Skip to content
25
25 On Now
In the middle of a large room with wooden beams and dividers a man stands throwing a cloud of jigsaw pieces and glitter in to the air above his head. An audience look in to the air towards the cloud, some smiling.

With For About 2017: Art, Activism & Community

2nd May 2017
Event Details
Where
Quaker Meeting House, George Street, St Helens, UK
Categories
  • Collectivity

In May 2017 we hosted the second iteration of our conference series. Sixteen speakers / provocateurs and 100 participants explored collaboration, language and our role as artists, producers and commissioners in an ever-changing socio-political landscape.

With invited guests and an audience, we explored three conversations on the fierce and urgent questions facing collaborative and social art today. Using the following statements by leading thinkers as provocations, we explored collaboration, language and our role in an ever-changing socio-political landscape.

On Collaboration

‘If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.’ Lilla Watson.

This conversation looked at the questions:

Who are our collaborators?

Why are we working together?

Beyond the Rhetoric

‘There is no art practice that avoids all forms of co-option, compromise, or complicity’ - Grant Kester.

This conversation asked how we avoid the co-option of the language and methodology of collaborative and social art practice by neoliberal agendas and move towards a ‘vision of social justice’ that excludes ‘over simplification’ and ‘quick fixes.’

Solidarity and Action

‘Useful art (Arte Util) is about transforming people’s lives, even on a small scale. It is art as activism and activism as art' - Tania Bruguera.

This conversation looked at the role of art and artists in this time of political and social urgency. Where should we be working? What do we need to be doing? How can we work in solidarity with partners and collaborators to ‘convert our fears, findings and conversations, into plans, projects and results?’

Artist Lois Weaver sits in the middle of an audience of poeple holding a microphone and gesturing with her hands.
Want to see more like this?

Related Content

Find out more

A double glazed window is framed by curtains and a cushioned seat that are patterned in colours of reds, oranges, yellows and pinks. On the window, post its read 'Intro, Story Sharing, Response, Exchange, Converge Insights' - a red arrow points to 'story sharing'. Behind the window there is a bowling green of green grass.

With For About 2019: Art and Democracy

23rd May 2019
Where
Ravenhead Social Club, Alexandra Drive, St Helens, WA10 3JH
Categories
  • Collectivity
The politics of our times have presented us with an unprecedented moment of re-evaluation. Our communities, our values, our social structures are in flux.
Read More
A group of people wearing brightly coloured clothes sit in an informal circle on a patch of grass. They appear to be listening to a speaker, a black man wearing a dark jacket and dark trousers. In the background there is green foliage.

With For About

Categories
  • Collectivity
A different kind of conference. Each year we invite colleagues and comrades from the UK and beyond to the town of St Helens to discuss, the role of art in the modern world.
Read More
In the middle of a large room with wooden beams and dividers a man stands throwing a cloud of jigsaw pieces and glitter in to the air above his head. An audience look in to the air towards the cloud, some smiling.

4. Funding and Fundraising (Artist Professional Development)

12th Feb 2019
Categories
  • Workshop,
  • Collectivity
Funds and fundraising is the fourth workshop in a series of six practical artist professional development sessions for artists working within socially engaged practice.
Read More