The Hospitality Project: Exploring hospitality as an arts-based praxis to remake relationships of co-production

Lead Research Organisation: University of Bristol
Department Name: Geographical Sciences

Abstract

The Hospitality Project is an arts-based research collaboration with Bristol-based community partners (Dignity for Asylum-Seekers, the Bristol Hospitality Network, and Barton Hill Walled Garden Project) which uses practices of hospitality as a prism through which to problematise and rework the power relations of co-production. The three partners are each committed to building a praxis of solidarity and co-production alongside asylum-seekers, migrant communities and people experiencing destitution. For each, 'hospitality' is both part of this praxis and a key site of tension. Hospitality means sharing food, space and time, and acknowledging the equality between those who give and those who receive. However, roles of giving and receiving can become quickly sedimented, and clashes occur when an act of giving is misunderstood. Linguistic barriers prevent clear communication, while, in residential environments the stress of sharing material resources can escalate into conflict. Members and service-users in the three organisations also articulate uncertainty over what is expected of them in different hosting contexts (eg. in homestay accommodation, in a Home Office interview) and how to communicate 'truth' across cultural barriers that remain invisible. Drawing on the PI and Co-Is' previous engagements with hospitality from theoretical, political, and cultural perspectives this project will actively mobilise such tensions by exploring hospitality as a 'praxis'. Specifically we will investigate how hospitality practices can be fashioned into a vehicle for making the power relationships of co-production visible and transformable. This means placing some faith in hospitality as a means of social transformation - not least because practices like sharing food allow material and 'more-than-human' actors to interrupt and reconfigure social relationships. On the other hand it also means recognising that hospitality is a complicated enterprise, entailing the negotiation of myriad cultural ideas and difficult situational decisions about common ownership of spaces, projects and organisations.

To meet these aims, the project will be structured around the creation of a series of participatory arts-based workshops called 'the Table', culminating in an open event for the public. Drawing on the expertise of spoken word artists, the workshops will be co-designed around traditional hospitality practices: sharing food, cooking, and creating welcoming garden spaces. Within these contexts, reflexive storytelling will provide a flexible way for diversely-situated participants to address the complex ideas of hospitality, including (with the support of trained community interpreters) linguistic and cultural differences. Arts-based 'tactics' will be used to explore the background stories which place people in relation to each other, and how such stories may become open to change. Finally, the workshops will also be used to test out different 'rules' and 'rituals' for creating shared spaces without falling back on static host/guest relationships. At the end of the workshops, the majority of the participants in the Table workshops will attend an away weekend called 'the Feast,' where participants will reflect on the tactics and rules which have proven most effective, leading to the devising of a co-produced booklet. The publication of the booklet will be increasingly managed by volunteer peer researchers - participants from the workshops who will receive additional training - and will allow the knowledge produced to be communicated to other community organisations and professional bodies. The development of a dynamic website and the staging of a collaborative open event at the end of the project will allow a number of publics to be engaged by the knowledge produced, and will establish a basis for further research. The academic partners will also write up these reflections in the form of an academic paper on the 'arts of co-production'.

Planned Impact

1. ACADEMIC BENEFICIARIES
1a. Connected Communities Research Programme
Relevant outputs: Co-authored paper, Co-produced booklet, Project website, Participation in Summits
The project's (re-)conceptualisations of co-production will result in academic learning which will enrich the Connected Communities Programme. Specifically, understanding the negotiation of knowledge production and co-operation across cultural and linguistic boundaries will enable the development of more 'hospitable' research.

1b. Participative research communities and knowledge exchange practices
Relevant outputs: Co-authored paper, Co-produced booklet, Conference paper, Follow-up grant
The publication of an academic paper and a co-produced booklet, themed around 'translating hospitality', will be valuable resources in rethinking participative research practices and knowledge exchange for the contemporary moment. In particular this engagement will be aimed at strengthening dialogues between the arts and social sciences.

2. ECONOMIC & SOCIETAL IMPACT
2a. Community partner organisations
Relevant outputs: Co-produced workshop programme, Peer researcher training, Website, Co-produced booklet, Open Event (exhibition), Project Report
This research, driven by the partners' own questions and practical agendas, will focus on issues arising from the attempt to provide services, host people (in homes or in drop-in centres) and provide effective advocacy across cultural divides. The learning emerging from the workshops, away weekend, and booklet will be directly useful to the managers and volunteers of such organisations, while the project will leave a legacy of trained peer researchers. In addition, the project will establish stronger and more transparent mechanisms for co-production within the ongoing life of the organisations.

2b. UK-based community organisations
Relevant outputs: Co-produced booklet, Website, Discussion paper summarising key issues, Open Event (exhibition), Project Report
Other organisations will profit from this learning. In particular, the tactics tested through the workshops and the 'rules and rituals' recorded within the booklet will be tools for future instances of internal reflection. Follow-up research may focus on using the co-produced booklet to stimulate conversations and engagement among other community organisations and professional bodies. This will also allow organisations to provide better services - in particular to pay attention to how their intentions translate and are perceived by those they work with, and how and why conflict occurs.
Peer research training will allow for continued cycles of learning and innovation beyond the duration of the project, and will also be usable by other organisations who face similar issues.

2c. Bristol neighbourhoods
Relevant outputs: Website, Open Event (exhibition)
As the project has a geographical focus, outputs will be immediately relevant to a number of other publics, including charitable groups and neighbourhood partnerships. The Open Event held near the end of the project will engage a number of these publics, whilst the website will provide access to others. Profiling during Refugee Week and City of Sanctuary events will further connect the project to wider agendas of hospitality and egalitarian participation.

2d. UK-based policy-makers who wish to incorporate the experience of marginalised 'others' into processes of policy-making
Relevant outputs: Discussion papers, Website, Project Report
The learning which emerges through this project will also be applicable to other professionals which aim to consult or involve those affected by issues of exclusion, poverty, or marginalisation within policy processes. Beyond the remit of this study, but presenting potential next steps, might be a consideration of the meaning of hospitality within the law, and within the policy-making processes.
 
Title Arts of Hospitality 
Description A booklet of photographic images and narrative text that follows the journey of the Hospitality Project, and key learnings emerging from the project. 
Type Of Art Artefact (including digital) 
Year Produced 2016 
Impact The booklet was launched at an event that marked the end of the project, and has been circulated to key asylum and refugee organisations in the South West UK. 
 
Title Arts of Hospitality (film) 
Description A 15 minute film that tells the story of the Hospitality Project and its impacts on individual lives. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2016 
Impact The video was launched as part of an event and is now available online. 
URL https://vimeo.com/152443351
 
Description 1. Friendship as a key relation in Hospitality
Hospitality in the context of asylum seekers, refugees and local hosts is often framed in terms of provision of shelter, food, legal support and other services. Additionally, more political activities relating to dignity and campaigning, and involvement in community projects as volunteers, are valued.
The findings of this project point towards friendship as a vital relational dynamic that can sometimes be overlooked and/or obscured. Specifically, it highlighted the value of friendship across multiple divides (host-hosted, gender, nationality, religion, marital status, age etc.) Such friendship, based on shared experiences and the respecting of differences, opens up space for new understandings and expressions of communality as well as fostering mutual support. Throughout the project, the important qualities of beauty, fun, playfulness, being relaxed together and tranquility, emerged as significant qualities of shared sociality.

2. Art and objects as language beyond/before words
While storytelling (both in the social and the legal sense) often takes a centre place in the experience of asylum seekers and refugees, our project found that language could also provide a form of challenge in cross-cultural communication and the processes of collaboration.
The project workshops used art practices (drama, drawing and object making) in two ways: as a means to explore and express themes relating to experiences of hospitality, and as a technique for facilitating storytelling in relation to particular objects/processes developed at the workshops.
We found that the participants preferred doing things together rather than being limited to story/word based activities. Talking through objects, rather than having to use abstract concepts or drawing on one's personal story, worked particularly effectively. We found that creating and/or referring to objects/images facilitates reflection and dialogue, and enables ideas to emerge with subtle, elusive or metaphorical qualities.
Hospitality is aesthetic.

3. Workshops as learning and doing hospitality
The primary vehicle in our research was a series of workshops. The workshops provided a flexible format, whereby diverse and innovative approaches could be explored, underpinned by a continuity of core team members and participants, as well as the structuring theme of hospitality.
The roaming workshop, with its emphasis on materiality and relational qualities, allowed us to learn about and practice hospitality without the research, and research questions, being placed centre stage. As one of the participants commented, 'Doing something that is not (directly) the thing, allows the thing to happen/unfold'. The workshops proved to be an unexpected place of community and creativity.
On a group scale, the workshops operated in a similar way to how the object/image activity did at the individual level: they provided a collective focus on a shared experience which served to prompt broader reflections on hospitality. This was exemplified in how the group presented the project's findings (through creating objects (bowls), a venue, a meal, artwork, and though a booklet and video using materials from the workshops) that embodied, visualised, and enacted the sense and qualities of the findings rather than in more abstract written and/or oral formats.
In sum, we explored the tension between researching hospitality and making research hospitable. We found this tension creative, revelatory, challenging, and even at times elusive.

4. Co-production as process
In seeking to co-produce research and hospitality with such a diverse team and group, we found that co-production takes time - it cannot be rushed, and needs to be both held and led.
We found that there needed to be a mix of assigning clear roles for certain tasks, alongside the opportunity to do things collectively; furthermore, it became clear that this mix needs to be fluid and adaptable. Three elements emerged as key in this process. 1. having a member of the team who was in close contact with the participants and could liaise with them between workshop sessions; this enabled continuity and the development of the group as participant attendance was regular and sustained. 2. having a diverse team modelled co-production as possibility. 3. we found that welcoming, hosting and holding dissent and difference, through reflective group discussions, opened up space for finding communality.
In terms of method, we found that the workshop method of using material objects and images to frame and reframe questions particularly useful in terms of allowing nuanced differences to emerge. This method also showed that doing activities and making things together fostered a shared sense of identity, commonality and purpose.


In what ways might your findings be taken forward or put to use by others?

5. Findings: Values/principles
Rather than producing a guide for practising hospitality in community contexts, the group's findings emerged as a cluster of five values/principles, lessons, and questions. These findings could be taken forward and put to use by looking at how they might apply in a variety of specific contexts and settings, e.g. service providers, community projects, and campaign groups. As such they are more widely applicable and potentially empowering than a set of guidelines, as they can be (and need to be) interpreted in specific ways within each setting.

6. Findings: Emergent Questions about Process
The key findings relating to running a collaborative research project which incorporated elements of participatory research, action research, community arts are best framed as questions:
friendship as a key relationship - how can we best form friendships across multiple social divisions? In what ways does friendship challenge or displace the relationship between the host/hosted?
hosting dissent - how do we best surface and value difference?
displacement - how can we use objects/images and workshops to look at experience from a 'sidelong' perspective?
research as action - how can we use research as an opportunity to play with practicing the research topic?
empowerment - what role does hosting play in empowerment?
Exploitation Route The next stage of this project is to explore how these findings will be taken forward. However, please see 'narrative impact' for early ways that this has been actioned.
Sectors Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
 
Description As of 2017, the project has supported a number of additional outputs. Specifically, the findings of the Hospitality Project have contributed toward the development of a retreat space near Bristol, where arts practices are being integrated with cultural exchange. Members in the project have visited this retreat space regularly, and we are looking forward to making a new funding application to build on this foundation. There is a aspiration to incorporate an element of literature and reading practices into the subsequent application. The participants (including refugees, asylum seekers, hosts and community links) reported the following impacts: Improved English language A number of participants reported improved English language understanding and skills as a consequence of involvement in the project. In the filmed interviews one of the participants said 'There are some people who don't understand English but I think they are improving now because of this project'. Mental health benefits Several participants remarked on having a 'fresh mind' after workshops and commented on the value of creative group activities that relieved them of the anxiety of their uncertain circumstances and troubled past. One of the participants commented 'When you're at home, a lot of things come into your mind. So when you come here [to the workshops] and meet new people, you feel at home.' New Skills and confidence Many participants commented positively about learning new skills (often to do with creative arts) and commented on how these led to an increased sense of self-confidence. Developing cross-cultural friendships The majority of participants valued making new friendships through the project, particularly across cultural, gender and host/hosted divides. Two female participants specifically stated that it gave them new skills and confidence to make friends across cultural borders. As one of the participants commented 'When people get the way to agree [amongst] themselves, then they can work together.' Sense of belonging and community A commonly identified benefit of being involved in the project was an increased sense of belonging and community amongst participants; they mentioned 'feeling at home' at workshops, having a 'new family' and 'finding unity' and/or 'solidarity' with the group. One of the participants commented 'When we connect together we are stronger. Hospitality has brought us together. It has built a family'. Shared understanding and the culture of hospitality Members of the group described the benefits of developing a shared understanding and culture of hospitality, in contrast to discussions at the start of the project in which people expressed individual or more culturally specific understandings of the meanings of hospitality. Reduced isolation Several members of the research group commented on the importance of the project to them in terms of reducing social isolation through participating in creative activities/workshops; they noted that these scheduled group activities got them 'out of the house', and further commented on the relationships of mutual support and care that developed directly as a result of friendships established on the project. One participant commented 'People are lonely. Refugees here have no family and hospitality brings friends. We need it every week, every day'. In terms of tangible community organisation/project scale impacts, the findings of the research so far include the following: Asylum Seekers Allotment Project Learnings have been incorporated into the re-design of how the Asylum Seekers Allotment Project (one of the community groups involved in the research) operates along with complementary research about the individual needs of asylum seekers in relation to gardening, food, community involvement, and health. The Allotment Project has been running for five years, so involvement in this research project has helped two garden leaders to reflect on their experience and to learn from others working with similar people and aims. Both the findings and process of the research are being used to influence how the Allotment Project continues in terms of the activities it carries out, how it welcomes and invites people and the location of its activities. Bristol Hospitality Network. It has given the Bristol Hospitality Network a focus for reflecting on how their ethos (Solidarity, Equality, Mutual Empowerment, Hospitality, Integrity, and Creative Resistance) is practiced and how they might develop and evolve their ethos to incorporate the project findings. This could take shape in various forms, e.g. organising more arts and 'making together' workshops and activities (for all the impacts identified above), and using community arts to explore other aspects of the network's culture/activities. Potstop In response to their involvement in the research and participant feedback, one of the community artists (Lou) involved has arranged for a local pottery business (Potstop) to offer free places on some of their courses for asylum seekers. Kith and Kin The Project co-ordinator (Tim Lawrence) was able to draw on the project experience and findings in his successful application for a one year Action Research Fellowship. This work will explore local inhabitants' relationship to the land at a bioregional level, specifically in terms of re-imagining and co-creating a new sense of kith and kin in the face of alienation and separation from land and family/clan/community. The hospitality and friendship offered by nature and illegal/legal aliens is a key thread in this emerging research venture. This action research will work in collaboration with activists, community artists, asylum seekers, home educators and those endeavouring to make a land-based livelihood. Strategies developed at The Hospitality Project workshops will directly feed into this future project's aims and methods.
First Year Of Impact 2016
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Other
Impact Types Cultural,Societal,Policy & public services
 
Description Naomi Millner: The Hospitality Project Network 
Organisation Barton Hill Walled Garden
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution This collaboration was created through the Hospitality Project, building on ideas developed with the Authority Research networks over years previous. The collaboration ran arts projects for members of refugee organisations in Bristol as a basis for research co-production.
Collaborator Contribution We ran ten workshops over 11 months, conducted one week away, ran a final event and an evaluation building toward future partnerships.
Impact Arts of Hospitality Open Event, Film, and Booklet.
Start Year 2015
 
Description Naomi Millner: The Hospitality Project Network 
Organisation Bristol Hospitality Network (BHN)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution This collaboration was created through the Hospitality Project, building on ideas developed with the Authority Research networks over years previous. The collaboration ran arts projects for members of refugee organisations in Bristol as a basis for research co-production.
Collaborator Contribution We ran ten workshops over 11 months, conducted one week away, ran a final event and an evaluation building toward future partnerships.
Impact Arts of Hospitality Open Event, Film, and Booklet.
Start Year 2015
 
Description Naomi Millner: The Hospitality Project Network 
Organisation Davis & Jones arts
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution This collaboration was created through the Hospitality Project, building on ideas developed with the Authority Research networks over years previous. The collaboration ran arts projects for members of refugee organisations in Bristol as a basis for research co-production.
Collaborator Contribution We ran ten workshops over 11 months, conducted one week away, ran a final event and an evaluation building toward future partnerships.
Impact Arts of Hospitality Open Event, Film, and Booklet.
Start Year 2015
 
Description Naomi Millner: The Hospitality Project Network 
Organisation Dignity for Asylum Seekers
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution This collaboration was created through the Hospitality Project, building on ideas developed with the Authority Research networks over years previous. The collaboration ran arts projects for members of refugee organisations in Bristol as a basis for research co-production.
Collaborator Contribution We ran ten workshops over 11 months, conducted one week away, ran a final event and an evaluation building toward future partnerships.
Impact Arts of Hospitality Open Event, Film, and Booklet.
Start Year 2015
 
Description Naomi Millner: The Hospitality Project Network 
Organisation Feed Bristol
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution This collaboration was created through the Hospitality Project, building on ideas developed with the Authority Research networks over years previous. The collaboration ran arts projects for members of refugee organisations in Bristol as a basis for research co-production.
Collaborator Contribution We ran ten workshops over 11 months, conducted one week away, ran a final event and an evaluation building toward future partnerships.
Impact Arts of Hospitality Open Event, Film, and Booklet.
Start Year 2015
 
Description Blog engagement with the 'Refugee Crisis' 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact In response to growing public debate on issues of migration, citizenship, and hospitality, Naomi Millner wrote a 'thinkpiece' that was published on a Bristol news outlet site. The post was shared through social media multiple times, and catalysed a number of debates. The news outlet (Bristol 24-7) reported that the post had been shared more than 1200 times, achieving many more reads than this. It was later republished to the Policy Bristol website and to authorityresearch.net , with Naomi also being invited to two interviews on local radio and one interview for regional news.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.bristol247.com/channel/news-comment/daily/society/refugee-crisis-ten-practical-ways-to-he...
 
Description Gallery display and talk 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact The academic partners, community partners and some of the project participants contributed to the annual TaPRA conference (Theatre and Performance Research Association) which took place at the University of Bristol on 5-7 September 2016. The project video 'The Arts of Hospitality' was played as an exhibit in the Practice Gallery and information about the project was displayed to the gallery visitors. On 6 September, the group (made up of academic and non-academic participants) presented the project to an audience of about 60 researchers in the setting of the Practice Gallery under the heading 'Beyond Hosts and Guests: Co-Production and Questions of Hospitality in Practice Research'.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Journeys Festival International 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Major festival of refugee arts for public audiences in Manchester, Portsmouth and Leicester. International partners project starting 2018.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016,2017,2018
 
Description Production of Resource List 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The resource list was compiled during The Art of Hospitality AHRC Connected Communities project. It was circulated on the websites of the community partners with whom we worked and on my own research blog. The project was very recently completed so it it too early to predict impact. NB. it seems that it is not possible to add more than one website address (below).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.communityartsunwrapped.com
 
Description Sharing video of The Art of Hospitality 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact The video from The Art of Hospitality AHRC Connected Communities project was shared as a blog post. The project has finished within the last month so it is too soon to predict the impact of this activity.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2006
URL http://www.communityartsunwrapped.com
 
Description Short documentary featured on regional BBC television 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact In recognition of the cultural and political importance of the Somali Kitchen, a social enterprise set up as part of the food working group project "Wo decides what's in my fridge", participants of the research and Dr Naomi Millner were interviewed and broadcast in a 10 minute TV special broadcast, as part of a series called InsideOut West. The broadcast primarily featured Somali mums Suad and Sahra talking about their venture and how they, and we, are taking on the problem of too many takeaways in their area.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-47429032/somali-kitchen-the-mums-taking-on-the-takeaways
 
Description The Arts of Hospitality: Open Event 
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 This event was the culmination of the Hospitality Project. Participants in the project designed the space and food for the guests and presented key aspects of our learning alongside the launch of our video and booklet.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016