Dr Suzy O’Hara Lecturer in Digital Arts and Enterprise, Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries, University of Sunderland

In this presentation, O'Hara will explore how art-making and curatorial processes are centralised within cross–sector collaborations to derive new ways of thinking, doing and understanding complex problems affecting society and the planet. It will focus on two recent curatorial projects that have explored the role that hybrid (online and physical), socially engaged arts practices can play within big data science and marine environment conservation.

Delivered throughout the Covid-19 global pandemic, One Cell At A Time is an art and science exhibition that invites exploration of our growing understanding of the trillions of cells that make up the human body, and the role we play in pioneering scientific discovery. It is the result of a UK wide programme of public engagement activities, delivered with the Human Cell Atlas initiative. Funded by the Wellcome Trust, the Human Cell Atlas is a global scientific research initiative aiming to map every cell type in the human body. This research has the potential to transform our understanding of biology and could revolutionise future healthcare and medicine.

Blue futures is an exhibition featuring environmentally-conscious arts practices that enable a deeper understanding of our relationship with the ocean and our local North East coastline. The exhibition forms part of a regional public engagement programme entitled SeaScapes Colab, devised and delivered by O’Hara for SeaScapes, a marine heritage consortium project funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund. The aim of SeaScapes is ‘to reveal and better manage the hidden heritage of our unique seascape and create opportunities for learning, access and enjoyment in order to ignite stewardship of this special place for generations to come’.

Taking these two curatorial projects, the seminar will explore models of cross-sector curatorship that centralise art-making as a conduit for public engagement, knowledge exchange and a site for generating new knowledge through arts practice research.