Blogs

A Dry Topic: Creative Community Engagement for Drought Resilience

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by Nathalie Holloway Centre for Water Cultures PhD student Nathalie Holloway reflects on her research project ‘A Dry Topic: Creative Community Engagement for Drought Resilience’ which explores using creative and historical methods for building household resilience to drought.   Recent dry weather has brought drought and future water scarcity to the fore of public discussion, …

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Tales from Down the Drain: opening the archives to uncover the hidden social histories of urban waterways

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by Emily Ingram Centre for Water Cultures PhD student Emily Ingram reflects on her research project ‘Tales from Down the Drain’ which explores Hull’s hidden drainage histories: How many times a week do you walk or drive past a stretch of canal, muddy stream, or rubbish-strewn waterway? These urban ‘brown-blue’ spaces are, in many ways, …

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Tapping into local knowledge of water management on the thirsty island of Aigina

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by Katerina Velentza, Briony McDonagh, Steven Forrest and Irene Polinskaya In April 2026, we spent a week on the Greek island of Aegina as part of a project – led by Professor Irene Polinskaya at the Department of Classics, King’s College London – exploring ‘hidden’ cultural heritage and its potential to address acute water shortages …

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City of Water: Learning from the past to live better with water today

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Risky Cities artwork in the City of Water exhibition

Artwork produced during our Risky Cities project was integral to two inspiring exhibitions recently programmed by Hull’s Ferens Art Gallery, attracting a total of 60,000 visitors who came to explore the city’s watery history and artwork. Dr Ed Brookes and Dr Stewart Mottram reflect on the partnerships that helped produce these watery-themed exhibitions, the key …

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Using a ‘learning histories’ approach for climate action

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A number of colour boxes, used in a Risky Cities community workshop

Professor Briony McDonagh, project lead for Risky Cities, reflects on the project’s impacts in this blog, drawing on evaluation activity by the full team The Risky Cities project uses a ‘learning histories’ approach to drive climate awareness, action and resilience. For us, learning histories are the foundation of place-based, historically-informed, creative community engagement. In our …

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Watery Archives Workshop: Uncovering Hull’s Flood Histories

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Collage created by Watery Archives workshop participants including a historic map of Hull

Risky Cities team member, Dr Hannah Worthen looks back at a successful community workshop, delving into the historic records of the Hull History Centre. On Thursday 8th June, members of the local community and staff from the University of Hull gathered at the Hull History Centre for a day-long workshop on the theme of ‘Watery …

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Risky Cities is proud to announce our five commissioned artists for our Flow of Words sharing events

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RIsky Cities workshop participants look through newspaper articles detailing historic flood incidents in Hull

Dr Kate Smith of the University of Hull’s Risky Cities project looks forward to the ‘Flow of Words’ sharing events, featuring newly commissioned works by five different artists. Throughout August 2022, we ran creative writing workshops with community groups around Preston Road with writer Maureen Lennon. Inspired by the histories of flooding in Hull, and …

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Sharing flood memories, stories and histories through Follow the Thread

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A display of woven and embroidered textile art fhanging from a display board as part of the ‘Follow the Thread’ exhibition

Dr Ed Brookes of the University of Hull’s Risky Cities project reflects on the powerful and emotive textiles exhibition that formed the culmination of weeks of community workshop activity After months of weaving, crafting and scratching our heads at how best to display all the amazing textile art produced by communities over the summer, the …

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