Stages #5 addresses the various divides and entanglements between community arts from the 1970s and 1980s and contemporary socially engaged practices.
The conference ‘Community Arts? Learning from the Legacy of Artists’ Social Initiatives’ took place in November 2015. It sought to position ongoing and historical projects made by artists with and alongside communities in the context of contemporary social engagement discourse.
In developing the conference, Sally Tallant, Andrea Phillips and our co-workers at Liverpool Biennial and the Black-E, Liverpool, wished to address an endemic problem within the arts which is enabled by three things in particular: firstly, the post-relational aesthetics reinvention of subject-object connections within the arts under the terms of new forms of utopian communicability rendered both investable, collectable and fashionable; secondly, the desperate enforcement of participatory practices by funding bodies under pressure to justify in governmentalised terms their spend on the otherwise elite arts in the UK context; and, thirdly, the erasure of the term ‘community’ within artistic, art theoretical and more general discourse and practice over the past 20 years.
We recognise that there are many practitioners – some of whom were able to join us for the event – who recognise and continue to practice within this composite problem. We also mark the strong affiliation with feminist struggles, anti-racist campaigns and demands for intersectional recognition and acceptance that the Community Arts movement in the UK supported, drew inspiration from and continues to struggle within today.
Community Arts: How can we bring the legacy of community arts into the present?
How can we bring the legacy of community arts into the present?
Liverpool Biennial’s annual conference Community Arts? Learning from the Legacy of Artists’ Social Initiatives was held at the Black-E on Sunday 1 November 2015. The daylong event brought together distinguished thinkers and practitioners from the field of community arts to discuss the legacy of such practices in the light of a renewed interest in socially engaged art.
Loraine Leeson, Sophie Hope, Ania Bas, Ed Webb-Ingall and Andrea Phillips discuss explore how we can bring the legacy of community arts into the present
Community Arts: Politics and participation – housing, arts and Liverpool
Politics and participation: housing, arts and Liverpool – what is necessary here?
Liverpool Biennial’s annual conference Community Arts? Learning from the Legacy of Artists’ Social Initiatives was held at the Black-E on Sunday 1 November 2015. The daylong event brought together distinguished thinkers and practitioners from the field of community arts to discuss the legacy of such practices in the light of a renewed interest in socially engaged art.
Jeanne van Heeswijk, Britt Jurgensen and Angela McKay from Homebaked, Fran Edgerley from Assemble, Joe Farrag from Granby Community Land Trust, Nina Edge and Rosie Cooper contemplate politics and participation: housing, arts and Liverpool and what is necessary here. This panel is followed by a question and answer section from the audience chaired by Andrea Phillips.
Community Arts: What is at stake in community practice?
What is at stake in community practice? What have we learned?
Liverpool Biennial’s annual conference Community Arts? Learning from the Legacy of Artists’ Social Initiatives was held at the Black-E on Sunday 1 November 2015. The daylong event brought together distinguished thinkers and practitioners from the field of community arts to discuss the legacy of such practices in the light of a renewed interest in socially engaged art.
Wendy Harpe, Frances Rifkin, Alan Read and Jason E. Bowman consider what is at stake in community practice, and what we have learned.
Community Arts: How can we learn from practices of the past?
How can we learn from the practices of the past and develop new models for the future without losing our values?
Liverpool Biennial’s annual conference Community Arts? Learning from the Legacy of Artists’ Social Initiatives was held at the Black-E on Sunday 1 November 2015. The daylong event brought together distinguished thinkers and practitioners from the field of community arts to discuss the legacy of such practices in the light of a renewed interest in socially engaged art.
Sonia Boyce, Laura Raicovich, Polly Brannan and Sally Tallant examine how we can learn from the practices of the past and develop new models for the future without losing our values.
Community Arts: What kind of organisations do we need to develop to work with communities?
What kind of organisations do we need to develop to work with communities and how does this affect how we reimagine galleries and museums?
Liverpool Biennial’s annual conference Community Arts? Learning from the Legacy of Artists’ Social Initiatives was held at the Black-E on Sunday 1 November 2015. The daylong event brought together distinguished thinkers and practitioners from the field of community arts to discuss the legacy of such practices in the light of a renewed interest in socially engaged art.
Nato Thompson, Anna Colin, Anna Cutler and Sally Tallant reflect on what kind of organisations we need to develop to work with communities and what effect this has on how we reimagine galleries and museums.
Community Arts: Wendy and Bill Harpe Introducing the Black-E
Wendy and Bill Harpe Introducing the Black-E
Liverpool Biennial’s annual conference Community Arts? Learning from the Legacy of Artists’ Social Initiatives was held at the Black-E on Sunday 1 November 2015. The daylong event brought together distinguished thinkers and practitioners from the field of community arts to discuss the legacy of such practices in the light of a renewed interest in socially engaged art.
Co-founders of the Black-E Wendy and Bill Harpe summarise their fifty years of work in visual arts at this historic community venue.