I worked with South London Gallery, artist India Harvey and curator Sioned Pennant, to develop and lead a two-day conference bringing together people with care experience, social care practitioners and artists to explore ‘hopeful disruption’ as a shared strategy across creative practice and social work.

The term ‘hopeful disruption’ emerged in Rachel Hughes’ evaluation of New Town Culture for Goldsmiths, University of London. She used it to describe how artists leading creative workshops deliberately interrupted the normative behaviours expected in social work settings in order to open up connection and the possibility of positive change. The conference considered the implications and ethics of this approach for social work practice.

Contributors included social care practitioners Tina Amongi, Andrew Borwick-Fox, Tim Fisher, Linda Hellier, Gemma James, Lonnie Robinson; activists Clarissa Stevens and George Fielding; artists and creative practitioners Rachel Anderson, Helen Cammock, Gayle Chong Kwan, Andrea Francke, India Harvey, Naz Hoque, Hannah Kemp-Welch, Amy Leung, Ann Marie Pena, Sioned Pennant, Seth Pimlott, Albert Potrony, Nephertiti Schandorf and Leanne Turvey; and academics Professor Claudia Bernard, Dr Danielle Jatlow and Dr Nicola Sim.