2024 Creative Enquiry
Creative Enquiry Presentations: exploring ‘caritas’ through creative or artistic media
At SAPC 2024 we will once again give an opportunity for delegates to extend engagement with the complexity and inter-subjectivity of primary care through a creative enquiry. This is an opportunity to engage with different forms of evidence, knowledge-creation and meaning-making.
Creative Enquiry was first introduced to the SAPC ASM in Bristol in 2011 and then again in London in 2018. View the gallery from SAPC ASM 2018.
Work selected for presentation will be allocated an oral slot or ePoster. If you wish to submit a workshop please use the link to the form below.
You may use any creative medium for your presentation, for example: music, dance, monologue, painting, photography, prose, poetry, sculpture. You must submit some evidence of the created work at the time of submission and this must be accompanied by an abstract/reflection (limited to 450 words). The created work on which your abstract/reflection is based may be your own. Alternatively you may choose to present something which is not your own creation but which has deepened your own engagement with, or understanding of, primary care. We are primarily interested in the quality and depth of your accompanying engagement and thought.
How to submit a creative enquiry piece
1. Complete the creative submission form. You may wish to consider the review criteria. If you wish to submit a creative workshop please use the workshop submission form
2. Send by email any long text files and visual and sound files accompanying this submission
Please send photographs of visual texts as JPEG files of at least 1MB file size (please do not optimise as it degrades image quality). For large files such as moving images, video (mp4) or sound please upload your files to an appropriate accessible platform or use a file transfer system such as ‘wetransfer.com’ (free to use) and email it to office@sapc.ac.uk and in the subject line please include "SAPC ASM 2024 CE submission and your name".
Creative Enquiry in Bristol
Bristol is a thriving hub for communities exploring the arts and humanities in medicine. Discover these examples for inspiration and to connect with some of the vibrant projects in the South West.
An extensive resource of creative works exploring the interface of art and medicine through the eyes of medical students, doctors and patients.
Exhibitions, events, writing and podcasts from a decade of collaboration between staff, students and graduates of the University of Bristol’s intercalated BA in Medical Humanities.
A community exploring scientific research, fresh perspectives from literature and music, and the voices of those with lived experience, all exploring the many facets of grief and bereavement.
Collaborative thinking, making and research in the sensory history of healthcare environments in Bristol. Including the ‘Sensing Spaces of Healthcare’ exhibition which was inspired by the creative research project at Southmead Hospital.
Royal West of England programmes supporting families with learning differences through the arts.
Art Shed is an accessible art programme using museum exhibits to inspire creativity and collaboration to support mental health.
What is Creative Enquiry?
We are drawing inspiration for this new kind of presentation from what is sometimes known as ‘arts-based inquiry’. This has been described as ‘the making of artistic expressions…as a primary way of understanding and examining experience (McNiff 2008, p29) Arts-based approaches invite extension of cognition and expression beyond the limitations of literal language, giving feeling form (Langer, 1957) and embracing metaphor, symbol and imagination. The arts facilitate the emergence of voice, perspective and reflexivity (Younie, 2013, 2014) as well as inviting multiple forms of knowing (Eisner, 2008) thereby extending epistemology (Seeley, 2011).
The motto of the Royal College of General Practitioners is ‘Cum Scientia Caritas’ (science with compassion). It is usual at academic conferences to focus predominantly on the science and it can be very easy to lose sight of the ‘art’ or ‘practice’ of medicine. Caritas: Creative Enquiry is an opportunity to enrich and extend our engagement with the art and practice of medicine. The aim is not to displace our attention to academic rigour, but to enhance it…and it is not about creating entertainment, but about entertaining creativity in how we think about primary health care.
References
EISNER, E. 2008. Art and Knowledge. In: KNOWLES, G. J. & COLE, A. L. (eds.) Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
LANGER, S. K. 1957. Problems of art: Ten philosophical lectures, New York, Scribner.
MCNIFF, S. 2008. Arts-based research. In: KNOWLES, J. G. & COLE, A. L. (eds.) Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
RICHARDSON, L. 2000. Evaluating Ethnography. Qualitative Inquiry, 6, 253-255.
SEELEY, C. 2011. Uncharted territory: Imagining a stronger relationship between the arts and action research. Action Research, 9, 83-99.
YOUNIE, L. 2013. Introducing arts-based inquiry into medical education: ‘Exploring the Creative Arts in Health and Illness’. In: MCINTOSH, P. & WARREN, D. (eds.) Creativity in the Classroom: Case Studies in Using the Arts in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Bristol: Intellect Publishers.
YOUNIE, L. 2014. Arts-based inquiry and a clinician educator's journey of discovery. In: C.L.MCLEAN (ed.) Creative Arts in Humane Medicine. Edmonton: Brush Education Inc.