Curriculum

Repair Acts is rooted within the School of Art and Design at the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol. Across the school, yearly lectures and workshops are carried out since the projects inception in 2018 as part of Visual Cultures, BA Graphics, Fashion, MA Design, MA/MFA Curating.

We endeavour to support UWE students with opportunities during their studies to participate in our programme. We also provide early career opportunities and have worked extensively over the years with graduates Marta Celio (designer) and Carmela Pietranglo (producer/researcher). As an experienced PhD supervisor, Repair Acts lead Teresa Dillon welcomes applicants interested in the topics of repair, care, maintenance and healing.

UWE Curricula Experiments 

Experimental curricula projects such as In Your Aerial (2019), explored over a 10-week period the legacy, care and maintenance of community wireless networks with BA Graphic Design graduates and brought them into contact with members of Bristol Wireless, Bristol City Council’s Legible City team and archivist at Bristol Library.

As part of a two-week professional development module, BA Graphics graduates explored designs ideas for creating “Repair Declaration”. This work was shared as part of our publication ‘Stories of Everyday Maintenance’ (2022).

We have ran numerous mending and story gathering workshops with BA Graphics, Fashion and Textile and Fine Art students, with stories contributing to our archive, to the collective declaration for the city and contributing to our understanding of intercultural and intergenerational mending cultures.

Community Curricula

Emerging from TALES OF CARE AND REPAIR, artist and producer, Dawn Giles has gone on to establish ‘Stitching Together’ – a beginners level and intermediate level sewing class for refugee and asylum-seeking women at Easton Family Centre on Saturdays as part of the Bridges for Communities work in Bristol.

Curating, stimulating and inspiring repair-based activities is at the heart of the Repair Acts, Ireland and through this programme we have hosted a number of community-based workshops including to name but a few, vintage electronics, bodhrán mending, dry stone wall making and fixing, lace making and mending, toy and furniture restoration. We welcome artists, designers, crafters, makers and professional trades people interested in working with us at this level to get in touch with us.

External Curricula Projects 

Focusing on care, repair and restoration colleagues from across our network (Ben Gaulon, Dr. Alma Clavin, Rosario Talevi, Dr. Lara Houston) also took part in our initial curriculum-based explorations as part of our programme of events in 2019 in Bristol. With Dr. Alma Clavin, running repair-based mapping activities with students at Bath Spa University (2018) and later with students at the University College Dublin, as part of Repair Acts, Ireland (2022). In Brazil, our colleague Fred Paulino/Gambiologia has worked extensively with Dr. Wellington (Low) Cançado and students from the Federal University of Minas Gerais/ UFMG, School of Architecture, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, as part of TALES OF CARE AND REPAIR.

Since the inception of No School, Nevers (2019) we have worked with this team, supporting the schools programme and worked in depth with a number of its associated artists, such as Fred Paulio/Gambiologia, Tom Verbruggen/TokTek and No School founder, Ben Gaulon/recyclism.

To date we have contributed to guest lectures and workshops at various schools and institutions, including Central St Martin’s London, University College London (Architecture/MOULD Collective), National College Art and Design, Ireland (Tactical and Critical Media/Cliona Harney), The Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg/University of Fine Arts of Hamburg (Social Design/Valentina Karga) and Universität der Künste Berlin/Berlin University of the Arts (Architecture/Markus Bader).