Written by:
Jake Stephenson-Bartley
On Wednesday 8 November we arrived at Sheffield University Student Union to take part in the TAP (Transforming and Activating Place) Symposium. We were greeted by our two interns Sam and Piotr, who spent the summer with us further developing our Gaming Workshop Model. The TAP Symposium was a celebration of a 3-year student knowledge exchange programme which brought together students, placemaking professionals / organisations and researchers.
The programme supported 202 Students from the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences in Sheffield, partnering them with 79 organisations across heritage, culture, government, placemaking, to name a few, in addition to funding 45 projects over the 3-year programme, one of which was project we ran with our summer interns this summer (2023).
The Symposium consisted of a series of panels and presentations which celebrated the student internship projects which took place across Sheffield and further afield. There were three categories: knowledge exchange and placemaking; storytelling and community; and creativity and play.
There were some key threads that emerged throughout the afternoon which boasted the benefit and importance of inviting students into organisations through a considered and nurtured programme, which TAP provided. The experience for both organisations and students was one of reciprocity.
Some key themes which emerged for those participating in the programme were:
- The sense of growing confidence that the TAP programme and partners nurtured within their students, feelings of being heard and seen, recognising the value and diversity of their opinions and voice.
- Each student reiterated the sense of confidence they felt stepping into their partner organisations because of the support and guidance of the TAP team. There was a sense of care in how the programme provided an infrastructure of support leading up to the internship, during and after.
- The programme provided a much-needed opportunity for students’ professional development, creating space for them as emerging practitioners to meet people with mutual understanding and get hands-on experience working and responding to live projects.
- The TAP programme also created opportunities to broaden students’ ideas about what is possible for them. It highlighted how their skills could be applied to different contexts, across disciplines.
- For partners, students have so much to bring, through their educational, professional, and lived experiences. One student commented on the importance of bringing in multiple and diverse voices into the conversation or organisation which we echo at The Glass-House too. Inviting students into our workplace supports an organisation or project growing in unexpected and often exciting ways, coloured by new experiences and voices added to the conversation.
It was the greatest of pleasures to be part of this programme. TAP has left a deep-rooted legacy which those involved will carry with them on their professional and personal journeys. It has certainly inspired us to think about how we can support more student knowledge exchange within the charity, in order to continue to inject new thinking and experiences across Glass-House projects and beyond.
To read more about the internship in collaboration with TAP over the past 2 years please follow the links below:
Activating Knowledge Exchange Through the TAP Internship
2023 Summer Programme
- Read about the 2023 State of Play workshop hosted with Karakusevic Carson Architects on the blog here, and in the summary publication (coming soon)
- Our 2023 interns’ blogs about their experience working at The Glass-House. You can find Sam’s blog here, and Piotr’s blog here
2022 Summer Programme
- Read our blog introducing the TAP programme, Vince and Enrico and expanding on the internship here.
- Read the 2022 State of Play Workshop at The National Videogame Museum on the blog here, or in our summary publication here
- Our 2022 interns’ blogs about their experience working at The Glass-House. You can find Enrico’s blog here, and Vince’s blog here
- Read about the TAP symposium event here