developed and toured in two stages); 10 seminars; 1 conference; 6 podcasts; project website.
Clean Break has had distinctive phases of organisational practice. From 1979-1986, it was a collective of women making theatre informed by their experience of incarceration. From 1986-1996, Clean Break became an Arts Council England funded organisation with a hierarchical management structure, commissioning arts professionals to develop work for and about women with experience of prison. For the following two decades, 1997-2017, Clean Break established a women-only purpose-built theatre and education centre in Kentish Town, London, pioneering a unique education programme for women with experience of the criminal justice system. In 2018, after considerable consultation with stakeholders and partners, Clean Break embarked on a new phase of organisational practice, with a less hierarchical management structure, explicitly integrating women who have had experience of the criminal justice system ('Members') across all areas of its practice. Clean Break's working organisational model is highly unusual, with leadership management that has embedded processes of consultation and engagement with all stakeholders. Centrally, Clean Break has largely been run for the last 40 years by women for women (although not explicitly 'as' a feminist organisation). Further, in workplace literature terms, it uses an unconventional form, theatre-making, to engage with employers, policy makers, the criminal justice system and arts organisations. Whilst there is industry acknowledgement of the significant impact of the company's distinctive leadership and contribution within theatre and criminal justice (NPC, Tonic Award 2018), there has been limited academic engagement with Clean Break in Theatre and Performance Studies (Walsh, McAvinchey), Criminology (Merrill & Frigon). To date, there has been no consideration at all of this work within Employment Relations or Organisation and Management Studies. The upcoming 40th anniversary of the establishment of Clean Break, and its simultaneous change of operating model, provides a critical moment to assess the company's significance and contribution to new understandings across four distinct areas of focus: contemporary British theatre; feminist organisational practices and implications for employment relations and management studies; women's gendered experience of the criminal justice system; and popular criminology and wider public engagement with women, crime and social justice.
The research will be carried out through:
- Interviews with Clean Break staff and Members, past and present; artists (writers, directors, lighting designers, actors); stakeholders in theatre, the women's sector, criminal justice and organisations which have employed Clean Break Members.
- Archival research. Clean Break has records from 1979. The V&A holds ACE materials from 1980s. CB associates have agreed to share personal archival material.
- A regional tour of the play Sweatbox (Chloe Moss), performed by 3 Clean Break Members in a decommissioned prison van, a catalyst for public engagement through after-show discussions and workshops with 10 university partners.
- Observation of organisational practices e.g. Board meetings, senior management meetings, meetings with partners in theatre, criminal justice, HE and women's services, rehearsals, public events.
Research outcomes will be disseminated through a series of publications, academic symposia, public talks and podcasts with widespread reach and long-term impact, including: a monograph; 3 peer reviewed journal articles; 3 conference papers; an exhibition (developed and toured in two stages); 10 seminars; 1 conference; 6 podcasts; project website.
Planned Impact
This project will reach a broad range of stakeholders in arts and criminal justice; theatre; prisons, probation and rehabilitation; organisations in the voluntary sector, supporting women with experience of the criminal justice system or those considered at risk of entering it; a wider public audience.
1. Organisations and individuals in arts and criminal justice. The National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance (NCJAA) is an Arts Council England (ACE) funded national advocacy organisation with over 900 members including prisons, health agencies, arts and voluntary sector organisations as well as individual artists, academics and professionals who work in arts and criminal justice contexts (prisons, probation, resettlement). The NCJAA is a project partner, committed to supporting the research and the dissemination of its findings across its membership. The NCJAA is managed by Clinks, an umbrella organisation that supports voluntary and community sector groups working with offenders and information about NCJAA events/research/training is shared with Clinks members through its newsletter. NCJAA will disseminate findings through its website and the NCJAA and Clinks newsletters, which reach 3700 and 12,000 recipients respectively.
2. Policy makers in arts and criminal justice. The NCJAA also has a strong relationship with government agencies: the NCJAA Arts Forum is a tri-annual meeting chaired by the Ministry of Justice where the NCJAA provides the vital link between government, policy-makers and practitioners. Other Arts Forum attendees include Arts Council England, the Youth Justice Board, the Department of Business Innovation and Skills and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. As a project partner NCJAA is in an excellent position to support the dissemination of the research findings directly to policy makers. Additionally, Dr Richard Ings at ACE has scoped arts and criminal justice activities nationally, advising on policy making in this area. Dr Ings has worked with the PI on previous research projects and will contribute to seminars across the research programme.
3. The voluntary sector, particularly the women's sector working with women with experience of the criminal justice system or who are at risk of entering it. Women in Prison is the leading national organization that supports women within or at risk of entering the criminal justice system and campaigns for radical change in the justice system. It recently published The Corston Report 10 Years On: How Far Have We Come on the Road to Reform for Women Affected by the Criminal Justice System? (2017) assessing government actions in response to the reports 43 recommendations for women-specific criminal justice reform. As a project partner, Women in Prison will participate in the research and disseminate the findings across its national network of voluntary organisations working in the field.
Three regional training events (Leeds, Warwick and London) will disseminate practical skills and facilitate knowledge exchange with artists and professionals working in criminal justice, community development and the voluntary sector.
4. Theatre Management - we will share the finding the Independent Theatre Council, Equity and Tonic Theatre networks.
5. Women with experience of the criminal justice system will participate in the research and gain further skills, employment and professional networks through it.
6. A wider audience will also have access to the research through public performances of Sweatbox, post-show discussions, the touring exhibition and 6 podcasts, distilling strands of the research activity. These will be advertised on Clean Break's social media averaging 20,000 visits a month to its website, NCJAA, Women in Prison. We will also explore print and broadcast media coverage with BBC radio (we have excellent connections with producers) and through our university communications departments.
1. Organisations and individuals in arts and criminal justice. The National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance (NCJAA) is an Arts Council England (ACE) funded national advocacy organisation with over 900 members including prisons, health agencies, arts and voluntary sector organisations as well as individual artists, academics and professionals who work in arts and criminal justice contexts (prisons, probation, resettlement). The NCJAA is a project partner, committed to supporting the research and the dissemination of its findings across its membership. The NCJAA is managed by Clinks, an umbrella organisation that supports voluntary and community sector groups working with offenders and information about NCJAA events/research/training is shared with Clinks members through its newsletter. NCJAA will disseminate findings through its website and the NCJAA and Clinks newsletters, which reach 3700 and 12,000 recipients respectively.
2. Policy makers in arts and criminal justice. The NCJAA also has a strong relationship with government agencies: the NCJAA Arts Forum is a tri-annual meeting chaired by the Ministry of Justice where the NCJAA provides the vital link between government, policy-makers and practitioners. Other Arts Forum attendees include Arts Council England, the Youth Justice Board, the Department of Business Innovation and Skills and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. As a project partner NCJAA is in an excellent position to support the dissemination of the research findings directly to policy makers. Additionally, Dr Richard Ings at ACE has scoped arts and criminal justice activities nationally, advising on policy making in this area. Dr Ings has worked with the PI on previous research projects and will contribute to seminars across the research programme.
3. The voluntary sector, particularly the women's sector working with women with experience of the criminal justice system or who are at risk of entering it. Women in Prison is the leading national organization that supports women within or at risk of entering the criminal justice system and campaigns for radical change in the justice system. It recently published The Corston Report 10 Years On: How Far Have We Come on the Road to Reform for Women Affected by the Criminal Justice System? (2017) assessing government actions in response to the reports 43 recommendations for women-specific criminal justice reform. As a project partner, Women in Prison will participate in the research and disseminate the findings across its national network of voluntary organisations working in the field.
Three regional training events (Leeds, Warwick and London) will disseminate practical skills and facilitate knowledge exchange with artists and professionals working in criminal justice, community development and the voluntary sector.
4. Theatre Management - we will share the finding the Independent Theatre Council, Equity and Tonic Theatre networks.
5. Women with experience of the criminal justice system will participate in the research and gain further skills, employment and professional networks through it.
6. A wider audience will also have access to the research through public performances of Sweatbox, post-show discussions, the touring exhibition and 6 podcasts, distilling strands of the research activity. These will be advertised on Clean Break's social media averaging 20,000 visits a month to its website, NCJAA, Women in Prison. We will also explore print and broadcast media coverage with BBC radio (we have excellent connections with producers) and through our university communications departments.
Publications
Bartley S.
(2022)
Routledge Companion to Theatre and Young People
Bartley, S.
(2021)
Performance in a Pandemic
Bartley, S.
(2019)
Austerity, Gender and Performance: Conversations with Anna Herrmann and Katherine Chandler
in Contemporary Theatre Review
Dean, D.
(2021)
Art Practice and the Asymmetries of Power at Work
Dean, L.
(2022)
un:mute exhibition catalogue
Greene A
(2022)
Locked up and down: Incarceration, care, and art in a pandemic
in Gender, Work & Organization
Herrmann A
(2020)
The Applied Theatre Reader
McAvinchey C
(2020)
Applied Theatre: Women and the Criminal Justice System
McAvinchey C
(2020)
Performing care
McAvinchey, C
(2021)
Doing Time: Origin Stories, Endurance and the Work of Clean Break Theatre Company
McAvinchey, C
(2021)
Architecture, Site and Space in the work of Clean Break
McAvinchey, C.
(2022)
Power Plays: Clean Break's Organisational and Creative Practices
| Title | 5 Channels and Nothing to See Here 1 |
| Description | Digital collage - retranslated footage from Clean Break production Sweatbox |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Laura Dean is a visual artist and lecturer whose work is informed by social geography, linguistics, and film. Laura has been accompanying and witnessing research processes -archival material, interviews, meetings, public events - responding to the issues raised by them. The work has been a stimulus for productive conversations within the research team both about the research themes and processes as well as expanding our understanding about the nuance and immediacy of visual articulations. It has informed our future planning about the dissemination of the work eg exhibitions, conference papers about working as a researcher in residence. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=13 |
| Title | 5 Channels and Nothing to See Here 2 |
| Description | Digital artwork - retranslated footage from Clean Break production, Sweatbox. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Laura Dean is a visual artist and lecturer whose work is informed by social geography, linguistics, and film. Laura has been accompanying and witnessing research processes -archival material, interviews, meetings, public events - responding to the issues raised by them. The work has been a stimulus for productive conversations within the research team both about the research themes and processes as well as expanding our understanding about the nuance and immediacy of visual articulations. It has informed our future planning about the dissemination of the work eg exhibitions, conference papers about working as a researcher in residence. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=14 |
| Title | 5 Channels and Nothing to See Here 3 |
| Description | Digital collage - retranslated footage from Clean Break production, Sweatbox. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Laura Dean is a visual artist and lecturer whose work is informed by social geography, linguistics, and film. Laura has been accompanying and witnessing research processes -archival material, interviews, meetings, public events - responding to the issues raised by them. The work has been a stimulus for productive conversations within the research team both about the research themes and processes as well as expanding our understanding about the nuance and immediacy of visual articulations. It has informed our future planning about the dissemination of the work eg exhibitions, conference papers about working as a researcher in residence. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=15 |
| Title | 5 Channels and Nothing to See Here 4 |
| Description | Digital collage - retranslated footage from Clean Break production, Sweatbox. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Laura Dean is a visual artist and lecturer whose work is informed by social geography, linguistics, and film. Laura has been accompanying and witnessing research processes -archival material, interviews, meetings, public events - responding to the issues raised by them. The work has been a stimulus for productive conversations within the research team both about the research themes and processes as well as expanding our understanding about the nuance and immediacy of visual articulations. It has informed our future planning about the dissemination of the work eg exhibitions, conference papers about working as a researcher in residence. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=16 |
| Title | 5 Channels and Nothing to See Here 5 |
| Description | Digital Collage - retranslated footage from Clean Break production, Sweatbox. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Laura Dean is a visual artist and lecturer whose work is informed by social geography, linguistics, and film. Laura has been accompanying and witnessing research processes -archival material, interviews, meetings, public events - responding to the issues raised by them. The work has been a stimulus for productive conversations within the research team both about the research themes and processes as well as expanding our understanding about the nuance and immediacy of visual articulations. It has informed our future planning about the dissemination of the work eg exhibitions, conference papers about working as a researcher in residence. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=17 |
| Title | Coming out from the margins, from writing in the margins series |
| Description | Photography, screen print, retranslated material from working process of Clean Break production, Inside Bitch. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Laura Dean is a visual artist and lecturer whose work is informed by social geography, linguistics, and film. Laura has been accompanying and witnessing research processes -archival material, interviews, meetings, public events - responding to the issues raised by them. The work has been a stimulus for productive conversations within the research team both about the research themes and processes as well as expanding our understanding about the nuance and immediacy of visual articulations. It has informed our future planning about the dissemination of the work eg exhibitions, conference papers about working as a researcher in residence. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=18 |
| Title | I am a theatre - film trailor |
| Description | This short film introduces 'I am a theatre' the exhibition with maps and celebrates Clean Break theatre company's work and impact since 1979. The film was supported by the AHRC, HLF, ACE, Bishopsgate Institute and Camden Council. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The film has been viewed 75 times on You Tube and promoted the exhibition during it's run from 24th June - 31st July at Swiss Cottage Library. Viewing figures for the exhibition - 473 people. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjblebRGHBo |
| Title | I am a theatre: 40 Years of Clean Break |
| Description | 'I am a theatre': 40 Years of Clean Break 24 June-5 August 2021 at Swiss Cottage Gallery The retrospective celebrated Clean Break's 40-year history, sharing previously unseen archival material, specially commissioned films and installations. The exhibition was curated by Claire Stone, co-designed by artist Miriam Nabarro and Liz Whitbread, a Clean Break Member. The exhibition was funded by the AHRC and the Heritage Lottery Fund. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | 473 people attended in person. 50 people attended private view. 75 people viewed on line You Tube trailer. There was press coverage: The Stage - Spring/Summer 2021 season announcement (22/04/2021) British Theatre Guide - Spring/Summer 2021 season announcement (26/04/2021) BroadwayWorld - exhibition in news announcement (12/05/2021) The F Word - inclusion in theatre blog (23/05/2021) A Younger Theatre - mention in interview with Róisín McBrinn (08/06/2021) ThisWeekCulture - |
| URL | https://www.cleanbreak.org.uk/productions/iamatheatre/ |
| Title | Installation Exhibition in the Sweatbox touring prison van. |
| Description | This is the first of two creative exhibitions that will be created during the project. This first exhibition, created by Miriam Nabarro, and supported by Clean Break Member Liz Whitbread, transformed the Sweatbox prison van into a space where audience members can explore some of Clean Break's history. The exhibition is inspired and informed by archival material including broadcasts, flyers, letters and photographs from the earlier years of the company (1979-1989). |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | The exhibition is installed in the Sweatbox prison van before of after the performances which allows audiences to contextualise the work of Clean Break within a wider cultural, social and cultural context. This material and how it was presented prompted dialogue about this. |
| Title | Safer behind my door (2022) by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - Installation detail, retranslated content from Working with Incarcerated Women in the Context of Covid seminar. https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1pd=39 |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=39 |
| Title | Stay at home #2 (2022), from lockdown series, by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - photography |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=48 |
| Title | Stay at home (2022) from lockdown series by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - pencil drawing, response to presentation by Sarah Bartley (Poverty, Criminalisation and Representation: Performance Strategies from Clean Break theatre, WTJ Seminar series, The Criminalisation of Poverty, University of Leeds). |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=42 |
| Title | Sweatbox - film |
| Description | Originally we had planned to tour a live site-specific production of Sweatbox in a decommissioned prison to 11 universities as a catalyst for each partners' seminar/event. Because of the pandemic and the need to rethink all aspects of planned for in-person activity, we reimagined the public seminars to on-line events and Clean Break commissioned Chloe Moss to adapt the original theatre script for film. This was directed by Anna Herrmann, Joint Artistic Director of Clean Break and produced by Quiet Storm. It features the three actors who appeared in the live event when it toured in Feb 20 - Funke Adele, Posy Sterling and Jade Small. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | Sweatbox, the film, will be screened at/before each of the project's on-line seminar/event and will be available to access/disseminate beyond the life of the research project. The film captures the intensely claustrophobic atmosphere and experience of court-prison transport as well as bringing nuanced insight into the lives of the three women who are about to enter prison. The film was first shared at the event at Sheffield University in December 2020 where a representative from the Ministry of Justice saw it and was keen to find ways to share this with magistrates. The accessibility of the film, and the limited costs in sharing it means that it can be used at training events in a range of different contexts. The film is available on youtube and there is also an audio described version too (https://www.google.com/search?q=clean+break+sweatbox+you+tube&oq=clean+break+sweatbox+you+tube&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i10i160.5570j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:c31ddb82,vid:EBOBdCQuH5c) |
| URL | https://www.google.com/search?q=clean+break+sweatbox+you+tube&oq=clean+break+sweatbox+you+tube&aqs=c... |
| Title | Sweatbox - play |
| Description | Sweatbox, by Chloe Moss, is a 15 minute play, set in a decommissioned prison van, originally commissioned by Clean Break in 2015. It is performed by three Clean Break Members, providing professional employment and experience. The play was re-staged as an integral part of the AHRC project's public engagement strategy - touring to 11 universities in England to accompany a seminar series about women and the criminal justice system. The audience of 12 goes into the prison van and encounters three women who are en route from a court to prison. Through this site specific performance we experience the claustrophobia and disorientation of the van itself and have nuanced insight into the lives of the women who are transported in it. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | The Sweatbox prison van was due to tour to 11 universities. Because of the pandemic, we were only able to stage two in-person events - one at HMP New Hall and one at York St John's. At HMP New Hall Five performances of Sweatbox were attended by forty-nine members of staff including prison officers, staff from education, senior management and staff from charities and voluntary organisations working with the women. In addition to seeing the performance, members of staff participated in group conversations immediately after, sharing their responses about the issues raised through the performance, informed by their experiences at work. This was the first time there was a theatre performance and training offered to staff inside the grounds of the prison and made possible because of Rachel Conlon's long-running collaboration between HMP New Hall and York St John's university, delivering weekly arts practice in the prison with students. |
| Title | Voices from Prison |
| Description | Voices from Prison was a creative writing project inviting women from all 12 women's prisons to create work in this moment, amplify their words and let their experiences be heard. Inspired by the original project directed by Ann Mitchell in 1987, which gave Clean Break its first platform at the RSC, Voices from Prison has been brought into the present, hearing from women about life during Covid, life in prison and hope. This film celebrates 10 of the pieces performed by Clean Break Members Lisa-Marie Ashworth, Funke Adeleke, Jennifer Joseph, Shona Babayemi and Gemskii. Directed by Anna Herrmann. Produced by Maya Ellis. The film was launched on 28th July 2021 and at online event. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | To date (8.3.22) the film has had 860 viewings on You Tube and 1134 viewings on Instagram. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R84EIGlK90 |
| Title | Women/Theatre/Justice Artist in Residence |
| Description | Laura Dean is a visual artist and lecturer whose work is informed by social geography, linguistics, and film. Laura has been accompanying and witnessing research processes -archival material, interviews, meetings, public events - responding to the issues raised by them. Laura's artworks are exhibited on the project website and will be curated as part of an exhibition. Over 20 individual art works have been made. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The work has been a stimulus for productive conversations within the research team both about the research themes and processes as well as expanding our understanding about the nuance and immediacy of visual articulations. It has informed our future planning about the dissemination of the work eg exhibitions, conference papers about working as a researcher in residence. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/ |
| Title | Working with Incarcerated Women in the Context of Covid 19 - Animation of Live Graphic Illustration |
| Description | Jenny Leonard is a graphic artist. She has been doing live graphic illustration, documenting some of the project seminars. This film shows both the process of documentation and highlights key themes and issues addressed throughout the project. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | This approach allows for complex and nuanced ideas to be articulated and shared to non-specialist audiences. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLAjBFE_Ax8 |
| Title | align, centre, justify - from writing in the margins series |
| Description | Photography, screen print, retranslated Clean Break archive material |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Laura Dean is a visual artist and lecturer whose work is informed by social geography, linguistics, and film. Laura has been accompanying and witnessing research processes -archival material, interviews, meetings, public events - responding to the issues raised by them. The work has been a stimulus for productive conversations within the research team both about the research themes and processes as well as expanding our understanding about the nuance and immediacy of visual articulations. It has informed our future planning about the dissemination of the work eg exhibitions, conference papers about working as a researcher in residence. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=18 |
| Title | asymmetry (2022) by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - photography, paper fragments, retranslated content from Working with Incarcerated Women in the Context of Covid seminar, digital collage |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=45 |
| Title | bombed (2022) by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - photography, retranslated footage from Clean Break production Pests, Royal Court Theatre, London, digital collage |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=34 |
| Title | calm down, clam up (2021) by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - drawn fragments, photography, digital collage |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=43 |
| Title | cellular (2021) from lockdown series by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - photography, digital painting, retranslated content from Working with Incarcerated Women in the Context of Covid seminar. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=37 |
| Title | cuffed (2022) by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - photography, retranslated footage from Clean Break production Pests, Royal Court Theatre, London, digital collage |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=35 |
| Title | discomfort eating (2021) by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | watercolour painting, photography, retranslated content from Working with Incarcerated Women in the Context of Covid seminar. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=38 |
| Title | dreaming not leaving #1 (2021), from lockdown series by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - photography, retranslated from Clean Break archive material, paper fragments, digital collage |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=56 |
| Title | dreaming not leaving #2 (2021), from lockdown series by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - photography, paper fragments, digital collage |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=54 |
| Title | dreaming not leaving #3 (2021), from lockdown series by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - photography, retranslated from Clean Break archive material, digital collage |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=53 |
| Title | early release (2022) by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - painting, screenprint, spray paint, retranslated content from Working with Incarcerated Women in the Context of Covid seminar. https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1pd=40 |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=40 |
| Title | explain prison to a child (2021) by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - from writing in the margins series photography, drawing, text detail from Clean Break production process for Inside Bitch, Royal Court Theatre, London |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=24 |
| Title | flight path (2021), from lockdown series by Laura Dean, artist in residence |
| Description | Image - photography, paper fragments, digital collage |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=55 |
| Title | heart #1 (2021) - not torn but turned not static but still by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - retranslated footage and subtitles from Clean Break: Changing Lives and Changing Minds |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=28 |
| Title | heart #2 (2021) not torn but turned not static but still, by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - retranslated footage and subtitles from Clean Break: Changing Lives and Changing Minds |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=26 |
| Title | heart #3 (2021) not torn but turned not static but still, by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - retranslated footage and subtitles from Clean Break: Changing Lives and Changing Minds |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=30 |
| Title | heart #4 (2021), not torn but turned not static but still, by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - retranslated footage and subtitles from Clean Break: Changing Lives and Changing Minds |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=31 |
| Title | heart #5 (2021) not torn but turned not static but still, by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - retranslated footage and subtitles from Clean Break: Changing Lives and Changing Minds |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=32 |
| Title | heart #6 (2021) the kitchen |
| Description | Image - not torn but turned not static but still retranslated footage and subtitles from Clean Break: Changing Lives and Changing Minds |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=33 |
| Title | in plain sight (2022), from lockdown series by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - drawn paper fragments, retranslated content from Working with Incarcerated Women in the Context of Covid seminar. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=46 |
| Title | just like me #2 (2021) |
| Description | Image - drawing, photography, collage, text by author Lin Coghlan for Apache Tears, retranslated from Clean Break production archive |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=23 |
| Title | just like me (2021) |
| Description | drawing, photography, collage, text by author Lin Coghlan for Apache Tears, retranslated from Clean Break production archive |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=22 |
| Title | lady godiva 21st century (2022) by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - pencil drawing, response to presentation by Sarah Bartley (Poverty, Criminalisation and Representation: Performance Strategies from Clean Break theatre, WTJ Seminar series, The Criminalisation of Poverty, University of Leeds). |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=42 |
| Title | like no home place (2021) by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - photography, object, retranslated Clean Break archive material, film footage |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=57 |
| Title | lockdown (2022) by Laura Dean, artist in residence |
| Description | Image - drawing, photography, paper fragments, retranslated content from Working with Incarcerated Women in the Context of Covid seminar, digital collage https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1pd=36 |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| Title | lockdown (2022) by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - drawing, photography, paper fragments, retranslated content from Working with Incarcerated Women in the Context of Covid seminar, digital collage |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=36 |
| Title | mightier than the sword, from writing in the margins series |
| Description | Photography, screen print, retranslated Clean Break archive material. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Laura Dean is a visual artist and lecturer whose work is informed by social geography, linguistics, and film. Laura has been accompanying and witnessing research processes -archival material, interviews, meetings, public events - responding to the issues raised by them. The work has been a stimulus for productive conversations within the research team both about the research themes and processes as well as expanding our understanding about the nuance and immediacy of visual articulations. It has informed our future planning about the dissemination of the work eg exhibitions, conference papers about working as a researcher in residence. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=18 |
| Title | no human resource is an island (2021) |
| Description | Image - photography, digital collage, text resource: Dean, D. 2008. No human resource is an island: gendered, racialized access to work as a performer. Gender, Work, Organization |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| Title | not quite me |
| Description | An image made in response to 'shared performance of identity in WTJ interviews and the presence of care and wit from both interviewers and interviewees. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Laura Dean is a visual artist and lecturer whose work is informed by social geography, linguistics, and film. Laura has been accompanying and witnessing research processes -archival material, interviews, meetings, public events - responding to the issues raised by them. The work has been a stimulus for productive conversations within the research team both about the research themes and processes as well as expanding our understanding about the nuance and immediacy of visual articulations. It has informed our future planning about the dissemination of the work eg exhibitions, conference papers about working as a researcher in residence. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=12 |
| Title | not-home (2022), from lockdown series by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - photography, paper fragments, digital collage |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=49 |
| Title | shifting glimpsers #2 by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - photography, retranslated Clean Break archive material |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=26 |
| Title | shifting glimpsers by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - photography, retranslated Clean Break archive material |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=25 |
| Title | the bones of me (2022), from lockdown series by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - photography, retranslated content from Working with Incarcerated Women in the Context of Covid seminar. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=58 |
| Title | transportation (2022) by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - photography, paper fragments, retranslated seminar content, digital collage |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=44 |
| Title | un:mute |
| Description | Drawing and digital collage from archive material of founders - Jenny Hicks and Jacqueline Holborough |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Laura Dean is a visual artist and lecturer whose work is informed by social geography, linguistics, and film. Laura has been accompanying and witnessing research processes -archival material, interviews, meetings, public events - responding to the issues raised by them. The work has been a stimulus for productive conversations within the research team both about the research themes and processes as well as expanding our understanding about the nuance and immediacy of visual articulations. It has informed our future planning about the dissemination of the work eg exhibitions, conference papers about working as a researcher in residence. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=11 |
| Title | un:mute - catalogue to accompany exhibition |
| Description | 54 page A4 (landscape) full colour brochure with images from the exhibition, an introduction from the PI and featuring quotations, observations and research gathered during the project. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The un:mute catalogue accompanies the exhibition. It is a full colour publication which includes images of many of the art works included in the exhibition as well as written commentary from the Women/Theatre/Justice team. Members of the public are given a copy of the publication to take home. We have also been able to send the catalogue to other organisations to give a sense of Clean Break's practice, our research project and our approach to the dissemination of both. People have said that because the exhibition is so intense and emotive that they have appreciated the opportunity to take the catalogue with them to refer to later. Audience feedback includes: - Art helps to show what cannot be said with words. - Art can be a powerful tool to galvanise action. - Art can tell the truth and connect. - That it isn't always as fast paced as I'd though. That urgency can have a steady pace and art and academia and activism can create gradual change that accumulates over time and makes that more impactful that immediate crashing blows. |
| Title | un:mute- an exhibition of artwork by Laura Dean, Women/Theatre/Justice Artist in Residence, with films and discussion about Clean Break; criminalised women; and the interplay of art, activism and academia. |
| Description | un:mute is an exhibition of approx 27 selected artworks alongside screenings of Sweatbox (Chloe Moss) and edited footage of interviews with staff, associates and Members who have been involved with Clean Break across 40 years. The Women/Theatre/Justice research project investigates the extraordinary and necessary work of Clean Break across more than four decades - what it does, how it does it and why it matters. As Artist in Residence, Laura Dean has been immersed not only in the subject of our research but how we go about it. She had developed over 50 original artworks in response to both the research topic and processes. un:mute is an exhibition that has been staged in Coventry (March 2022), York (October 2022), and Warwick (November 2023). It was due to be launched at the Shard in London in November 2023 but national rails strikes meant that it has had to be postponed. The event can be staged with more than 25 artworks or with a smaller, illustrative selection. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | Laura Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Dean's work articulates and amplifies the personal and political implications of women's incarceration in a way that is distinctively different to the plays of Clean Break or the academic papers that we write. By guiding our gaze towards an image contained in a frame, we can look and look again, developing and connecting ideas in response what we see and what we feel. The images recognise the imperative of un:muting voices that have been marginalised, mistrusted or disregarded in the too-often unquestioned public service of 'criminal justice'. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback to the exhibition in each of the sites has been extensive and thoughtful in response to the following questions: Comments include: How did the exhibition make you feel? - I had mixed emotions. Horrified and distresses, saddened but also in awe of these women and their collective strength. I was inspired and more determined to be part of a solution to prevent their experiences continuing to be the 'norm'! - It made me more aware and closer to the cause for which it stood, Clean Break. Gave me better understanding of the work being done to help. - Enlightened Has this exhibition raised your awareness of issues around women and the criminal justice system? - Sadly having a +30 year career in HMP I am aware of these issues, but also aware of prison/justice reform and how difficult it is to make significant progress as successive governments continue to move the goal posts. - It has made me want to find out more. - Vaguely informed but pushed to the back of my mind. Certainly brought it to the forefront. - Made me change my mind about prisoners. What does this exhibition tell you about the relationship between art and academic research? - This is a difficult one to answer without prejudice as to my mind this exhibition is a perfect example of how the disciplines compliment and enhance each other. Neither would possibly have as much impact as a stand alone. - Different ways of expressing research findings and making it more accessible, real, alive. - That one exists! It's not something I'd ever thought too much about before. I'd assumed they were somehow innately separate but it feels good to see an interplay between them. It makes me see academic as more emotionally engaged that I thought it was. - Art makes academia accessible. What does this exhibition tell you about the relationship between art and academic research? - Art helps to show what cannot be said with words. - Art can be a powerful tool to galvanise action. - Art can tell the truth and connect. - That it isn't always as fast paced as I'd though. That urgency can have a steady pace and art and academia and activism can create gradual change that accumulates over time and makes that more impactful that immediate crashing blows. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/events/unmute-exhibition-21-22-march/ |
| Title | what's it like out (2022) by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - retranslated images from Clean Break exhibition, 'I am a theatre': 40 years of Clean Break Theatre Company, Swiss Cottage, London 2021 |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=27 |
| Title | what's she building in there (2021) by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - retranslated photo of Clean Break premises under construction 1998, retranslated footage of production [BLANK], Donmar Warehouse, London. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=59 |
| Title | wider margin, from writing in the margin series |
| Description | Photography, screen print, retranslated Clean Break archive material. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Laura Dean is a visual artist and lecturer whose work is informed by social geography, linguistics, and film. Laura has been accompanying and witnessing research processes -archival material, interviews, meetings, public events - responding to the issues raised by them. The work has been a stimulus for productive conversations within the research team both about the research themes and processes as well as expanding our understanding about the nuance and immediacy of visual articulations. It has informed our future planning about the dissemination of the work eg exhibitions, conference papers about working as a researcher in residence. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=18 |
| Title | wish you weren't here (2021), from lockdown series by Laura Dean, artist in residence. |
| Description | Image - photography, paper fragments, digital collage |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The artwork is available to view digitally on the Women/Theatre/Justice website and as part of the un:mute exhibition. Dean's artwork is generative, a catalyst which prompts further dialogue as we attempt to find words to engage with the ideas that she expresses so eloquently with a single precise image. Her work is relational and invites a response. Implicit in this are questions for you the audience, you the viewer: Where are you in relation to the frame? Where are you in relation to the subject that is central to it? What will you do with your voice? Audience feedback has been extensive and thoughtful. We intend to secure additional funding after the duration of the project to tour (aspects of) the exhibition to grass roots organisations, schools, community hubs to provide an opportunity for dialogue and feedback. |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/artist-in-residence/work-in-progress/#&gid=1&pid=50 |
| Description | In the first 30 months of the research project we have carried out 96 interviews with people connected with Clean Break theatre company since 1979 - staff, Members, artists, Trustees, partners. We have also met with all 11 academic partners to plan the Sweatbox tour and accompanying seminar series and been in regular contact to revise and adapt our plans as a result of Covid 19. We have completed 13 in a series of public engagement and research events: HMP New Hall York St Johns Leeds x 2 Reading x 1 Sheffield x 1 Manchester x 2 Leicester and Warwick x 2 QMUL x 1 Screening Event with Clean Break Voices from Prison with Clean Break The project has also contributed to a major exhibition drawing on the newly catalogued archive exhibition - I am a theatre (24th June - 6th August 2001) - at Swiss Cottage Gallery, London. This research activity has supported: - The development of new understandings about Clean Break's influence on contemporary British theatre (plays, theatre making practices, commissioning practices, co-production practices) - The identification of characteristics of the company's distinctive feminist organisational practices and how this has impacted on employment relations - An enhanced understanding of women's gendered experience of the criminal justice system and how prison staff negotiate this - An enhanced understandings of the ways in which both the company's practices facilitated wider public engagement with women, crime and social justice (theatre, higher education, criminal justice, arts and criminal justice (policy and practice)). |
| Exploitation Route | The outcomes will be shared through academic publications and conferences as well as through a series of events (symposia, training, knowledge exchange) developed in collaboration with Clean Break, the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance and Women in Prison. We have developed a website to support wider access to the findings and share information via our twitter, facebook and You Tube channel. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Education,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://womentheatrejustice.org |
| Description | A key strand of the project has been the development of events and resources that can be engaged with and used by audiences outside of academia - theatre audiences; artists; the theatre industry; arts and criminal justice; criminal justice. We have developed a range of collaborative public engagement events which bring together academics, organisations from the women's sector and/or criminal justice, Clean Break staff and Members who are women with experience of the criminal justice system. The events in form and content actively seek to generate dialogue, where different kinds of expertise are equally valued and welcomed, where new understandings are articulated, documented and disseminated. Part of this strategy to engage with non-academics and to have impacts beyond academia has been a commitment to the arts as a means to frame and invite dialogue and understanding (exhibitions, films, art works). Our research project website supports access to the materials and the contextualisation of them. Some examples: Performances of Sweatbox, performed in a decommissioned prison van inside a prison, followed by discussions with prison staff - these revealed how the engagement with the performance supported staff's (education, reception, security, support services) articulation of new understandings about women's experiences of criminalisation and incarceration. This has led to further conversations about training and education (prison staff, partner staff training). The on-line screenings of Sweatbox and Voices from Prison with discussions with audiences (artists, theatre goers, women's sector, criminal justice, arts and criminal justice) have prompted new understandings about carceral society and women's experiences and the implications of criminal justice policy on the lives and families of incarcerated women. The un:mute exhibitions and accompanying events has evoked considered reflections from audiences - these have been wide ranging, from people who no prior interest in/connection with criminal justice to those who work in the Ministry of Justice. Feedback forms have reflected this nuanced response - see below. The team had planned a major impact event for politicians and policy makers and staff in the criminal justice system on 7th November 2023 but this has bee postponed because of industrial action affecting transport to and across London. How did the exhibition make you feel? - I had mixed emotions. Horrified and distresses, saddened but also in awe of these women and their collective strength. I was inspired and more determined to be part of a solution to prevent their experiences continuing to be the 'norm'! - It made me more aware and closer to the cause [...]. Gave me better understanding of the work being done to help. - Enlightened. Has this exhibition raised your awareness of issues around women and the criminal justice system? - Sadly having a +30 year career in HMP I am aware of these issues, but also aware of prison/justice reform and how difficult it is to make significant progress as successive governments continue to move the goal posts. - It has made me want to find out more. - Vaguely informed but pushed to the back of my mind. Certainly brought it to the forefront. - Made me change my mind about prisoners. What does this exhibition tell you about the relationship between art and academic research? - This is a difficult one to answer without prejudice as to my mind this exhibition is a perfect example of how the disciplines compliment and enhance each other. Neither would possibly have as much impact as a stand alone. - Different ways of expressing research findings and making it more accessible, real, alive. - That one exists! It's not something I'd ever thought too much about before. I'd assumed they were somehow innately separate but it feels good to see an interplay between them. It makes me see academia as more emotionally engaged that I thought it was. - Art makes academia accessible. What does this exhibition tell you about the relationship between art and academic research? - Art helps to show what cannot be said with words. - Art can be a powerful tool to galvanise action. - Art can tell the truth and connect. - That it isn't always as fast paced as I'd thought. That urgency can have a steady pace and art and academia and activism can create gradual change that accumulates over time and makes that more impactful that immediate crashing blows. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | un:mute, exhibition by Laura Dean, Women Theatre Justice artist in residence as part of Resonate, City of Culture |
| Amount | £1,821 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Warwick |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2022 |
| End | 03/2022 |
| Description | Clean Break |
| Organisation | Clean Break |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Clean Break is a partner in the project. Until now, any academic consideration of the company has been within the frame of theatre and performance studies. This project attends to the distinctive organizational practices of the company within industrial relations and organizational practice. The project identifies the impact of Clean Break on individuals and sectors (theatre, arts and criminal justice) whilst also allowing for a wider consideration of the issues facing women with experience of the criminal justice system and the ways in which other arts/education/voluntary sector organisations are responding to this. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We have collaborated with the Senior Management Team to negotiate full access to the organisation's practices (Board Meetings, training, staff meetings, residency in prison, public sharing of work, public performances of work). We have also collaborated with the Clean Break at 40 (Heritage Lottery Funded) project manager to share access to interview subjects. |
| Impact | Multidisciplinary - theatre and performance; industrial relations and organisational practices. Outcomes and outputs in process. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | A Reflection on the Pains of Punishment Seminar - Blog |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This blog post was a written by Eve Orange in response to The Gendered Pains of Punishment, a research project seminar held at Sheffield (Dec 2020). Eve Orange, is an MA student in International Criminology at the University of Sheffield. As part of our research we are committed to creating opportunities for a range of different voices to respond to the materials developed and shared during the project. Our project website hosts a research blog series which curates these voices. Each writer is commissioned and paid equally. We are actively seeking a range of writers with different areas of expertise and experience. This approach brings both a fresh perspective to the work and new audiences who are connected to/follow the writer. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/research/research-blog/a-reflection-on-the-pains-of-punishment-semin... |
| Description | Art, care and incarceration - article in Arts Professional features and links to our journal article in Gender Work and Organisation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Our article, 'Locked up and down: Incarceration, care, and art in a pandemic' (Gender, Work and Organisation, 2022) was highlighted in Arts Professional. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/good-read/art-care-and-incarceration |
| Description | Clean Break: Managing Differently? - edited seminar on project You Tube channel |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Clean Break: Managing Differently? seminar was recorded, edited and shared on the project's Women Theatre Justice You Tube channel. It is part of the project's mission to document and share conversations that will support new understandings about women, theatre, justice and organizational practices beyond the parameters of the original AHRC funded project events. Our You Tube channel offers us an opportunity to provide a library of seminar discussions which can be considered both separately and in relation to one another. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcfn0urYwNo |
| Description | Clean Break: Working Differently? |
| 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 | Hosted by Deborah Dean (Warwick Business School) and Anne-marie Greene (University of Leicester School of Business). This online seminar was aimed at practitioners and researchers interested in understanding more how Clean Break works in collaboration with its partners in the theatre sector. What is involved in a Clean Break collaboration? Róisín McBrinn, Joint Artistic Director, Clean Break and Phil McCormack, Head of Participation, Donmar Warehouse reflected on the experience of recent co-commissioned work between their two organisations and the impact that Clean Break practices have on the wider theatre sector. Shona Babayemi, Member of Clean Break and cast member of [BLANK] joined the conversation with personal reflections. 38 people attended. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/events/clean-break-working-differently/ |
| Description | Clean Break: Working Differently? - edited seminar on project You Tube channel |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Clean Break: Working Differently? seminar was recorded, edited and shared on the project's Women Theatre Justice You Tube channel. It is part of the project's mission to document and share conversations that will support new understandings about women, theatre, justice and organizational practices beyond the parameters of the original AHRC funded project events. Our You Tube channel offers us an opportunity to provide a library of seminar discussions which can be considered both separately and in relation to one another. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjhKqgdvoio |
| Description | Criminalisation of Poverty: A Focus on Women |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Hosted by Dr Ally Walsh, School of Performance and Cultural Industries, University of Leeds. This online seminar was aimed at practitioners and researchers interested in women and the criminal justice system. The event drew on perspectives from criminology, sociology, and performance in order to explore the relationship between the feminisation of poverty and gendered experiences of punishment within the criminal justice system. We brought together scholars, practitioners, and activists to understand and illuminate the specific experiences of women in relation to increasingly violent austerity policies and penal systems. COVID-19 and lockdown has exacerbated these issues. We aimed to collectively consider strategies for organising and resisting economic disenfranchisement, and how people in poverty are persistently criminalised by state systems. We considered how stigma is furthered in cultural representations. This was a mixture of presentations and interactive discussions. Invited speakers: Dr Emma Wincup, Joseph Rowntree Foundation Chiedza Chinhanu, University of Leeds Post Graduate Researcher (About practice in Zimbabwe, women & poverty) Dr Sarah Bartley, University of Reading Creative responses by Dr Ella Holdsworth (research associate, School of Law) and Tom Bailey (Graphic Artist) An edited recording of the event can be found on the project YouTube site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxW9Ctwd0JQ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxW9Ctwd0JQ |
| Description | Efemera: The Origins and Survival of Clean Break Theatre Company |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Clean Break archive, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, was recently catalogued and deposited at Bishopsgate Institute (London). The archive contains original playscripts, rehearsal and production photography, and original artwork from 40-years of ground-breaking productions; hand-written letters from their founders; original tv and documentary film featuring and produced by Clean Break; and their 40th Anniversary video interviews with 42 women from across their 40-year history. The AHRC team has been collaborating with Clean Break's archive project manager on aspects of the archive preparation and the developments of exhibitions based on the materials within it. The archive was launched on 19th November 2020 with an on-line event. Clean Break's Chair, Alison Frater was joined by the founders of Clean Break, Jaqueline Holborough and Jenny Hicks to launch the archive celebrating Clean Break's 40 years. They were joined by theatre maker, Paula Varjack; Clean Break Member, Ann Whitely; Joint Artistic Director, Anna Herrmann. AHRC researcher, Dr. Sarah Bartley gave a presentation which discussed the uses of the archive today. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnZDH6dB65Y |
| Description | Efemera: The Origins and Survival of Clean Break Theatre Company - edited recording for You Tube |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This is an edited and captioned version of Efemera: The Origins and Survival of Clean Break Theatre Company, an online event held in November 2021 to mark the launch of the Clean Break archive at Bishopsgate Institute. The edited film was launched on 27th January 2021. In addition to the original, live audience of 118 people, the edited recording of the event will be of particular use for students, scholars and practitioners interested in the work of Clean Break theatre company as well as wider audiences interested in arts and criminal justice, women and the the criminal justice system, histories and legacies of the alternatives theatre movement and archiving practices. Since it's release, the film has, to date (8.3.22) had 449 views. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnZDH6dB65Y |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnZDH6dB65Y |
| Description | Free Thinking - New research into women's history |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This is the broadcast version of the podcast for New Thinking - Arts and Ideas as noted in an earlier portfolio note. Caoimhe McAvinchey was invited to talk about the research project as part of BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking: New research into women's history TX: 09/03/22. The programme covered, 'Sex strikes suggested by Suffragettes, a theatre company devoted to exploring the experiences of women in the UK prison system and the campaign to make women's rights at the heart of human rights and its links with socialist Eastern Europe: Naomi Paxton finds out about new research into women's history.' The programme is broadcast at 10pm GMT on Radio 3 and aimed at a general public audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0014ysn |
| Description | In the Clean Break Archive - day long workshop |
| 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 online workshop was an opportunity to encounter, explore, interrogate and respond to aspects of Clean Break's archive. Led by project collaborators, Sue Mayo (artist, Goldsmiths) and Dr Molly McPhee (QMUL), and working with a curated set of materials, participants explored the multiple stories an archive can tell and uncovered our own dialogues with it. The workshop was aimed at Masters and PhD students, professionals in the criminal justice system, and freelance artists and arts workers. The participants feedback was very positive and will inform future plans to develop further archive workshops and, potentially, further funding bids. 20 people participated. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | In the Clean Break Archive: Clean Break's Building - Blog |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This blog was written by Dr Molly McPhee, a writer and independent researcher, explores the histories and architectures of Clean Break's building and reflects on the 2014 promenade production, This is Where We are From, as a celebration of the life of the site. As part of our research we are committed to creating opportunities for a range of different voices to respond to the materials developed and shared during the project. Our project website hosts a research blog series which curates these voices. Each writer is commissioned and paid equally. We are actively seeking a range of writers with different areas of expertise and experience. This approach brings both a fresh perspective to the work and new audiences who are connected to/follow the writer. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/research/research-blog/in-the-clean-break-archive-clean-breaks-build... |
| Description | Launch of un:mute Criterion Theatre, Coventry 21 March 2022 |
| 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 | Members of the Women|Theatre|Justice Project Team and Anna Herrmann, Joint CEO of Clean Break contributed to an event launching an exhibition of art created by our artist-in-residence Laura Dean. The exhibition also launched Clean Break's Digital Timeline. Members of the research project team and Anna Herrman, Clean Break, talked about the evolution of the research project and the way that the involvement of a visual artist has transformed and enriched our understandings and experiences and provided new illumination of the impact of Clean Break's work. Un:mute was part of the Resonate Festival, funded by the University of Warwick to celebrate Coventry's year as UK City of Culture. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/events/un-mute-the-women-theatre-justice-project-by-artist-in-reside... |
| Description | Launch of un:mute exhibition at the School for Business and Society, University of York (5th October 2022) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Members of the Women|Theatre|Justice Project Team and Anna Herrmann, Joint CEO of Clean Break contributed to an event launching an exhibition of art created by our artist-in-residence Laura Dean. The launch event supported dialogue between academics from across the University of York to identify areas of shared interest and possible collaboration. It also highlighted the ways in which art can be engaged as a means for disseminating research collaboration and impact. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/events/un-mute-the-women-theatre-justice-project-by-artist-in-reside... |
| Description | New Research into Women's History |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Caoimhe McAvinchey was invited to talk about the research project as part of BBC Radio 3's New Thinking: Women's History podcast TX: 09/03/22. This podcast is part of Art and Ideas, where 'Leading artists, writers, thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives & links between past & present and new academic research' The overall podcast covered, 'Sex strikes suggested by Suffragettes, a theatre company devoted to exploring the experiences of women in the UK prison system and the campaign to make women's rights at the heart of human rights and its links with socialist Eastern Europe: Naomi Paxton finds out about new research into women's history.' The podcast is aimed at a general public audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0014ysn |
| Description | Nothing About Us Without Us': Representation in Playwriting - Blog |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This blog post is written by Emma White, a theatre maker and MA Playwriting student at Manchester University. The blog is a reflection on the Playwriting workshop led by Clean Break with students at Manchester University hosted by Prof Jenny Hughes (Drama). The blog focuses on the ethics of making and staging representations of criminalised women with Clean Break Member (Jade Small), Clean Break Joint Artistic Director, Anna Herrmann and writers, Chloe Moss and Stacey Gregg. As part of our research we are committed to creating opportunities for a range of different voices to respond to the materials developed and shared during the project. Our project website hosts a research blog series which curates these voices. Each writer is commissioned and paid equally. We are actively seeking a range of writers with different areas of expertise and experience. This approach brings both a fresh perspective to the work and new audiences who are connected to/follow the writer. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/research/research-blog/nothing-about-us-without-us-representation-in... |
| Description | Paper given at a research seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Sarah Bartley gave a paper, 'Class and Carceral Performance in the Work of Clean Break Theatre Company' as part of the Class on Stage research symposium. Graduate students and academic staff attended the event with led to discussion and new understandings about the ways in which Clean Break theatre company's practice attend to the cultural politics of class in their organisational practice and plays that they produce. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Plays and Playwriting with Clean Break |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Hosted by Prof Jenny Hughes, Drama, Manchester University as part of the Women/Theatre/Justice network. This talk and workshop was specifically designed for UG Drama and MA Playwrighting students at Manchester University. It explored issues of collaboration, authorship, co-production, participation and representation when making theatre with and about women and the criminal justice system, engaging the expertise of Clean Break. Prior to the session the students were given access to the Sweatbox film and to the script for Inside Bitch. Dr Sarah Bartley from the research team introduced the project. The session included an introductory talk about Clean Break by Anna Herrmann, Joint Artistic Director of Clean Break and contributions from Stacey Gregg (co-creator of Inside Bitch), Chloe Moss (writer of This Wide Night, There are Mountains and Sweatbox) and Jade Small (co-devisor and performer in Inside Bitch and performer in Sweatbox). The second hour of the session focused on the development of catalysts for creative responses informed by biography and contemporary political issues as well as a wider Q&A. Because the session was framed to support students undertaking the Theatre in Prisons and Probation module and Playwrighting programme, the issues and creative practices addressed in the session can be reflected on in further classes. The session raised questions about representation, biography, creative distance and exposure of the self in devising and staging performance. Students live tweeted about the workshop on @WTJ_Research Students were commissioned to write a blog about the session which will be published on the project website womentheatrejustice.org |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Presentation for Warwick Business School Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Festival, 9 November 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | An exhibition of a selection of images from un:mute along with a talk about the research processes and findings for colleagues in Warwick Business School. This festival, developed by professional services, encouraged interdisciplinary dialogue and sharing of new understandings about engagement in arts practices (as research subject and research methodology). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Research Channel You Tube Channel |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We have set up a You Tube channel to support the edited audio-visual materials from the public events and seminars we have programmed during the research project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXPRt1UIsahtDhZAUtlUduw |
| Description | Research seminar, 'What is the role of art and artistic practice within research?' for academics in HSS |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 'What is the role of art and artistic practice within research?' A seminar inviting provocation, conversation and reflection on the role of art and the artist-in-residence for academic research. Art and artistic practices have featured strongly within the project methodology. This includes direct artistic output, including a project-commissioned tour of the play Sweatbox, and production of a film version of the play. Seminar and workshop events have also included theatre performances. Most significantly, multi-media artist Laura Dean has been employed as artist-in-residence for the research project, producing the un:mute art exhibition amongst other outputs. We brought together 20 participants in person to discuss the important role of art and artistic practice in academic research, considering the opportunities and challenges that emerge for research analysis, theorising, and developing impact outside of academia. •Part 1: What is the role of art in research? Why is it useful, what does it uncover? •Part 2: What does having art and artistic practice as a part of your research entail?The highs, the lows, the difficulties, the logistics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/events/seminar-what-is-the-role-of-art-and-artistic-practice-within-... |
| Description | Secondary school drama workshop working with Clean Break archival mateirals. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | 'Clean Break in the Archive and Onstage' was a day long workshop, run by Sarah Bartley, at Sacred Heart Catholic Secondary School, Newcastle. 14 Drama students, aged 17-18 years old, participated. The workshop was designed to support A' level Drama curriculum issues - devising performance, verbatim performance - as well as introducing students to the work of Clean Break and its history. Student and staff expressed interest in knowing more about Clean Break, about criminalised women and about the Women / Theatre / Justice research project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Sweatbox - On-line screening premiere and discussion |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Screening of Sweatbox short film with a panel discussion led by Anna Herrmann with Brenda Birungi, poet and creative director of Unchained Poetry, and Dr. Kate Paradine, Chief Executive of Women in Prison. 119 people attended. This event is part of a programme of public events to increase public understanding about the issues facing criminalised women in the UK and the ways in which theatre practices have/and can continue to not only report this but engage and advance public understanding as creative critical activism. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.cleanbreak.org.uk/events/sweatbox-screening-and-discussion/ |
| Description | The Civic Work of Arts Organisations during Covid 19 |
| 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 | This event was hosted by Dr Ally Walsh, School of Performance and Cultural Industries, University of Leeds as part of the Women/Theatre/Justice research network. This was a public-facing in-conversation event with Clean Break Theatre Company and Slung Low reflecting on the civic and social work of arts organisations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each arts company has a long history of being deeply embedded in their respective communities, this event considered how this has positioned them to attend to an intensified need during this global crisis. Featuring the two companies and responses from Dr Jo Shah (Social Performance Network and CSSD); Dr Kara McKechnie (PCI/ Leeds and freelance dramaturg) and introduced by Dr Sarah Bartley (University of Reading and Women/Theatre/Justice researcher). After the presentations there was a Q&A session with considerable participation covering a wide range of topics about the relationship between art and civic purpose, ecologies of social justice and the arts, care and values. Documentation includes: A graphic blog - Tom Bailey https://womentheatrejustice.org/research/research-blog/graphic-recording-civic-work-of-arts-organisations-during-covid-19/ A blog - Anne-marie Greene (AHRC project Co-I) https://womentheatrejustice.org/research/research-blog/the-civic-work-of-arts-organisations-during-covid-19/ Edited recording on womentheatrejustice youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP1wCiIuJSY |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/research/research-blog/the-civic-work-of-arts-organisations-during-c... |
| Description | The Civic Work of the Arts during Covid 19 - edited seminar on project You Tube channel |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Civic Work of the Arts during Covid 19 seminar was recorded, edited and shared on the project's Women Theatre Justice You Tube channel. It is part of the project's mission to document and share conversations that will support new understandings about women, theatre, justice and organizational practices beyond the parameters of the original AHRC funded project events. Our You Tube channel offers us an opportunity to provide a library of seminar discussions which can be considered both separately and in relation to one another. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP1wCiIuJSY |
| Description | The Criminalisation of Poverty - edited seminar on project You Tube channel |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Criminalisation of Poverty seminar was recorded, edited and shared on the project's Women Theatre Justice You Tube channel. It is part of the project's mission to document and share conversations that will support new understandings about women, theatre, justice and organizational practices beyond the parameters of the original AHRC funded project events. Our You Tube channel offers us an opportunity to provide a library of seminar discussions which can be considered both separately and in relation to one another. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxW9Ctwd0JQ |
| Description | The Pains of Punishment |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Hosted by Dr Gilly Sharpe, School of Law, University of Sheffield. This online seminar was aimed principally at undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in women and the criminal justice system. The event drew on perspectives from criminal justice research, policy and practice, as well as performance, and explored the gendered pains of punishment for criminalised women. It brought together scholars, practitioners, actors and campaigners to examine how penal practices interact with extra-penal forms of judgement and stigmatisation, and how the criminal justice system responds (or fails to respond) to women who have experienced victimisation and trauma. This seminar included the first public screening of the film adaptation of Sweatbox, by Chloe Moss. This was followed by presentations from: Claire Morley, Ministry of Justice Dr Gilly Sharpe, University of Sheffield Katy Swaine Williams, Research and Policy Consultant (formerly Prison Reform Trust) At the time of writing, we are currently editing a blog post by an MA Criminology Student which will be uploaded to our project website imminently. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/events/the-pains-of-punishment/ |
| Description | Theatre in the Criminal Justice System: Celebrating Clean Break Theatre Company and TIPP |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This online event was hosted by Prof Jenny Hughes, Drama, Manchester University as part of the Women/Theatre/Justice network. It attended to the distinctive practices of two long-running arts and criminal justice organisations - Clean Break and TIPP - focusing on, and critiquing, ideas of survival, resilience and fragility. It contextualised the longevity and responsiveness of both organisations within wider governmental change in both criminal justice and culture. Between them, Clean Break and TIPP have accrued 70 years worth of experience of arts practice in the criminal justice system. The event was aimed at an audience interested in collaborative, socially-engaged and creative approaches to arts practice in prisons. Prof Jenny Hughes framed and introduced the session. Prof Caoimhe McAvinchey introduced the Women/Theatre/Justice research project. This was followed by presentations from the present Artistic Directors of Clean Break and TIPP (and current co-Chairs of the national Criminal Justice Arts Alliance), Anna Herrmann and Simon Ruding. The Q&A session allowed for a rich conversation about a wide range of issues including practitioner training, the feminisation of poverty and the challenges facing women within the criminal justice system. Students live tweeted about the event @WTJ_Research Students have been commissioned to write a blog which will feature on the project website - womentheatrejustice.org |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Tour of Sweatbox play (Chloe Moss) to HMP New Hall for prison staff followed by discussion |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | On Tuesday 18th March we took the Sweatbox show (in a decommissioned prison van) into the ground of HMP New Hall (Wakefield) to share with staff from the prison. 49 members of staff (prison officers, staff from education and psychology and external partner agencies and deputy governors) took part as audience members and then reflected on their experiences. The work was facilitated by Rachel Conlon who leads the York St John Prison Partnership Project with HMP New Hall. There is a history of drama and theatre for the women in prison but none for the staff. This was an opportunity for staff to talk about the experiences of the women they work with, about the possibilities of theatre to prompt a wider public conversation and a reflection on their work. Rachel Conlon is in continual contact with the prison and we will reflect on the longer term responses later in the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Tour of Sweatbox play (Chloe Moss) to York St Johns (York) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | On Wednesday 19th February we toured Sweatbox to York St Johns. The decomissioned prison van was parked on campus, in front of the VC's office. There were 6 performances in the van playing to maximum capacity, 72. This was followed by a discussion event with members of the public, students, the cast and crew of Sweatbox and academics from York St John and the AHRC project. The conversation ranged from the impact of the work on enhancing audiences' understandings about the criminalisation of women and the material conditions of their transportation; the ethics of empathy; the ethics of research about women and the criminal justice system and possible modes of dissemination for this research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Voices from Prison - Online event - film and discussion |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A live screening of the Voices from Prison film, followed by a panel discussion led by Anna Herrmann alongside Clean Break artist facilitator Laura Asare, and Paula Harriott, Head of Prisoner Engagement at Prison Reform Trust. This event was part of a programme of public events to increase public understanding about the issues facing criminalised women in the UK and the ways in which theatre practices have/and can continue to not only report this but engage and advance public understanding as part of a wider creative critical activism. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.cleanbreak.org.uk/events/voices-prison/ |
| Description | WTJ_Research facebook account |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We set up a project facebook account - https://www.facebook.com/WTJResearch - to publicise and disseminate research activities and findings related to our project and to connect with others interested in or working in the areas of arts, women and the criminal justice system. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| URL | https://www.facebook.com/WTJResearch |
| Description | WTJ_Research twitter account |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We set up a project twitter account - WTJ_Research - to publicise and disseminate research activities and findings related to our project and to connect with others interested in or working in the areas of arts, women and the criminal justice system. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/WTJ_Research |
| Description | Women Only Organisations - Managing Differently? |
| 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 | This online event aimed to explore organisational and management practices within women-only organisations. Speakers reflected on practices within Clean Break and on wider academic research and expertise, to explore what shared leadership means in practice. Hosted by Anne-marie Greene (University of Leicester School of Business) and Deborah Dean (Warwick Business School). This online seminar was aimed at practitioners and researchers interested in understanding more how Clean Break works as an organisation, run by women for women, with distinctive organisational practices characterised by learning through listening to the voices of those involved in its work and the implications of these practices for management and leadership more widely. Speakers Erin Gavaghan, Executive Director, Clean Break and Professor Gill Kirton, Queen Mary, University of London Erin Gavaghan reflected on the advantages and challenges of how shared leadership has manifest at Clean Break over the past two years. Gill Kirton responded drawing on her academic expertise and practitioner experience in the field of women-only organising. There was space for small group discussion and Q&A. 45 people attended. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/events/women-only-organisations-managing-differently/ |
| Description | Women-only organisations - Managing Differently? - Blog |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This blog is written by Mary Ann le Lean, a doctoral research at Warwick Business School, exploring gender equality at executive level in the UK arts sector. She reflects on Women Only Organisations: Managing Differently? to draw together key areas from across the seminar. As part of our research we are committed to creating opportunities for a range of different voices to respond to the materials developed and shared during the project. Our project website hosts a research blog series which curates these voices. Each writer is commissioned and paid equally. We are actively seeking a range of writers with different areas of expertise and experience. This approach brings both a fresh perspective to the work and new audiences who are connected to/follow the writer. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/research/research-blog/women-only-organisations-managing-differently... |
| Description | Women-only organisations - Working Differently? - Blog |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This blog, written by Mary Ann le Lean, reflects on the seminar, Clean Break: Working Differently? Mary Ann is a doctoral research at Warwick Business School, exploring gender equality at executive level in the UK arts sector. As part of our research we are committed to creating opportunities for a range of different voices to respond to the materials developed and shared during the project. Our project website hosts a research blog series which curates these voices. Each writer is commissioned and paid equally. We are actively seeking a range of writers with different areas of expertise and experience. This approach brings both a fresh perspective to the work and new audiences who are connected to/follow the writer. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/research/research-blog/women-only-organisations-working-differently/ |
| Description | Women/Theatre/Justice research project website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We have created a project website - womentheatrejustice.org - to hold information about the research project and to host a range of forms (blogs, videos of seminars, graphic documentation) which will engage a wide range of audiences with the research and it's findings. We collaborated with Millipedia to create a highly accessible and engaging site that allows us to share the research as it progresses. It is important that the website reflects a diversity of voices and representations of new understandings developing through the research eg through blog posts, working with the project artist in residence (Laura Dean) and linking with our project YouTube channel and twitter account. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| URL | https://womentheatrejustice.org/ |
| Description | Working with Incarcerated Women in the Context of Covid 19 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The event was hosted by Dr Sarah Bartley, School of Film, Theatre and Television, University of Reading. The COVID 19 pandemic has exposed a myriad of healthcare, human rights, education, rehabilitation, and capacity issues within the UK criminal justice system. This event brought together speakers from Criminal Justice, Arts and Culture, and the Women's Sector to reflect on how the coronavirus has impacted the lives of incarcerated women and those encountering the criminal justice system at this time. Kate Paradine (Chief Executive, Women in Prison), Paula Harriott (Head of Prisoner Engagement, Prison Reform Trust); and Emma Torr (Appeal (Women's Justice Initiative), each shared their perspectives on how the women they work with have been affected by the pandemic. The speakers also highlighted the advocacy and campaigning that organisations are undertaking in this moment in order to think about how we might push for change during this moment of crisis. Anna Herrmann, Yasmin Joseph and River (Clean Break Theatre Company) then shared the creative arts practice their organisations have been undertaking within and beyond the prison estate during this period of social isolation. They considered how creative and participatory arts practices can continue to make work that involves and represents incarcerated women under these increased restrictions. Artists from Clean Break and the Prison Partnership Project - Unique Spencer and Polly Frame - then shared short pieces of performance emerging from their creative practice during this period. The Q&A session was chaired by Caoimhe McAvinchey (QMUL, Women/Theatre/Justice) The event was illustrated by Jenny Leonard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLAjBFE_Ax8 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLAjBFE_Ax8 |
| Description | Working with Incarcerated Women in the Context of Covid 19 - edited seminar on project You Tube channel |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Working with Incarcerated Women in the Context of Covid 19 seminar was recorded, edited and shared on the project's Women Theatre Justice You Tube channel. It is part of the project's mission to document and share conversations that will support new understandings about women, theatre, justice and organizational practices beyond the parameters of the original AHRC funded project events. Our You Tube channel offers us an opportunity to provide a library of seminar discussions which can be considered both separately and in relation to one another. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9xOwiUSqMA |