Making time and space for reflection by Sarah Campbell

collaborationevaluation

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My role is Associate Director for Arts and Culture at the University of Exeter. I have had the great pleasure of working several times with Ina Linge, the Queer Natures PI. It was on our Creative Fellowship programme in 2019/20 that Ina first worked with Siân Docksey, another joyous human.

When Ina told me she was keen to bring the team together one last time to wrap up the project, I leapt at the opportunity to offer my services as facilitator. I have a background in museum and gallery education, and have spent most of my career working alongside creative practitioners. By facilitating myself, Ina would be able to be a full participant; it is extremely difficult to ‘hold space’ for a group of people reflecting on an experience AND be one of the people taking part in the conversation.

 

On Saturday 21 February 2026, we all came together at Phoenix Gardens, a beautiful workshop/community space on the edge of an incredible garden that sprung from a WWII bomb crater just off Shaftsbury Avenue in London. There were seven participants: Ina (PI), Phil Rushworth (producer), Chloe Asker (evaluator), S.K Marley and Siân Docksey (project artists), and George Elliot and Kerry Priest (recently awarded Queer Natures micro-commission artists). This was not quite the whole project team – sadly Gemma Lucas (research assistant) and Iona Maria Rojas (the third micro-commission artist) couldn’t join us. However, those who could make it were able to offer a diversity of perspectives on Queer Natures, and everyone brought wonderful curiosity and openness to the day.

Ina and I planned the session together – I wanted to understand her priorities and what she wanted to gain so that I could then suggest creative means of playfully structuring relevant discussions. The day ended up falling into three sections, roughly chronological to the project – what happened, what was learnt, and what might we do next?

After a gentle warm-up activity, where we introduced ourselves through postcard images and metaphors, and a quick round of Dobble and Ghost Blitz to warm up the imaginations, we undertook a listening exercise where each of the five project team members were allocated seven minutes to speak uninterrupted on their experience of the project – what they did, who they worked with, etc. As each person spoke, the rest of the group were invited to ‘take a line for a walk’ (to quote Paul Klee), having paper and marker pens to doodle while listening. As well as being an ADHD-friendly approach, this format encouraged a different kind of attention to the speakers, one that was felt to be more fruitful than open feedback sessions which can run the risk of some voices dominating or discussions wandering off-track.

As project evaluator, Chloe led on the second section, introducing the ‘long table’ format to encourage a democratic, non-hierarchical approach to reflection, followed by a concise-yet-beautiful presentation on key points of learning gathered through the project.

 

After lunch, we turned our attention to the future, creating collaged ‘habitats’ for our ideas in a Queer Natures worlding exercise. As each person spoke about their upcoming plans and how these were reflected in their collages, the group were encouraged to write postcards (index cards with stickers for stamps) to ‘post’ to each other, whenever moments of connection came up. The activity concluded with 30 minutes of free-form chat, where participants could swap postcards and begin conversations to be continued post-session.

A word that came up time and again throughout the day was care. The process-driven research structure valued taking time to look after people and respect the pressures on freelancers. The feeling of being cared for was made up of many small acts of attention, both in the research project and at the reflection session itself. For example, generous catering and a beautiful workshop space promoted comfort that in turn aided the relaxed, convivial atmosphere. Many of us hadn’t met before that day and over only a few hours forged strong foundations for future partnerships and continuing collaborations.