A workshop supporting diverse approaches to supervising PhD candidates in the arts. This online workshop was commissioned by Lucerne University of the Applied Sciences and Arts and designed for supervisors supervising PhD candidates in fine arts, design and film. The workshop was conceived and led by Dr Sarah Tripp and transcribed by Josie Cockram (Falmouth University). The workshop was structured around group discussions and insights from Professor Maria Fusco (Professor of Interdisciplinary Writing at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design at the University of Dundee and Director of the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities) and Dr Laura Guy (PhD Coordinator for Fine Art at The Glasgow School of Art). The necessity for a strong community surrounding the supervisor and supervisee was considered in relation to the specific challenges of practice-led PhD research. Issues raised included: the formation of supervisory teams, the supervisor/supervisee match, creating research communities and supervisor roles.

The workshop asked participants to focus on the parallel journeys of supervisors and supervisees. As a relational activity, supervision requires strong relationships to be built within research communities, cohorts and supervisory teams. During the workshop the participants from Lucerne University of the Applied Sciences and Arts were supported in frank and open discussion about experiences of being supervised and supervising. A practice-led PhD was presented as a slow transformative process which requires stable conditions for the transformation to happen over three years (or longer in a part-time mode). Good conditions for this transformation were outlined: a supervisory team, a community or cohort of researchers who gather regularly and time created by stable funding. Professor Fusco spoke about the process of establishing research groups of PhD candidates at Goldsmiths, Edinburgh College of Art and Dundee University and about the long-term value of PhD research groups for supervisors and candidates. Doctor Laura Guy talked about the process of assigning supervisors to PhD projects (including guest supervisors) and about how supervisors’ roles vary and change over the duration of a project and how the process of supervision meetings develop and evolve over time. Key insights included: strategies to establish a community of discourse for trans-disciplinary research, groups of supervisors becoming a resource to address problems within supervision and creating a culture where practice-based experiences can flourish.