New Visual Arts Development Officer joins University

Thursday, 01 March 2018

Miranda Laurence has joined the University in the new role of Visual Arts Development Officer.

She is based in the Planning and Strategy Office and will be working with colleagues across the institution to further develop the new Visual Arts Strategy.

"The scope of my role ranges across most art forms, including (but not limited to) film, sculpture, performance, literature and architecture," she says. "I'm interested in how the arts can impact our lives, from intervening in your pathway across campus, to informing your processes or research methods, to creating alternative spaces for conversation within and beyond the University".

Miranda has experience of integrating innovative arts activity into community development work, with local government, charity, education or health led services.

Before joining the University, she worked as the Arts Development Officer for South Oxfordshire District Council – where she set up partnerships with further education, learning disability services, and Age UK amongst others, as well as managing a range of public art projects. 

She has also worked for Oxford City Council and DanceXchange in Birmingham, managing local and international professional and community dance projects. 

Miranda has been part of Reading’s cultural landscape through her involvement in Junction Dance and as Associate Producer for the Dance Reading festival as part of Reading’s Year of Culture in 2016.

In her ongoing independent role as a dramaturg, she works directly with artists – mostly dance artists – accompanying them as they imagine, create and display their work.

She recently won an Arts Council England funding to develop her dance dramaturgy practice, including an emphasis on considering how the dramaturg can facilitate the interaction between audiences and creative work.

Miranda is keen to find out from colleagues what interests them about the arts and what opportunities or gaps they think there are at the University. "I’m especially interested to hear from anyone who thinks that a ‘visual arts’ strategy probably doesn’t have anything to do with their work or research, so that we can find out together if it actually might, after all".

Miranda is keen to meet colleagues and can be contacted on m.c.laurence@reading.ac.uk.