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One of the most satisfying and enlightening elements of the leadership fellowship is the opportunity it affords to visit institutions, talk about the latest developments in ‘translating cultures’ – and, most importantly, to learn more about the projects funded under the theme. I’ve recently been involved in ‘translating cultures’ sessions at Leeds and Kent, and will be going to Edinburgh for one next month.Yesterday, thanks to Scott McGee and Lesley Twomey, I spent some time at Northumbria University. I was very pleased to have the opportunity to visit Baltic 39, a cultural hub for contemporary art situated in the centre of Newcastle. The home for Northumbria University Fine Art students, the site is also an exhibition space programmed by BALTIC, and the location of a number of artist studios. A consortium between Northumbria and Sunderland was recently designated an AHRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT), with funding allocated to support post-graduate studentships that reinforce existing engagement with industry – reinforcing notably  the institutions’ links with BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and the National Glass Centre.An afternoon session on the main campus focused on the ‘translating cultures’ theme, exploring its emergence and current evolution, and also reflecting on the ways in which it fits into current debates across a range of Arts and Humanities disciplines. A useful subsequent discussion covered a variety of areas, including the importance of recognizing the theme’s pre-history in earlier AHRB/AHRC funded projects relating to the broader area of (cultural) translation, and the challenges of integrating practice-based research in ‘translating cultures’ activity (an area in which colleagues in translation studies have already shown considerable interest).Two presentations by Northumbria colleagues demonstrated the ways in which ‘translating cultures’ is engaging researchers across numerous subject fields. Michael Green  talked about his creative writing project on ‘ficto-critical translation as a means of resisting the appropriations of history and place’, underlining the ways in which the engagement with ‘”translation’ […] conceived in its broadest possible sense and relat[ing] not exclusively to processes that are interlingual but also, for example, to those that are intermedial or intercultural’ allowed him to reflect on the representation of the past in the present, on the intercultural transfer of ideas, on cultural exchange between South Africa and Britain and on modes of cross-disciplinary working. In his overview of ‘Politics, Patriotism and Painting’, Matthew Potter then explored the ways in which ‘translating cultures’ has implications for intercultural approaches to museology and arts history: his project has allowed him to explore the acquisition of British pictures by Australian National Galleries (1860-1949) and to investigate how this contributes to a form of translational dynamics underpinning the formation of a distinct British cultural identity in Australia during the period. I was also pleased to meet Northumbria researchers instrumental in two research networks linked to ‘translating cultures’: Elizabeth Kramer, one of the leaders of the ‘Fashion and Translation: Britain, Japan, China, Korea’ project, and Wessie Ling, co-investigator on ‘Translating and Writing Modern Design Histories for the Global World’.An illuminating day, which served as an excellent showcase for the diverse research conducted under the theme at Northumbria. It was good to see engagement with ‘translating cultures’ across a range of fields, but also the cross-disciplinary connections that the theme continues to foster. Understanding more about the detail of projects always allows me to uncover connections with other ‘translating cultures’ awards, most notably yesterday in the areas of practice-led research, museology and design, and I’m looking forward to exploring these links further as the theme continues to evolve.