Materializing the intangible through talking, walking, and making: Interdisciplinary methods for Cheetham Park, North Manchester

This paper reflects on the methods used in an inter-disciplinary collaboration between the Manchester Jewish Museum and the University of Manchester. Drawing on findings from the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project, Understanding Everyday Participation – Articulating Cultural Values (UEP), this Researcher-in-Residence project aimed to develop a space where local residents could rekindle their interest in a small urban park, Cheetham Park in North Manchester, through a number of methodologies, which we summarise as ‘walking, talking and making’. By focusing on one object, the park’s shelter; and one event, the park’s 130th anniversary, this paper reflects on the outcomes resulting from distinct methods, intentions and expectations of (artist-led) socially engaged practice, (academic) research, institutional knowledge (the Jewish museum), and the involvement (and absence) of community participants. Exploring potential points of conflict and different priorities in terms of output, it argues that tensions inherent to multidisciplinary participatory research fosters reflexivity and creates a fertile space to critically assess methods and the role of the researcher, as well as offering new insights regarding theoretical perspectives on participation and positionality from a multidisciplinary perspective.