CLCC colleagues join the team investigating the impact of COVID-19 on professionals in the arts.

The Project & Team

Imperial Horizons teachers Dr Aifric Campbell and Dr George Waddell are working as Co-Investigators on a major AHRC-funded research project led by the Centre for Performance Science, a partnership of the Royal College of Music and Imperial College. The 18-month project, HEartS Professional, is investigating the impact of the pandemic on the health, economic, and social wellbeing of professionals in the arts and cultural sectors, known to be suffering heavily since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis.

Dr Campbell, who teaches the Horizons module Advanced Creative Writing, is an award-winning author whose upcoming book The Love Makers will explore the social impact of AI and Robotics. “As writer, it's a subject very close to my heart” says Aifric of the project. She joins fellow Horizons colleague Dr Waddell, who teaches the Psychology of Performance Horizons module and researches the science of how performance is learned, executed, and received.

"This is an extraordinarily important project at a time when the Arts are being decimated by COVID-19-related restrictions" says CLCC Director, Ana Costa Pereira.

"It is as if the arts and culture have been frozen in time, and their key players cannot but wait and watch helplessly as mere spectators, without any control over their destinies".

"This will also impact on all of us who have suddenly found ourselves unable to share the beauty and poetry that we have taken for granted for so long and which inspires and heals in equal measures."  

The Survey

HEartS Professional is running a major survey of adults working in the arts in the UK, Canada, US, and Australia. Responses will help provide valuable insight into the impact of the pandemic on their work, livelihood, and wellbeing, and will help the team find solutions to the challenges faced by arts and culture professionals.

Learn more about the HEartS Professional project and complete the survey.