socially engaged art

February 1st 2022 saw publication by the Ecoart artist network of Ecoart in Action: Activities, Case Studies and Provocations for Classrooms and Communities.

Loraine Leeson’s chapter ‘Active Energy: Bringing Local Knowledge into The Public Realm’ takes the Active Energy project as a case study of arts and pedagogy.

Abstract
The arts are an excellent means of celebrating, communicating and consolidating ideas, but artists do not know everything and can work to greater effect with experts in other fields. These might be local people who are in touch with the needs of their community, professionals in other disciplines, or groups and institutions that can offer contextual knowledge. Collaboration creates insight, where each witnesses a multiplication of their own set of skills and experience when interfacing with others as part of a team. A function of the artist’s role in these situations is to nurture and facilitate this process in a way that allows for the diversity of expectations and enables each party, including themselves, to achieve their goal.

Full text
Leeson_Active Energy_Bringing Local Knowledge into The Public Realm_2022

Loraine Leeson will be running a new MA in Art and Social Practice commencing September 2017

The course builds on the UK’s significant history of community-based and socially engaged art initiatives addressing social and environmental issues. Students take their creative practice beyond the institution to build on their own interests, networks and communities, grounding this in critical understanding and theory. Loraine Leeson will lead the course, drawing on her longstanding experience in cultural activism and community collaborations. Additional input will be made by artists, writers, designers and cultural entrepreneurs active in the field of socially engaged practice in the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries.

The course offers:

• Experienced practitioner-led teaching combined with the rigour of an academic environment renowned for its cultural studies.

• Off-site project work based on own interest, contacts and communities.

• A supportive environment for developing collaborative, peer and professional networks.

• Active research context with specialism in socially engaged practice.

• A wider university context to support interdisciplinary working.

• State of the art facilities, studios and workshops with contemporary and traditional equipment, archives and digital tools including software labs, 3D printing and media studios.

• A programme of visits, trips and seminars to experience and debate London’s thriving scene of social engagement, cultural activism and arts-led urban regeneration.

• Opportunity to share critical debate and research across a cluster of masters programmes.

Further information

To apply

Funding support

UK student loans for postgraduate study