This book brings a practitioner's insight to bear on socially situated art practice through a first-hand glimpse into the development, organisation and delivery of art projects with social agendas. Issues examined include the artist's role in building creative frameworks, the relationship of collaboration to participation, management of collective input, and wider repercussions of the ways that projects are instigated, negotiated and funded. The book contributes to ongoing debates on ethics/aesthetics for art initiatives where process, product and social relations are integral to the mix, and addresses issues of practical functionality in relation to social outcome.
Introduction
Part 1: Contexts and Case Studies
1. Seventies
1.1 London/Berlin Series
1.2 The Present Day Creates History
2.2 Bethnal Green Hospital Campaign
2.3 East London Health Project
2. Eighties
2.1 Docklands Community Poster Project
2.2 The Photo-murals
2.3 Campaigns
2.4 The People's Armadas to Parliament
2.5 The People's Plan for the Royal Docks
2.6 Docklands Roadshow
3. Nineties
3.1 The Art of Change
3.2 West Meets East
3.3 Celebrating the Difference
3.4 Between Family Lines
3.5 Awakenings
3.6. The Infinity Story
4. The New Millennium
4.1 cSPACE
4.2 The Catch
4.3 VOLCO
4.4 Cascade
4.5 The Young Person's Guide to the Royal Docks
4.6 The Young Person's Guide to East London
4.7 Lambeth Floating Marsh
4.8 Active Energy
5. In Hindsight
Part 2: Reflections
6. Process and Product
6.1 An Invitation
6.2 The Art of Negotiation
6.3 Managing Collective Input
6.4 From Communication to Community
6.5 Objects, Fragments and Narratives
6.6 When It Goes Wrong
6.7 Outcomes and Products
6.8 Feedback and Evaluation
7. Themes and Issues
7.1 Collaboration or Participation?
7.2 Interdisciplinarity
7.3 The Dynamics of Difference and Issues of Multiculturalism
7.4 Activism into Identity
7.5 Where Education Meets Production
7.6 Technology as Facilitator and Transformer of Social Engagement
7.7 From Co-op to Charity: Working from an Organisational Base
7.8 Funding
7.9 Regeneration
7.10 Social Change
8. Situating the Practice
8.1 Locating the Aesthetic
8.2 A Question of Function
8.3 Rebuilding the Cultural Frame
Appendix: Summary of Projects 1975-2016
