Alice Chandler

Profile

I am currently undertaking a full time WRoCAH funded collaborative doctoral award between the University of Leeds and Yorkshire Visual Arts Network (YVAN).

My research aims to understand the value and impact of networks for visual artists’ careers and development. It utilises an action-research oriented methodology for understanding network value from the lived perspective of artists in the Yorkshire and Humber region, with a focus on assessing how dominant and alternative economic and ideological frameworks affect how value and impact in artist development are perceived and navigated. Through partnership working, the project also thinks practically about ways in which visual arts organisations and institutions might work collaboratively with artists to provide sustainable development and explore alternative valuation practices within a creative industries policy context. In 2023, I was granted a significant award by WRoCAH for travel to Australia, where I presented my ongoing research at the University of South Australia and engaged in fieldwork within an international policy framework.

I recently completed a UKRI policy placement in the Department for Work and Pensions, where I worked as a social researcher within the Universal Credit Analysis Division. This experience allowed me to critically broaden my perspective on prevalent themes in my research, particularly those concerning self-employment, entrepreneurship, career progression, and associated government policies aiming to support work and employment. Additionally, I have also found it rewarding to work with the Centre for Cultural Value, assessing the application phase of their Collaborate funding programme and sharing insights in Arts Professional. Further, I received funding from Research England Enhancing Research Culture 2022-23 to collaborate on the Artists and Arts Organisations Research Network, a project designed to cultivate a collaborative research culture between academia and industry. Throughout my PhD I have been involved with teaching on undergraduate modules in PCI and FAHACS, and I have participated as a PGR member in the Centre for Cultural Policy and Leadership and the Place Research Group. 

My research is grounded in my experience as an artist and jeweller living and working in Leeds. My artistic practice is informed by the intersection between art, craft and design, and I run my own small business as a jeweller. I create sculptural objects, jewellery, drawings, prints, text, textiles and site-specific installations that build narrative and interrogate our relationship with the domestic, functional and wearable. I am increasingly interested in the layered histories, etymologies, narratives, myths, and meanings around certain objects, materials and places. I use patchwork as method, by considering what happens when you put things in dialogue, and how they begin to juxtapose, interconnect or form relationships.

Recent exhibitions/projects include:

• The Jacquard Project with Hannah Robson (2022-2023)
• Privet at Threshold (2021)
• ACE funded exhibition and project (curatorial) Material Matters at Sunny Bank Mills Gallery (2021)
• Tetley Artists Associate Programme (2018–2019)
• Yorkshire Sculpture International’s Sculpture Network (2020)
• Sitting Show at East Bristol Contemporary (2019). 

Prior to beginning this research, I worked at Leeds based arts and heritage organisation Sunny Bank Mills for 6 years in programming, curating and marketing. Notable projects: Ones to Watch: an annual exhibition for Yorkshire based students and graduates, supporting approx. 30 artists each year with exhibition and residency opportunities.

Research interests

• artist networks
• artist development 
• creative industries and entrepreneurialism
• cultural value, evaluation, and alternative value frameworks 
• cultural labour, “good work”, self-employment and progression
• cultural and social policy
• social capital
• moral economies, social practices, informal labour, friendship and the commons
• qualitative methodologies 
• action research 
• arts education and graduate opportunities
• visual art and craft 

Qualifications

• MA Art Gallery and Museum Studies (University of Leeds)
• BA Hons Sculpture (University of Edinburgh)