Shedding Light on Long Covid

This sci-art research project has explored how to live equitabliy with long covid through public realm intervention with place. The reserach process has engaged with Clinical research from Long Covid lived experiences, scientists, artist researchers and public stakeholder partners. Under the curation of Rhiannon Jones, to address the research question through generation of a high- quality city wide community project.

The thought-provoking installation was located at Derby Cathedral and the Museum of Making and featured a display of artworks ranging from podcasts, photography, mixed media, live performances, online and in-person workshops and shared research data.

There are QR codes located on the installation to take you to a wide range or works made by local and national artists and organisations on the topic of Shedding Light on Long Covid. S.H.E.D is a platform for the public to communicate their thoughts and opinions on the issues affecting their daily life.

This project invests in culture as a driver for change, (one of the key CUA Goals at the University of Derby and core ethos of S.H.E.D), through educating society about living with long covid by creating a bespoke S.H.E.D (see @shed_uk) installation.

The research enquiry:
• Highlighted need for health and wellbeing services.
• Increase public awareness of living with covid and challenges
• Provided positive change for isolated patient & public representatives through participation
Utilising design thinking the long covid community has a unique position to highlight and tackle problems
like those addressed in the 17 UN SDGs. S.H.E.D’s reputation to create new ways of creative placemaking
will be mobilised to attend to the needs of local communities to influence policy thinking on long covid.
See: public sustainable approach to co-designing with communities (green gown award finalist 2021), Case
study for NCACE (jones, Kemp 202), Design Council, (Design for Planet 2021).

• Highlighted Civic value creative place-maker for responding to societal issues
• Profiled how stakeholders (below) are responding to this problem.
• Commissioned established artists researchers of National and International Standing to create
new works based on clinical and lived experience data.

The programme designed by Rhiannon Jones was:

1. Monday 4th September: Youth radio podcast, an Xpress U meets S.H.E.D special, Shedding Light on Long Covid Session
2. Saturday 9th September (10:30 am - 1 pm): Performance of Long Covid Diaries by Alice Marshall (Vale) with her company Adaire to Dance
3. Monday 11th September: Online charity workshop, S.H.E.D & FamilyHUBS with Long Covid Kids
4. Sunday 17th September (10:30 am - 2 pm): Performance of Long Covid Dairies by Alice Marshall (Vale) with her company Adaire to Dance
5. Wednesday 27th September (11 am): Derby Book Festival, face-to-face at the Museum of Making
6. Wednesday 27th September (2 pm): Derby Book Festival, online
7. Tuesday 3rd October (2:30 pm): Derby County Community Trust

Outcomes:
A first of its kind, Long Covid exhibition space, co-designed for public engagement and consultation on living with long covid. The exhibition
showcases scientific data & lived experience research.
Generated a public experience that is co-created with patient & public representatives to highlight
the challenges Long COVID & increase public awareness.

It attended to series of KPIs:
Increased health and wellbeing for long covid patients, Improved patient
experience, Establish potential long-term collaboration with NHS through creative project.

Provided an essential platform for long covid lived experiences & actively affect societal change
and engaging with key stakeholders and policy makers, artists, clinicians and academics.

Established a partnership working group with stakeholders of the organisations, who currently
work in silo, but need to meet and collaborate and can do so through this project.

Created a series of workshops with partners listed below and public to profile the need and
engagement of project

Improving health and wellbeing services through a design-led community hyper local project.

The installation was co-designed with Barend Slabbert and the S.H.E.D team. Alongside patient & public representatives to highlight the challenges Long
COVID & increase public awareness. Shedding light on Long Covid provided a significant, positive change
that addresses a pressing social challenge.

This project has been a catalyst for change for those living with long covid. It has connected the creative &
cultural industries with the scientific community to produce a public art sculpture, unveiling new findings
& impacts on society (including the future of design) due to Long Covid, for the first time. And has informed a national community to 'create together' through an ambitious creative project and series of publications, policy advisory papers and keynote outputs.