Micaela Levesque joined POLART as a PhD researcher after coming to policy through the lens of cultural practice. Their route into research was shaped not by abstraction, but by the practical realities of making art and the systems that surround it.
While studying Theatre Arts at Earlham College in rural Indiana, Micaela worked on a research project focused on ‘Responsible Storytelling’. The project asked how a small theatre department, operating with limited financial, cultural, and physical resources, could tell expansive stories on stage. What began as practical questions; what plays can we produce, and how can we cast and stage them well? quickly opened onto broader concerns.
As Micaela explains, these questions became entangled with more fundamental issues: “Who has the right to tell certain stories? What stories are worth telling this audience? And what makes good art?” The project concluded that responsible storytelling was not something that could be resolved once and for all, but instead required continuous dialogue between artists at all levels of production.
It was here that Micaela’s interest in policy began to take shape. Working with other researchers, Micaela helped develop and implement a union-esque advocacy system for student artists, designed to improve communication between students and professional staff. This was their first encounter with the material effects of governance on artistic practice. “This was the first space where I started to understand that the political and economic systems surrounding arts and culture could have a material impact on the art that is produced,” Micaela reflects.
After graduating, Micaela wanted to continue working in arts and culture in ways that supported both practitioners and communities. However, questions around pay, working conditions, and representation remained unresolved. They briefly explored law school completing the LSAT while juggling a portfolio career that included a legal assistant role, graphic design, choreography, and pizza delivery before discovering the Centre for Cultural Policy Research at the University of Glasgow.
Seeing cultural policy research as “a direct line to the intellectual questions I wanted to answer about my practice,” Micaela enrolled on the MSc in Creative Industries and Cultural Policy. The degree provided both theoretical grounding and practical insight into UK policy and governance. Drawing on their creative skillset, Micaela ran a TikTok campaign and was elected Vice President of Education in the student union.
In this role, Micaela worked across Learning and Teaching committees and the University Senate, campaigning for better support for international postgraduate students and speaking out against rapid over-recruitment and its contribution to the city’s housing crisis. They advised on exam policies and learning support, gaining first-hand experience of how policy moves from consultation to drafting, implementation, and evaluation.
Returning to the arts sector after university, Micaela joined Renfrewshire Council to evaluate Future Paisley, a six-year cultural investment programme. This role revealed new tensions. They observed disconnects between practitioners, publics and policymakers, and noted how “the needs of government for certainty, evidence, and quantifiable success conflicted with those in arts and culture, a space for experimentation, enquiry, and uncertainty.”
These experiences shaped the questions Micaela now brings to their PhD. When they encountered POLART, they recognised an immediate alignment between the project’s aims and the issues they were grappling with in practice. “The questions POLART asks were the same ones I was practically facing every day at work,” Micaela says.
As part of POLART, Micaela is excited to deepen their research skills while contributing practitioner-led insight into how art, policy, and governance interact. Micaela brings to the project both critical curiosity and a strong sense of commitment to the cultural sector, qualities that sit squarely at the heart of POLART’s interdisciplinary approach.