Carlotta Allum is a practitioner, researcher and director and founder of the arts charity Stretch that works with prisoners and vulnerable groups in society. Her research is with the Design Against Crime Research Centre and Socially Responsive Design Hub who invited her to work with them after working with her on some storytelling work within their Makeright Project. The focus of her research is looking at the possible transformation that occurs in prisoners when they engage in digital storytelling and draws on theories and methodologies from social sciences, criminology, psychology and social design.
Carlotta founded Stretch as a result of her MA in Museums and Galleries in Education from the Institute of Education, UCL and has since been awarded research scholarships for work with prisoners from the Griffins Society, LSE and the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, where she travelled to Norway and Australia. Her practice was originally grounded in museology and using objects for stories where she worked with the V&A and Welcome Trust amongst other high profile partners. Carlotta has been in receipt of various awards (Outstanding Practitioner BBC/NIACE, Centre for Excellence, Cape UK and twice runner up for Tech4Good) and her innovative ‘Stretch Digital’ has been cited as good practice for prisoner education.
Carlotta is also a champion for Outsider Art and runs a successful Arts Council funded festival and gallery. Carlotta considers herself a social entrepreneur and is interested in creating opportunities for other people who identify as outsiders.
@stretchoutsiderart
@kissmyartoff