Symposia Outline
Background
The Arts Council of England's Artists in Sites for Learning (AiSFL) Scheme supported artist-led visual arts projects working in a range of cultural and educational settings. Recent research commissioned by ACE used the AiSFL scheme as the starting point for an enquiry into the creative practices and pedagogic approaches of artists working in this area (see We did Stir Things Up: Artists in sites for learning by Emily Pringle July 2002 - Interrupt site under articles http://www.interrupt-symposia.org/index.html). The report concluded that the role that the artist plays is multifaceted and the forms of engagement between artists, participants and others, are equally complex. As the literature review indicates, there is little related published work to date.
The Interrupt symposia take the research as a starting point to further explore this area of practice. In collaboration with a number of partners from higher education and the arts sector a series of symposia have been jointly programmed. The artist's role (Artist as...) has been typified through five modes of working, or types of engagement, which emerged from Emily Pringle's research. These 'types' of role were then developed through discussions with partners. These roles are not mutually exclusive, they overlap and map on to each other, operating as different facets of an area of practice.
Aim
Interrupt aims to stimulate debate around the central question:
Where does socially engaged, participatory and education arts activity stand within current debates around contemporary arts practice?
Objectives
- Raise awareness of the diversity of practices within the field of socially engaged, participatory and education arts promoting a range of cultural experiences.
- Champion the role of the artist.
- Explore professional development needs of artists and facilitators working in this arena.
- Enable networking - facilitate connections within and between the art and education/informal learning sectors.
- Explore the assumption of the transformative nature of creativity and participation in arts activity.
- Effect change - impact on contemporary arts and broader cultural, social and education practices, informing the policies and institutional strategies that aim to support this area of practice.
- Disseminate findings from the symposia through the web-site, various publishing partners.
Structure
Each symposium will have 40/50 participants including artists; educators, critics & commentators, project organisers & curators, funders & policy makers. A core group of participants (selected by the project directors and partners) will attend three or more of the symposia to ensure an ongoing strands of debate. The remaining participants will be invited by the partners to contribute to specific issues being addressed at individual symposium.
Each symposium will last two days running probably from mid morning to mid afternoon the following day with overnight accommodation all in one place. The informal aspects of the symposia (eg meals, breaks etc) are seen to be as important as points of interaction as the formal sessions and the symposia will be structured to account for this.
The content and logistics of each symposium have been developed with the relevant partners and project directors.
Project Directors
David Butler (Co-ordinator Life, Work, Art Programme, Newcastle University)
Vivienne Reiss (Senior Visual Arts Officer, Arts Council England)