The Art of Engagement: Foundations for an international learning community in social practice

The proposed research network will explore how the teaching of social practice can be improved for arts practitioners through partnership between cultural and higher education institutions. It will use online communications to test practical possibilities for augmenting learning through collaboration across national boundaries, and investigate other benefits that networking across institutional and geographical divides can bring. The network will result in the formation of a nascent community of practitioners, cultural providers and educators to encourage cooperation, exchange and possibilities for greater future collaboration.

Communications will commence between a core of four arts institutions and universities in the UK and US, two countries that are, relative globally, foundational to social practice arts and its education. This will then be expanded into a wider network. The core organisations are Tate Exchange and Middlesex University (UK), and Queens Museum and City University of New York (CUNY) (USA), each with specific experience of supporting social engagement in art.

Social practice is a growing phenomenon amongst artists globally, who are increasingly drawing on their creativity to address urgent intersectional issues of social and environmental justice. There are nevertheless still relatively few opportunities to formally develop the knowledge and understanding needed for effective practice in this field. The nature of learning for engagement in the wider social sphere inherently questions whether it could be more effectively achieved by drawing on a wider pool of experience than UK HEIs have to offer. It is envisaged, particularly in relation to current developments in decolonizing arts education and museum provision, that much could be achieved through collaboration and exchange supported by online learning strategies.

The project will progress through bringing together representatives from other cultural and educational centres of expertise, including institutions in Ireland with its significant legacy in this field. An initial half-day online symposium will facilitate discussion and the sharing of ideas. This peer-practitioner-educator dialogue will lead to a series of four half-day online workshops for emerging artists from UK and US locations, hosted by each of the core organisations, to test possibilities for longer-term future programmes. A face-to-face exchange hosted by Tate Exchange and Queens Museum will support this work, enabling in-depth dialogue and the sharing of methodologies and learning strategies between the different organisations. The programme will culminate in a full-day live-streamed virtual symposium where programme findings, outcomes and outputs will be demonstrated, discussed and disseminated. With wider international participation, this event will address how future learning in this field can be expanded through cooperation, exchange and ongoing networking. The work will be informed by a Project Advisory Group of established practitioners, educators and artists, together with alumni of Middlesex and CUNY courses.

The main benefits of the research will be realised through future collaborations leading to educational initiatives that can offer greater support to emerging artists in this field. These will benefit through discovering new and effective ways of developing their work in the social sphere, which will in turn aid the publics and environments with which they engage. Artists, educationalists and academics will gain perspective and ideas for different ways of delivering educational activities, while workshops participants will have opportunity to gain skills and experience. Dissemination through journal articles will not only be aimed at academics and cultural institutions, but also arts practitioners via professional publications.