Cards on the Table (COTT) is a card game, research method and collaborative tool used by people (artists, activists, community partners, educators, curators, funders, producer) who are working on a socially engaged/participatory/co-creative project together. Based on sets of quotes from interviews with people about working together, collaborators/partners are invited to sit and play the game and reflect on the diverse agendas, expectations, and experiences around the table. The game offers a different way into a usual meeting, that might usually be focused on logistics and getting things done. It invites a convivial, playful way into otherwise quite difficult conversations, allowing for different experiences and assumptions to be heard, shared and discussed.

The game was originally developed in 2015 by Sophie Hope in response to an invitation by the Community Partnerships Team at the British Museum to think about the ways in which artists, community partners and staff at the BM work together. Sophie, alongside Sian Hunter Dodsworth (who was working at the BM at the time), artists Sophie Mallett and Ania Bas and latterly Sophie’s PhD student Henry Mulhall, have since worked together to develop the game, with a redesign by Rose Nordin and web development by Giorgio Rondelli. The game has been played as part of facilitated workshops, or bought and played independently, in over 20 contexts, including arts organisations, local authorities and universities. The game also currently forms part of our evaluation of a Creative Europe-funded project and is being played by 10 partners across Europe to reflect on their processes of working on participatory, co-created arts practices. The game has also been distributed to nine UK area representatives of the Social Art Network so they can lend the packs out to nearby practitioners.

This proposal is to spend time developing a blog/newsletter for Cards on the Table, with a monthly edition which would include an interview with someone who has used the game. This would include feedback from arts organisations, stories of the game’s development, and reflections on the game with academics from various fields. Each edition would also include an interview with someone who has developed their own game (or game-like tool), such as iniva’s Emotional Learning Cards, Reshape’s Tarot Deck, and Change Media’s What Privilege? cards.

The aim with the blog is to cultivate a wider network of interest in the game as a sharable tool, with a long-term aim to develop research into participatory and embedded arts evaluation and networks.