Stories from the road with Ralph Buck and Sarah Foster Sproull
In December 2025 and through January and February 2026 Ralph and Sarah have been talking up d@rts as we have travelled through Singapore, Thailand, India and USA. We have been especially keen to introduce international networks and partners to d@rts, the Work Package 7 Decolonial Framework and especially the Decolonise This… game.
In Tezpur, a small city in Assam, Northeast India, Ralph met with Debarshi Prasad Nath and a group of Tezpur University academics from the Faculty of Cultural Studies. Here he introduced the dialoguing@rts project and played the Decolonise This… game.
The response to the project and the game was very positive with much support for the game to be used in both schools and in tertiary contexts. Here is a picture of us playing the game around a coffee table. Of note was that Prof Nath’s 12-year-old daughter joined in on playing the game and made the comment to her father: “Can I take this to school tomorrow? I want to play it with my friends, as we want to make plans for changing the school.”
On 13 January 26, Ralph met with Prof. Chee Hoo Lum, Music Education, National Institute of Education, Singapore. Again, Ralph gave Prof. Lum an overview of the Horizon Europe project and then activated his understanding through the playing of the game. After 2 hours of ongoing dialogue, Prof. Lum commented, “I’m about to teach my master’s students this afternoon. This game is perfect for introducing them to values and issues that they need to consider as Arts Educators in Singapore.” The picture below shows Che Hoo Lum and Ralph after the game.
The following day Ralph Met with Dr Feng Jing, Chief of Culture Unit, UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok, Thailand, and Ms Montakarn Suvanatap Kittipaisalsilp, Project Officer, Culture Unit, UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok. After outlining the Dialoguing the Arts Project, Ralph introduced the Decolonise This… game. Montakarn immediately said, “Oh Great I love card games.” After an hour and half, Montakarn finished the game saying, “I’m going to use this tomorrow as I develop funding applications for several or our UNESCO projects in 2026.” The picture below shows Ralph and Dr Feng Jing exchanging documents after paying the game.
Meanwhile Sarah has been sharing d@rts in New York city, USA. Sarah has met with Andrea Salvatore who is the Executive Director of the Centre for Ballet and the Arts at New York University and also met with Professor Susan Koff, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, NYU.
Sarah and I share this as we are mindful of the applicability of the d@rts project beyond Europe and, we are keen to see how our work relates to artists and culture workers in different cultural contexts. We are thrilled that arts educators and cultural workers around the world are interested in the project and see how they can use the Decolonise This… game.
Until next time!
Assoc. Prof. Sarah Foster Sproull and Prof. Ralph Buck