Introducing myself ... Katy Goldstraw

Hi there, I am Katy I am taking on the role of research assistant  on this project. I currently work as a research assistant within the Institute of Public Policy and Professional Practice at Edge Hill University. My PhD research used participatory research methods to consider voluntary sector responses to austerity. From my participatory PhD research, I have co-produced a Sustainable Livelihoods Resource Book, which is a toolkit that VCS organisations can use to facilitate an assets based organisational evaluation. I have worked in Higher Education and the Voluntary Sector throughout my career, writing on VCS assets, participatory research and feminist responses to austerity. I also run The Volunteer Training Company, a research and training organisation that supports voluntary sector capacity building.

Kate asked us to consider what art is, for me art is all around us in the tunes we whistle as we walk along the road, to the children’s drawing, to lines in the face of the older woman I visit in hospital. Without art I would not be able to work in the collaborative and participatory style that I love – the groups I work with know my love of graffiti walls, post it notes and intertwined circle diagrams! I hold no artistic talent but harbour a love of creativity! Art offers a means of expression that tickles the soul in a way that more formal academic discussions do not. In the political turmoil that has emerged post-brexit - art offers an opportunity to explore social cohesion using creative means, to refocus on community assets and build shared knowledge.

Anyway – A musician friend of mine, Thea Gilmore,  recently released a song about the turmoil that was 2016. So I will conclude this short introduction with some of her lyrics:

 Its so easy to hide
Behind imagined Ironsides
Nostalgic and misty eyed
When the wolf’s at the door
In the tide of hate
Throw down the counterweight
Tear up that flag and say
You’re worthy of more

Cos she took a walk
Past rhetoric and empty talk
Raised up her hand and fought
To bridge a divide
You can cut that stem
But wild flowers grow again
All you can do is just tend to them
And know that you tried

 

The rest of her song is here is you would like to listen to it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMFHcqJmnq4&feature=youtu.be