About the HAT Project
HAT is a programme of international exchange research fellowships for designer-makers.
The HAT Project creates opportunities for designer makers to spend time working as artists in residence in a range of international contexts. Each residency is set up for an average of three months during which time the artists undertake practice based research.
Partnerships are established and linkages made with a range of organisations and arts agencies in the UK and abroad. Through these partnerships a programme of fellowships is established over 2 or 3 years. The fellowships are awarded to selected artists. Each of the residencies are linked by a theme or specific area for research or area of craft practice. Through the programme a body of experience, knowledge, critical exchange and work is built up, and relationships developed between the artists, the hosts and the “communities” of practice that are connected with the artists and hosts.
The principle of exchange is central to the HAT Project. The countries and organisations that act as hosts to the residencies also act as partners in the Project. They have responsibility for supporting reciprocal residencies, which in turn are then hosted by partners in the UK. Working within the structure and context of the HAT programme the HAT project brings the artists, curators, academics, cultural promoters and producers together to engage with and support the research process.
Each artist sets their own research programme and objectives. There is no specific requirement that artists will produce finished work during or at the end of the three month residency. However it is recognised that during the course of the Project various outcomes and new opportunities will present themselves. The residency is intended to provide the opportunity to focus on the development of the individual artist’s creative practice in a stimulating, often challenging, and supportive context.
The residency programme concludes with a conference/workshop event, the cHAT week, when all the HAT artists come together with many of the Project partners and hosts. This event provides the platform for extending the international dialogue and network, for sharing and reflecting on the experience of the individual residencies and for negotiating various outcomes, collaborations exhibitions, publications, seminars, commissions and trading events.
Working with documentation materials from the residencies and the HAT week and with contributions from writers and cultural commentators, a Project publication is produced. The HAT book serves as a legacy document for the Project and it communicates the collective experiences from the research processes to a wider audience.
ARCHIVE
HAT Australia/UK took place beween 2002 and 2004. To see the web site relating to that series of residencies, please CLICK HERE
The HAT team visited Bangladesh, Pakistan and South Asia in December
2005 to undertake research for the current project. To learn more about
this: - CLICK HERE
