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I am excited to be beginning my 12-week placement with Creative Cardiff in August (2021). I will be working on a proposed research project that evaluates the impact of the organisation\u2019s projects on creatives.<\/p>\n
Creative Cardiff is a network bringing together creative individuals, organisations and businesses in the Cardiff area. Over the course of 12 weeks, I will be devising a survey to be directed to past participants in a selected number of Creative Cardiff\u2019s projects. My research will specifically address the impact of these projects in three key areas: place-making, network-building, and career-furthering.<\/p>\n
I hope to discover the ways in which Creative Cardiff\u2019s projects have encouraged or nurtured a sense of belonging, or a south Walian identity, how the projects have helped to build and sustain a network of creatives in the south Wales area, and lastly the impact \u2013 both tangible and non-tangible \u2013 that the projects have had on participants\u2019 careers, or development, in the arts. Using a mixed methods approach to explore this success criteria, this project will have the potential to influence other studies like it and provide meaningful feedback to Creative Cardiff.<\/p>\n
This study complements the research that I undertake in my PhD thesis. My thesis examines the depiction of Welsh identity in contemporary Welsh writing and the question of whether literary depictions are in keeping with reality, or else construct and influence the everyday life of Welsh people. This research will therefore help me to identify what Welsh creatives embrace and dislike in presentations of their nation, as well exploring the relevance to creatives of constructing or representing \u2018Welshness\u2019 (however conceived) in art from Wales.<\/p>\n
This placement provides a platform and network necessary to understanding a dimension of my work not accessible by other means. I am excited to, after so long assessing the impact of constructions of Welsh identity, understand creatives\u2019 process in constructing this identity, and the impact of projects like Creative Cardiff that allow them to do so.<\/p>\n