New AHRC Project to apply Creative Economies through Youth- led Arts and Craft in Jordan (CEARC)
The University of Leeds is leading an international collaboration to demonstrate the value of heritage-inspired creative arts and crafts in developing innovative and sustainable economies.
Dr Gehan Selim, Associate Professor in Architecture and Urbanism in the School of Civil Engineering, will lead an interdisciplinary project to work with Dr Deema Refai from the Leeds University School of Business (LUBS) to establish a local hub of creative arts and cultural heritage to build capacity in technology acquisition and application to support local enterprises in Jordan.
The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to strengthen partner country science and innovation capacity and unlock further funding to support this work. The CEARC project embodies the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development’s overarching principle of “Leave no one behind” by targeting the inequalities (Gender inequality) that are the underlying vulnerabilities to poverty in rural societies of Northern Jordan.
Dr Selim said, “We have identified a chronic lack of heritage business capacity, facilities, infrastructure, and systems available to heritage authorities to develop the creative preservation of cultural Heritage antiquities to support new creative economic models and sustain global tourism”.
We have identified a chronic lack of heritage business capacity, facilities, infrastructure, and systems available to heritage authorities to develop the creative preservation of cultural Heritage antiquities to support new creative economic models and sustain global tourism.
The CEARC project builds on the ‘Living Museum’ project success led by Selim, which has setup a new conceptualisation of Participatory Heritage and sought to advance creative economic practices which is more uncommon in Jordan. The project has also provided ways in which marginalised local communities could generate innovative initiatives, improve a limited set of skills, and be creative to overcome future challenges of poverty.
Dr Selim added that “We aim to foster engagement with stakeholders and beneficiaries and advance the discourse on the necessity, applications and market-driven technologies of arts and crafts in Jordan”.
This impact driven project will build capacity in arts and crafts, deliver a host of new skills, from art design to entrepreneurship and understanding marketing and retail on which to establish community-led heritage-based arts and craft enterprises.
