Professor Graeme Evans

Biography

Dr Graeme Evans is Professor Emeritus of Urban Cultures, Design and Creative Economy, a university-wide post focusing on cultural research-policy-praxis. Since 2017 his work has focussed on the culture-led regeration of Stratford East Bank and adjloining areas and the development of research opportunities and collaborations with HEI and community partners arising from the relocation of LCF in 2023. As part of AHRC-funded research projects, he has led several site-based installations, exhibitions and events, including London Festival of Architecture, Three Mills and Hackney Wick Festivals and cultural mapping of the tangible and intangible heritage of the area. East Bank includes V&A East and Archive/Storehouse, Sadlers Wells East, BBC Music Studios and local cultural partners including the Hackney Wick Cultural Industries Group, several arts venues, Newham FE College and local community organisations.

Recent research has focused on the role of culture in place transformation for the OECD and on Cultural Value, working with Dr Patrycja Kaszynska and the AHRC Future Trends series, for which he authored the research publication: 'Heritage and Placeshaping', arising from Coventry's UK City of Culture. He is also a member of the AHRC-funded UK-China Creative Industries Research Group, led by Brunel University (Prof Hua Dong). He recently completed a study with Patrycja Kaszynska for the OECD on Culture, Regeneration and Place Transformation looking at the evidence and rationale for investment in major capital projectrs, events & festivals, Cultural Districts and Grassroots Community Infrastructure which will serve as Policy Guidance for OECD (29) member countries across the world. With Dr Kaszynska he has been awarded a 1 year (2025/26) Research Network grant by the Creative Policy & Evidence Centre (PEC) on the theme of Creative Industries and Place. This network funded by the AHRC will investigarte the relationships between Creative Industry Innovation and Place, including the roile of HEIs/Art Colleges in R&D, student start-up and other place-based infrastructure.

Prior to academe Graeme was director of an arts centre in north London and an arts centre network organisation, and also worked as a musician/tutor, touring with a youth jazz/rock ensemble in the 1980s.

Between 2017-20 at UAL he secured and led a major 5 year AHRC-funded project under the AHRC Creative Clusters programme. As Principal Investigator/Project Director he helped to coordinate a team of Co-Investigators and Researchers at UAL (LCF, Chelsea), Cambridge, Leeds, Loughborough and Queen Mary London universities, with industry partners from the V&A Museum to a host of SMEs in design and VR/AI and sustainability.

Graeme also coordinates with Bangor University an AHRC International Research Network on Arts & Humanities-inspired Waste Innovation (SmArt Cities & Waste), working with Artists, designers, waste authorities and environmental and bio-materials scientists. Workshops, pop-ups and interventions have been organised in Amsterdam, Maastricht, Bangor and London. Prior to this he has held several research awards from AHRC, EPSRC, ESRC and the EU, including Connected Communities and Sustainable Urban Environment programmes. He has also undertaken several commissioned research studies for the Culture Ministry (DCMS) viz Culture & Regeneration; Culture and Placeshaping; Cultural Mapping; Heritage and Urban Districts (Historic England Heritage Counts); Cultural Planning (HMTreasury), and has led studies for DCMS and Arts Council England on social impacts (lottery projects) and social exclusion. He has also undertaken several evaluation studies for projects and programmes including a longitudinal evaluation of the 5 year City Fringe Creative Industries project, individual arts and cultural industries projects, and as project evaluator and assessor for grant-making bodies (national and regional arts, EU, AHRC, NERC, JPI Urban Heritage).

From 2010 he ran a 3 year research programme Culture & Urban Development from Maastricht University where he established the Centre for Urban & Euregional Studies, working with communities, arts organisations and venues across three cross-border regions (Netherlands, Belgium, Germany). This focused on emancipatory possibilities, cultural memory and landscapes, graffiti and working with less engaged and disconnected communities outside of the main centres.

Recent publications include an edited book on Events, Regeneration and Placeshaping (Routledge) based on a Regional Studies Association international research network he haas convened since 2012 and he also authors the chapter on London2012 for the Olympic Cities collection (J&M Gold, Routledge 4th ed. 2024).. His latest monograph is entitled Cultural Spaces: Production and Consumption (Routledge, 2024) looking at a range of institutional and everyday cultural spaces, from Graffiti/Street Art, Heritage and Fashion, to Festivals, Digital Culture and Socially-Engaged Arts practice from the perspective of Lefebvre's Social Production of Space and (Cultural) Rights to the City.