On a rare sunny February morning, sunlight streamed through the colourful stained-glass windows of Llanover Hall, casting a warm glow upon a life-sized model of the Paviland ceremonial burial at Penrhyn Gŵyr. This striking piece of sculptural art, crafted from papier-mâché, felt, and zine techniques by Catherine Rees, an artist, doctoral student, and mother, aimed to highlight the influence of gender and class bias on archaeological study and interpretation. Proudly displayed in a room full of art produced by Arts and Historical Research Council Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) PhD students from across the UK, it marked the culmination of the Cardiff edition of the Researchers' Wellbeing Through Art project (RWTA).

Founded in Exeter in 2022 by doctoral students Shibani Das and Rebecca Howarth, the RWTA program includes four introductory art workshops and culminates in an exhibition of research-related art produced by the participants. A programme for researchers, by researchers and of researchers, RWTA hopes to bring care, creativity, and community to the PhD programme.

Care

Doctoral students often display heightened risks of developing mental health conditions like anxiety and depression, particularly among neurodivergent, disabled, female, and BAME students. Drawing from the personal experiences of its founders, the program prioritises creating a safe space for researchers to gather, chat, sip coffee, and listen to music, providing a reprieve from laptops and screens. Working with their hands alongside likeminded, empathetic peers allows them to address the concerns and celebrate the victories others may struggle to understand.

Creativity

Academic institutions can stifle creativity with their rigid standards of work style, knowledge production, and language. Many doctoral students find themselves relegating their creative pursuits to mere hobbies or past fascinations. This creates a suffocation that is particularly perceptible to neurodivergent students, or those used to collaborative and creative working styles. Programmes such as ‘Science Slam’, ‘Dance your PhD’ and RWTA help amend this.

RWTA immerses its participating researchers in their city's art scene, gifts them a starter pack of art supplies, collaborates with local artists and uses local materials. Thus, creating sustainable long-lasting relationships that will outlive the RWTA. In addition to this, exhibiting their work not only legitimises their artistic endeavours but also boosts confidence, encouraging them to integrate creativity into their academic lives.

Community

Our research often remains vacuum sealed in academic conferences, poster presentations, in peer reviewed journals, in underread thesis and underattended lectures. Cloaked in inaccessible nomenclature, it hides from the very taxpayers who fund our work. By displaying their research as art, the researchers convert years of their hard work into its most accessible form, into a non-intimidating conversation starter. Our exhibitions are attended in large numbers by children under the age of 12 and non-academic passers-by and each take deep interest in the research displayed. This social interaction is simultaneously an academic presentation, public lecture and a source of new ideas and directions of investigation for the researcher. As mums, siblings and friends huddle around the researcher and their art, the smiles are as encouraging as they are infectious and symbolic of an effective day of democratising academia.

The Cardiff Edition and Future Plans

Building on the success of the Exeter edition, the Cardiff RWTA received support from Kirsten Mitchell, our Cardiff coordinator, the CDP with a special mention for Claudia ZHert, CDP Scheme Manager. Our venue partners were The National Museum Cardiff and Llanover Hall. Our facilitators were Lynne Croft, Sarah Featherstone, Martha O Brien and Penelope Rose Cowley. The success of this edition can be credited solely to our lovely and talented participants who went out of their way to ensure the smooth running of the final show.

In conclusion, in its second avatar, RWTA stood as a beacon of innovation, promoting holistic wellbeing, fostering community connections, and celebrating creativity within academia. As they look ahead to future editions in new cities with new cohorts, the organisers welcome inquiries from interested individuals and institutions, eager to continue their mission of integrating art into the research journey.

If you or your institution are interested in participating in our project, please reach out to us at Sd720@exeter.ac.uk. We would be thrilled to hear from you!