The Care Lab is an organisation exploring artful, creative care and building more caring communities.
We believe that care is a practice that can be considered a craft, creative practice or art form in its own right. At its best, care is a practice of repair for individuals, communities, and the world in which we live. Creative care is an important, sometime first step, in practices of solidarity.
The Care Lab focuses on the art-like qualities of the care we give, experience and receive. By art-like qualities, we mean aspects of care that are sensory, relational, and focused on practice. Creativity and craft in care can be found, for instance, in the kind of touch used to reassure someone, or in how a person attends to making a space of care warm and welcoming; or even in the dedicated attention to taste and smell while cooking a communal meal.
Carelessness is a political issue. And paying attention to the everyday craft of care holds the potential to change the way we relate to the world around us.
The Lab does this by:
Platforming the artful, creative and sensory work of carers in different health, social and community settings
Producing new work led by carers, artists, or carer-artists exploring the dynamics of creative, artful care in diverse contexts
Researching the aesthetics of care in multiple social and creative contexts
The Lab hosts seminars, runs workshops, festivals and commissions carer-led and artist-led projects. See our UPCOMING for current events, and PROJECTS for ongoing work.
Our events are for everyday carers, professional carers and healthcare workers, artists, academics, activists and everyone interested in the practice of care.
The Lab came out of the Care Aesthetics research project at the University of Manchester, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
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