Innovations in Practice: Placemaking

Despite the growing emphasis on arts and creative practice in place management, there is often little space for honest discussion of what doesn’t go to plan — misaligned collaborations, disengaged communities, unanticipated resistance, or short-lived interventions. This webinar invites contributors to share insights from failure, friction, or adaptation in their use of creative engagement methods within place-based projects. We seek to explore the gap between theory and practice, and to create a space for constructive reflection.

Event Schedule: 

12:00 – 12:10 Welcome and housekeeping

12:10-12:20 Introduction Dr Rowan Bailey, Director of the Centre for Cultural Ecologies in Art, Design and Architecture, University of Huddersfield.

12:20 – 12:30 What If We Got It Wrong? The Gift of Failure: Unlearning success and reclaiming risk in civic practice, by embracing the uncomfortable in academic engagement, Dr Rhiannon Jones, Associate Professor (Civic Practice). Head of Civic and Communities, University of Derby.

12:30 – 12:40 Hazards on the Civic Trail: Exploring the common hazards universities encounter on their civic engagement journey, Adam Ellis Leach, Programme Director, National Civic Impact Accelerator (NCIA) and Head of Civic Strategy & National Initiatives, Sheffield Hallam University. 

12:40 – 12:50 Uncomfortable placemaking: Reflections on stakeholder disruptions in engaged scholarship, Professor Steve Millington, Professor of Place Management, Manchester Metropolitan University.

12:50 – 13:10 Discussion

13:10 – 13:20 Launch of Civic and Place: Framing the Role of the Civic in Art and Design Working Paper, Dr Rowan Bailey

Speakers: 

Steve Millington Steve is a Professor of Place Management at Manchester Metropolitan University.  He leads on the delivery of the Institute of Place Management’s Vital and Viable Programme, supporting high street and town centre revitalisation.  Between 2019-24 Steve was a High Streets Taskforce Expert, during which he designed and delivered a national programme of placemaking workshops with supporting action plans in 40 towns across England.  He has published many papers and edited two books on place and placemaking.  His current research project focuses on circular society innovations. 

Adam Ellis Leach: Programme Director, National Civic Impact Accelerator (NCIA) and Head of Civic Strategy & National Initiatives, Sheffield Hallam University. Adam established and now leads the National Civic Impact Accelerator (NCIA), a nationwide ‘what-works’ initiative, funded by Research England, designed to deepen the civic impact of universities across the country. He leads a team of professionals at Sheffield Hallam University and multi-disciplinary teams across NCIA partner organisations across the UK. Previously a civil servant, Adam specialised in complex data analysis and intelligence to improve national education policy, improving educational outcomes from the early years to adulthood, developing regional strategies to address skills gaps, and leveraging the power and resources of educational organisations like universities to drive positive societal change. 

Dr Rhiannon Jones (FRSA) is Associate Professor (Civic Practice), Head of Civic and Communities at the University of Derby. She leads CivicLAB an Institution-wide centre on participatory culture, creative dialogue, and civic practice. She chairs the International Contemporary Working Art Group for Cumulus, the only Global Association in Art and Design. She is a member of the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement and Trustee of New Art Exchange, a ground-breaking, Global Majority, NPO for Arts Council England and an award-winning and internationally recognised Gallery. She regularly works with Council for Higher Education in Art and Design, Royal Society of Arts, British Academy and Design Council UK. Her research into placemaking is a case study for the National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange and presented at the All-Party Parliamentary Design and Innovation Group. She is a published academic, most recently with Intellect Books (2024), Taylor and Francis (2024-5) and had work featured with Council for Higher Education in Art and Design on Women in Leadership (2024) and NCACE (2024) as example of best practice. She frequently provides keynotes Nationally and Internationally within the Civic, Creative and Cultural Industry Sector. She judged the UKNA artists in 2024 and judged the Derbyshire Community Business Awards for East Midlands Chamber of Commerce in 2022-23. She co-founded InDialogue, curating international conferences and residencies, supporting over 600 artists from over 15 countries since its inception. She founded Designing Dialogue CIC the first spin out from the University of Derby, that tours  S.H.E.D; a public arts, touring and innovation space which has received several national honours and has engaged with 12 counties, 41 partners and 42,596 people directly, 700 creatives and commissioned 50 new works. She has received funding from partners such as Design Council, UK, CHEAD, Arts Council England, RSA and local trusts and councils. Accolades include: finalist for Universities Alliance Award (2022), Shed of the year finalist (2020), UK Green Gown Awards: Benefiting Community (2021). She has been selected as a social regenerative entrepreneur and is a Catalyst Grant holder from, the Royal Society of Arts (2023-4) and it is a UKRI ARC Accelerator funded project (2025). www.weareshed.co.uk www.linkedin.com/in/dr-rhiannon-jones-frsa-a15047258 https://www.derby.ac.uk/civic/

Dr Rowan Bailey is Director of the Centre for Cultural Ecologies in Art, Design and Architecture. Rowan is a Reader in Cultural Theory and Practice at the University of Huddersfield and specialises in place-based making in the arts and humanities. She is Project Lead for Cultures of _; a thematic annual place-based public realm programme, involving exhibitions, installations, performances, workshops, podcasts, talks and discussion on a variety of topics across the arts and humanities. Programmes include: Cultures of Place (21/22), Cultures of Sound (22/23), Cultures of Creative Health (23/24), Cultures of Climate (24/25). Rowan is also Principal Lead of the Creative Health Hub at the University of Huddersfield. For more details about the Centre for Cultural Ecologies in Art, Design and Architecture, see: Centre for Cultural Ecologies in Art, Design and Architecture – University of Huddersfield