Getting creative

Professor Catherine Richardson, UEA’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Arts and Humanities, on creativity, partnership and the opportunities ahead for UEA and the region.

Alongside our exceptional MA in Creative Writing, there are many other significant teaching programmes and exciting cultural offers at UEA, and I am enjoying bringing these to the fore.

A core part of my role is overseeing priorities for our teaching, research and the work we do in our communities. I sit on the Executive Team of the University, helping feed our work into UEA strategy and policymaking, but a good deal of my work also takes place off campus, working with partners to identify shared priorities that can grow the profile, culture and economy of our region.

One of the biggest opportunities is the chance to build more dynamic collaborations across sectors. Norfolk has an increasingly important creative industries cluster, alongside strengths in health, climate, food, clean energy and advanced manufacturing. Creative and cultural expertise can help develop new ideas, products and services, and drive innovation with lasting impact.

“There’s a place for you in the next chapter we’re writing now.”

- Professor Catherine Richardson, UEA’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Arts and Humanities

UEA has an incredibly strong and distinctive international reputation, which I had been aware of for a long time, so the opportunity to lead an ambitious Faculty of excellent colleagues was not to be missed.

That ambition sits at the heart of Creativity in Action, our new Cultural Strategy. It is about embedding creativity across the whole campus; physically in our spaces, and through enterprise, teaching and learning, research, and partnerships. Our students should notice the difference from their very first weeks at UEA, onwards into fulfilling careers, through more interdisciplinary learning, more work with external partners, and more opportunities to engage with new technologies and real-world challenges.

Partnerships are central to that work. Arts Council England (ACE) and UEA share a belief in the importance of creativity and culture in place-making, particularly in areas facing historic underfunding, rural isolation and socioeconomic hardship. Together, we are exploring how cultural partnerships can support communities most vulnerable to climate change and public health challenges, creating new community-led programmes that tackle inequalities.

Philanthropy has an essential role to play. It allows innovation and new initiatives to be tested before other forms of funding have caught up and can have a transformative effect on people’s daily lives and life chances.

Creativity was fundamental to UEA’s origins and continues to shape every area of University life. Whether we are addressing climate change, health or our campus, it underpins our success and is vital to UEA’s future.