Atelier: Creative Arts and Social Sciences Network

The Atelier Network brings together researchers, practitioners, teachers and learners in Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) and the School of Social and Political Science (SSPS) at the University of Edinburgh. In doing so, it also brings us closer to external partners, including museums, galleries and collectives across the city.

Atelier’s primary objectives are:

- To coordinate teaching and research in the arts and social science subject areas within ECA, SPS and other Schools;

-To create a stronger sense of collective identity in order to drive forward interdisciplinary approaches to research and teaching;

- To strengthen relationships with practitioners and other institutions to further enhance the impact of our research.

Atelier’s coordinators include:

Dr Richard Baxstrom, Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology, School of Social and Political Science (Richard.Baxstrom@ed.ac.uk)

Dr Angela McClanahan-Simmons, Senior Lecturer in Visual Culture, Edinburgh College of Art (a.mcclanahan@ed.ac.uk)

Professor Neil Mulholland, Professor of Contemporary Art Practice & Theory, Edinburgh College of Art (n.mulholland@ed.ac.uk)

Our partners to date include National Museums Scotland, Atlas, Deveron Projects, Collective Gallery and Rhubaba.

Atelier is the editorial home of the Taylor & Francis Journal, Visual Culture in Britain. Richard Baxstrom and Angela McClanahan-Simmons  co-edit the journal, in collaboration with colleagues Professor Christopher Breward (ECA) and Dr Jonny Murray (ECA Director of Undergraduate Learning & Teaching).

The Network has hosted an Edinburgh Film Seminar: Roundtable on Realizing the Witch: Science, Cinema and the Mastery of the Invisible, with panellists Jonny Murray, David Sorfa and Richard Baxstrom. It officially launched on 27th November 2015 with a seminar by artist Christine Borland, In and around 'Circles of Focus', on her collaborative project with artist Brody Condon exploring human body donation for artistic research and practice.

As part of the Edinburgh Art Festival 2016, Atelier and partner organisation, Rhubaba, presented an in-conversation event within the exhibition Still life with flying objects. In this event, anthropologist Daniel Miller and ECA’s Angela McClanahan speculated on how focusing on material culture can help us to illuminate how objects shape various social, cultural and natural worlds and vice versa.