Caring Cards

Exploring Empathy, Compassion and Understanding in Arts Projects

The Caring Cards have been produced to play, question, plan and evaluate the themes of empathy, compassion and understanding in the context of community and participatory arts projects. They are informed entirely by the findings of our Cultural Value project. This includes the original illustrations by artist Nicola Winstanley, which she designed in response to the findings. We are keen to hear your thoughts about these cards and how you might use them – please leave a comment or get in touch: our contact details are available through the Staffordshire University website (staff directory). Once we have fully piloted the cards, we plan to produce them as a printed resource.

The cards are structured around a Plan (P), Do (D) and Review (R) framework and are intended to help you think about these themes from a project management perspective. There are also 12 cards that are designed to be used as an evaluation tool with project participants. Half of these pose a question (Q) and half simply offer and image as a provocation for an arts-based response (I). Look out for the Joker! (J)

We know that creative work is rarely linear in terms of process, experience and inspiration; and your challenge is to use these cards in a way that meets the needs of your work. They are there to be played with.

These are the caring cards. Click to open and flip…