Lisa Howard is a creative facilitator and producer who works on community-focussed creative, media and research projects. Lisa is a strong advocate for the value of creative and visual practices, and practitioners, in projects which tackle social justice issues.
Currently Community Research Coordinator (July 2021 to present) on the Plymouth arm of the FoodSEqual (Food Systems Equality) project; a 5-year UKRI national consortium project led by University of Reading, the Plymouth work package is led by Dr Clare Pettinger (Principle Investigator for Plymouth).
Lisa supports a team of five Community Food Researchers based in Whitleigh in Plymouth who co-design local research and engagement activities. She also is a representative of the local project partner, Food Plymouth CIC, where she is a core team member.
As Coordinator of the Food Equality Project, (2019 – 2021) led by Dr Clare Pettinger and sitting within Food Plymouth’s key action priorities, Lisa devised and ran creative and interactive workshops which captured diverse voices and experiences of food across Plymouth using a combination of visual methods and digital media, including audio recording. The Food Equality Project worked with a range of community partners, including Timebank SouthWest, LiveWest, Barnardos and Plymouth Community Homes. Outputs from the workshops include a ‘zine’ made by young carers and a series of audio-visual ‘covid conversations’. All of the methods used in this project are shared in a Creative Methods Toolkit here.
Lisa also works at Fotonow CIC (since 2017) where she devises and produces creative media projects for young people, notably Unlocked, Fotonow’s established, permanent youth programme (2020 ongoing) and recently Culture Connectors Collective, a collaboration with Plymouth City Council Youth Justice Services and Plymouth Arts Cinema (2023). She also works on evaluation commissions for Fotonow, recently Green Minds, Creative Commissions, Plymouth City Council (2022).
An ESRC Festival of Social Sciences award from University of Plymouth (October 2023) enabled Lisa to support two Community Researchers to plan and deliver a creative engagement and research event around fresh fruit and vegetables in Whitleigh, Plymouth. https://foodplymouth.org/foodsequal-health-at-feast-of-fun-whitleigh/
Qualifications
2008 – BA History and Theory of Art and Visual Culture, Birkbeck University of London (2:1).
2014 – MA Museum Cultures, Birkbeck University of London (Merit).
Lisa has also held roles at Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Devon School for Social Entrepreneurs.
Research
Research interests
Lisa is interested in exploring the role of visual artists and creativity in projects for social change. This is informed by professional experiences of using creative visual activities as a tool for engagement in both community and institutional settings and her personal interests as a creative practitioner.
Creative practice & artistic projects
During 2020 Lisa devised and ran a series of online creative and collaborative collage workshops for the Food Equality Project. Participants discussed a range of found and topical images and their concerns about food. The conversations and imagery were recorded, and can be viewed here.