RCE North East-2012

rce_proj_title
1. General Information
Contact Name(s): 
Ian Ground
Organizational Affiliation : 
North East Centre for Lifelong Learning
Role in the project: 
Team Leader
E-Mail Address(es): 
Project-relevant information: 
http://explore.sunderland.ac.uk/
2. Project Information
1. Project title: 
Explore
2. Project Description: 
Unique to the North-East, our national award-winning Explore programme is a revolution in lifelong learning: learning for learners and for the love of learning.

For a monthly subscription, Explore lets you choose from a huge range of lectures, short courses and discussion seminars across a wealth of subjects delivered by expert tutors.
3. Project Status: 
Ongoing
4. Key Words
Key Words: 
Biodiversity
5. Project categories
Project categories: 
Education
Awareness building
Networking and partnership development
6. Expected outcomes:: 
Explore provides more than 1600 hours of high quality educational content to people of the CIty of Newcastl e upon Tyne and the North east of England
7. Duration of the Project:: 
October 2009 -
3. Project Leadership & Vision
8. Project coordination (e.g. teams): 
A team of 4 academics all part-time
9. Leadership structure
a. Administration: 
2
b. Transactional: 
4
c. Transformational: 
4
4. Project results
10. Project results : 
What are the current results of the project in terms of Outcomes:
Enables the University to provide high quality educational content to communiites in the region despite the withdrawl of state funding fo adult educatio
12. Unexpected / unplanned results: 
Explore operates as a platform for works with cultural and research partners in the region.
Example 1
The Programme continues to innovate in terms of curriculum providing a enriching mix of intelligent content at the equivalent of HE Level 1 and at high standards of teaching
Of particular interest in the last season was our collaboration with Baltic on The Turner Prize.
Led by Dr Ceclilia Holmes. the highly successful educational programme about the Turner Prize based on the new collaboration between NECLL and BALTIC utilized blend of pedagogic approaches.

The programme highlights the benefits of university collaboration with cultural partners in the region. University, Gallery and Public were brought together in informed contextualised debate which encouraged direct response to the work in situ. The sessions were structured and timed to coincide with the exhibition allowing for genuine engagement with ‘challenging’ contemporary art.

By working in partnership, NECLL, through the university, was able to diversify the reach of BALTIC’s Education Plan. Therefore, NECLL benefited BALTIC by bringing them a new audience – the excellent feedback received from students has been shared with the team at BALTIC as evidence for their Audience Development Plan.

The final session followed the announcement of the winner and was a panel-led discussion which analysed contemporary media response, making for a striking immediacy of content. This session also included a guest speaker, Godfrey Worsdale, Director of BALTIC, who commented that ‘it was a pleasure to engage with such an informed audience.
Student feedback has highlighted the enhanced accessibility of the ‘difficult’ work examined; students have felt more equipped to make a judgement on the shortlisted work as a direct result of the course. A sample of responses is below. For the BALTIC Education team, the value of the course was clear, we have since been asked for volunteers to form a focus group discussing their experience. This is a two-way partnership.
“BALTIC was very pleased to work with the North East Centre for Lifelong Learning as part of Explore. The 6-week course looking at the Turner Prize 2011 was a fantastic way into contemporary art for many ... For BALTIC, the course helped us to attract a new audience who may have been hesitant about visiting the gallery and who felt that contemporary art wasn’t for them. Being given the opportunity to spend time looking at the exhibition in a supportive and open environment has, I believe, opened up contemporary art and BALTIC to a new audience.”
Emma Thomas, Head of Learning and Engagement, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
The programme has been entered in the University’s Innovation Challenge.
Example 2
the Engage project works with postgraduate students across the region, providing them with a workshop in prsetnation skills and then giving them opportunitie to make presentations on the Explore programme to the general public. This enhances skills relating to public communication of research and provides a disssemination channel for cutting edge research.
13.Core Partners: 
(who are the main partners of your project?) All are cultural partners in the North east
7. Education & Learning
17. Educational activities: 
Explore is wholly an educational project which offers 1600 hours of content a year to hundreds of people.
18. Learning activities: 
The ethos of the scheme is participative critgicial and deliberative in the best traditions of UK aduld educatio,.
19. Educational activities
a. Theory: 
1
b. Discussion: 
4
c. Interactive and Multidimensional "action oriented education": 
5
Type: 
Project Reports
Country: 
United Kingdom
Region: 
Europe
Community: 
SCP,Livelihood and Well-being
Issue: 
Transformitive Learning
Country: 
United Kingdom