Winter School 2024 in Leeds (UK)

In 2023 and 2024 Dr. Guislain Museum will organise with several partners a series of international training events in three European cities with a rich textile heritage: Ghent, Leeds and Tilburg. Although each edition will have a specific focus (communities, co-creation and making/makers) the red thread will be arts-based engagements using textile heritage. The participants of the three editions will be connected through the development of an art engagement using a textile source under the guidance of artist and researcher Claire Wellesley-Smith.

 For second edition of this series, Dr. Guislain Museum will team up with Leeds Museums and Galleries and Arts & Sciences University College London. Together they’ll deliver the International Winter School Cultural Heritage & Wellbeing: Textile Cities from Monday 22 until Friday 26 January 2024 in Leeds (UK).

For five days the participants receive a theoretical underpinning and are going to be guided in developing a wellbeing offering. The participants will encounter a wide range of inspiring cases where co-creation is used for the improvement of the wellbeing. Leeds Museums and Galleries have an embedded Community Team who lead on this offering for the organisation, with goals of improving people’s wellbeing being an integral part of many aspects of the programming across the city’s museums and art gallery. Discover how exhibitions, family workshops, adult programmes, and more are utilised to help people improve their own mental health whilst accessing culture in Leeds.

The Winter School is to be delivered by a highly experienced team of experts who are leading in different fields connected to heritage, community engagement and wellbeing:

-      Bart De Nil, expert wellbeing, culture and community engagement, Belgium
Developed training programs and published several books about cultural heritage, health and wellbeing based on this own experience as a practitioner and researcher. Organised and delivered many international training programmes.

-      Bart Marius, artistic director Dr. Guislain Museum, Belgium
Is leading an internationally renowned museum about mental health that uses its museum grounds as a place of care. Their focus is on creative community engagement in co-operation with neighbourhood health centres.

-      Claire Wellesley-Smith, researcher and artist, United Kingdom
She specialises in long-term engagements in post-industrial textile communities across the north of England. Her research explores connections through textile-based activities that link health, wellbeing and heritage.

-      Chris Sharp, keeper at Leeds Industrial Museum and Thwaite Watermill (LM&G), UK
Is a manager at 2 of the council run museums in Leeds, before which he was an Assistant Community Curator focusing on wellbeing through access to cultural activities and programming. Chris continues to embed a people-centred approach, believing a friendly and kind experience can break down barriers for people and open their horizons for their own benefit.

-      Kate Fellows, head of Learning and Access (LM&G), United Kingdom
Is an experienced and caring senior manager at LM&G who leads a team of dedicated museum professionals across 9 museums and galleries delivering life-long learning accessible to people on their own terms.

-      Thomas Kador, lecturer in Creative Health, University College London (UCL) Department of Arts & Sciences, United Kingdom

Is a material culture specialist with research interests in the health and wellbeing potential of (cultural) spaces, collections and their objects. He convenes UCL’s MASc Creative Health programme, which focuses on non-clinical, asset based health interventions.

Organised in Leeds

Much like Ghent and Tilburg, Leeds is unashamedly a textile city. Its growth from a small town to a large industrial hub happened rapidly during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, driven by the industrial revolution and the wool trade.

This trade can be dated back to Cistercian Monks at Kirkstall Abbey from the 1100s and increased massively in the early 1800s making Leeds one of the largest and most diverse cities in the UK.

Leeds Museums and Galleries are a local authority NPO for Arts Council England, managing 9 sites across the city including what was once the world’s largest Woollen Mill, an Elizabethan Country House, city centre art gallery and museum, and ruined abbey.

Their collections are of international importance, and are used along with the venues and skills of its representative workforce to engage with and improve the lives of both the local community and visitors from further afield.

LM&G are proud to be a local authority museum service meeting the needs of the city’s population through resources they themselves own. Health and wellbeing, alongside environmental responsibility and social justice, are at the heart of what they do with their portfolio.

Tilburg

The last edition of Cultural Heritage & Wellbeing: Textile Cities will be the Spring School in Tilburg (The Netherlands), in cooperation with Erfgoed Tilburg and Arts & Sciences University College London, from 3 to 7 June 2024. Focus: making/makers.

Who is this training course for?

1. Professionals working in cultural heritage organisations (museums, archives, galleries, libraries with special collections)

2. Practitioners working with heritage in community engagement and creative health

3. Students and researchers in the field of creative health, museum studies, etc.

At the end of this training course, you'll be able to develop a resource for a specific targetgroup or context, design wellbeing activities, make a detailed plan of a resource and present the rational of a resource to the group.

Practical information

Location: Different locations in Leeds
Fee: 500€ (VAT excluded) / students: 350€ (VAT excluded)

For this you will get lunches, refreshments and snacks during the sessions and breaks, course materials. All other expenses are borne by the participants. Attending the social program is not mandatory. There’s a very large variation of accommodation in Leeds.

Maximum 20 participants. Places in the winter school are limited to ensure the quality and depth of the interactions and discussions. The organisers also aim to ensure a diverse group of participants.

Participants are expected to bring their laptop.

How to register

Send an email stating your name, position and/or institution to: textilecities@gmail.com

You’ll receive confirmation. If your registration is accepted, you’ll receive an email with more details. The invoice for the registration fee will be send to the participant after the confirmation. Your registration is only final after payment of registration fee. The participants will receive in advance a briefing document with a detailed schedule of the winter school.