The THE Awards are a bit like the Oscars of the higher education sector. Each year there are hundreds of entries that showcase the talent, dedication and innovation of teams and individuals across all aspects of university life. The judging panel selects the shortlisted candidates and the winners in each of the categories. This year, there were 19 categories, many of which were sponsored by different agencies. We were one of the six institutions shortlisted for the award of ‘Excellence and Innovation in the Arts’. Our nomination was based on the pioneering MA in Inclusive Arts Practice, which was founded by Dr Alice Fox. The MA is based on a radical form of collaboration between students and often excluded community groups from around the world. Past students have worked with a range of individuals and participant groups, including people with learning disabilities, children, young people, the elderly, those experiencing homelessness, asylum seekers and youth offending teams.

In 2016, Alice authored a ‘critical manifesto’ – Inclusive Arts and Research and Practice  – that was launched at the Tate Modern in London. Alice has a long-established collaboration with the learning-disabled Rocket Artist group to challenge prejudice and make the case for diversity through symposia, performance and exhibitions. She has worked with many international partners (including Cambodia, Nepal and Ukraine) and brings this international experience to her work at Brighton. Apart from the unusual content, the course breaks new ground in pedagogy, as artists with learning disabilities teach alongside academics as a way of expanding the boundaries of inclusion and challenging conventional notions of who holds knowledge.

On Thursday night, it was an honour for me to be one of Alice’s guests and attend the awards ceremony. Just before the announcement of the winners began, Debra told the table how wonderful it was to be there and to have been shortlisted, thanked Alice and her colleagues for their work and she said, regardless of who wins the category, she was our winner. I could not agree more.

So, when the winner for the category was announced and University of Brighton was named as the winner we were over the moon!

This is what they had to say:

‘The University of Brighton’s Alice Fox has worked collaboratively with non-governmental organisations and museums and galleries, such as Tate Modern and the National Gallery, to develop an inclusive and innovative approach to arts practice. Her work has supported marginalised and under-represented communities to engage with the arts in a variety of creative ways’.

Naturally, we had a wonderful journey back to Brighton, primarily because of her win, but the odd drop of high-quality whisky supplied by Dr Bullen helped as well!

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