We are offering a free 2 hour practical workshop via Zoom for people working within participatory arts practices, across all art forms. The workshop will explore the importance of autonomy as a guiding principle when collaborating with others.

Autonomy is a relational ideal. The autonomous life is not isolated or self-sufficient. It is lived through supportive and reciprocal relationships with others, and with society in general.

Autonomy is an ideal that can be realised in many ways. Individuals decide for themselves how to self-author given the parameters of their own lives, and their own values.

The format of this workshop will be interactive with the central aim of supporting reflective practice amongst peers.

The workshop will use reflective discussion and embodied arts-based methods to learn more about the importance of autonomy and how it can influence and support practice, for both the participant and the practitioner.

This is an opportunity for collective knowledge building and an invitation to stretch your thinking around participatory practice.

The workshop aims to deepen understanding of autonomy and explore how these ideas can be applied to your own practice.

The session will be facilitated by visual artists Jeni Pearson and Kirsty Stansfield who have 40+ years combined experience working in a range of arts and healthcare settings. Since 2018 Jeni and Kirsty have been collaborating under the umbrella of Tracing Autonomy - www.tracingautonomy.net.

They will be joined by artist, researcher and mentor Nicola Naismith who will be co-hosting the session. Nicola’s recent reports - Practising Well: Conversations & Support Menu (2022) and Artists Practising Well (2019) explore the support needs of creative practitioners working in participatory arts.

Our intention is to offer a supportive space for rich discussion and mutual learning, so the workshop will be limited to a small number of participants. If demand is high we will open a waiting list, so please let us know if you are unable to make the workshop so others can attend.

If you are unsure if this is right for you, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with any questions: autonomy@tracingautonomy.net

Please let us know how we can make this event more accessible for you: autonomy@tracingautonomy.net

An audio recording will be made of the Zoom session for evaluation purposes.

Autonomy of Practice workshop for participatory artists