TSP FLIPBOOK SEA

Socially Engaged Art in Action Exploring Artist Perspectives on Solutions for Social Challenges

1 "Socially Engaged Art in Action: Exploring Artist Perspectives on Solutions for Social Challenges" NIDHI BODANA Supervisor GrahamRamsay Figure 1 MasterOf Fine Art Dissertation The Glasgow School of Art Word Count: 9000 January 22nd , 2025

2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like express my heartfelt thanksto my tutor, GrahamRamsay, for all his encouragement and support over the completion of this dissertation. His guidance in my slow process, dealing with the struggles of settling into a completely new place, and helping me build relation with people in Glasgow. Special thanks go to my tutor Sarah Tripp, who encouraged me to dig deeper into theory and cover more wide-ranging readings. Her inspiration has always expanded my horizon and elevated the quality of my theory and practice. Huge gratitude to Alison Stirling, Artlink Edinburgh and Peter McCaughey, Wave Particle for generously sharing their time, insight and experience as socially engaged art practitioners. A special thanks to Alison Stirling, Graham Ramsay for facilitating connection within the field that has supported my learning. I am also deeply thankful to my friends for sharing their knowledge.

3 ABSTRACT Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her breathing.1 – Arundhati Roy This dissertation examines how artists conceptualize the transformative potential of socially engaged art (SEA)in social challenges. Drawing on personal histories that include homelessness, trauma and social marginalization, the research examines how SEA can provide creative and participatory approaches that enable empowerment, healing and social change in marginalized communities. How can collaborative art practices take the step from critiquing social problems to offering collective solutions through inclusive and accessible engagement? Based on interviews with, among others, artists Alison Stirling from Artlink Edinburgh and Peter McCaughey from Wave Particle whose practices place emphasis on inclusion and accessibility and social responsibility, the methodology comprises these insights are explored in the context of existing theoretical frameworks, such as Claire Bishop’s theory of participatory art, Nicolas Bourriaud’s relational aesthetics, and community arts discourse. Along with presenting an overview of SEA, the study also discusses the ethical issues of SEA, the relationship between artistic freedom and social responsibility in practice. It is the findings that shows how SEA have the potential to uplift marginal voices, build dialogue and healing, and induce social change. To create the structure for SEA to collectively take action, to work towards alleviating systemic issues on a social level and empower communities to affect change. This dissertation reconstructs the role of the artist as a mediator of social change while accentuating SEA’s capacity to confront systemic inequalities and ignite political and social change. This study provides insight into the positive correlation between SEA and engagement, despite the potential for bias, enabling further understanding of SEA's potential to evolve into a tool for tackling multifaceted socioeconomic challenges. 1Arundhati Roy, An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2006), 44, https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780144001606/page/44/mode/2up. This quote from the "Come September" chapter reflects the gradual yet powerful transformation, much like the process of healing through socially engaged art (SEA), which empowers marginalized communities and fosters social change.

4 Socially engaged art transforms the artist into a collaborator, where the boundaries between art and life dissolve, and the work becomes a collective pursuit of empathy, action, and change.2 Claire Bishop and Pablo Helguera 2Ideas inspired by Claire Bishop, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship (London: Verso, 2012), and Pablo Helguera, Education for Socially Engaged Art (New York: Jorge Pinto Books, 2011).

5 CONTENTS Introduction – Page 7-9 Theoretical Foundations of Socially Engaged Art – Page 10-12 Interviews as a Lens into SEA Practice – Page 13-17 Themes Emerging from Artist Practices – Page 18-23 Social Challenges Addressed Through SEA – Page 24-26 Critical Analysis of Artist Perspectives – Page 27-30 Conclusion – page 31-32 Bibliography – Page 33-34 Appendix – Page 35-61

6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: – You Make Up ME – Page 1 Figure 2: – Leanne Ross Work “Dirty Dancing Flower” – Page14 Figure 3: – Story Sharing – Page 18-19 Figure 4: – Conversation – Page 20

7 INTRODUCTION Art is not a mirrorto reflect the world, but a hammer with which to shape it.3 – Bertolt Brecht Socially engaged art (SEA) is a fluid, transformative approach to art-making at the intersection of social activism, community engagement, and collective problem-solving. In an era of increasing social responsibility within contemporary art practice, SEA affords unique opportunities to engage with pressing societal issues, especially as they relate to marginalized and underrepresented communities. In recent decades the artist's role has transitioned from a more traditional one of producing aesthetic objects for elite audiences to an integrative and participatory model that engages directly with communities to make change. This dissertation examines the power of socially engaged art as a tool for addressing social issues — through the eyes of those artists whose art practice seeks not only to empower and heal, but to create systemic social transformation. Context and Motivation The reason for doing this research is to recognize how artists think about and execute SEA and create the responses to social issues such as homelessness, trauma, marginalization, and the like. Not just an artform, SEA is an act of social engagement that invites participants to be part of meaningful change. At its forefront is the question:- what does this evolution from critique ofsocial problemsto concrete solutions look like, and howdo these art practices heal, empower and build collective transformation. SEA Artists often make work in their communities, using art as a means of grappling with the complexities within that community. In this dissertation, I am trying to examine how their practices provide solutions beyond critique, offering tangible pathways towards social justice. Beginning with primary research around the way SEA operates in practice, I engaged with the artists of SEA (like those from Artlink Edinburgh and Wave Particle) through this study. Their values of inclusion, accessibility and social responsibility resonate throughout this dissertation. Exploring their work, this research seeks to reveal how SEA is a tool for community empowerment, granting marginalized voices an outlet while addressing social inequities. The research also addresses the ethical dilemmas that emerge in this context, including the tension between artistic freedom and social accountability and the risk of commodification of marginalized experiences for aesthetic purposes. 3Bertolt Brecht, Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic (New York: Hill and Wang,1964), opening quote.

8 Research Questions and Goals The main research question that underpins this dissertation is:- Howdo artiststhink aboutthe transformative potential ofsocially engaged art as strategies for social change? From this big question arise a number of smaller ones:- Howcan socially engaged art go beyond critique to provide material solutions for marginalized groups? How do collaborative art practices foster inclusivity, empowerment, and social change? What ethical challenges do socially engaged artists encounter in working with vulnerable populations, and how do they negotiate them? The main aim is to investigate how SEA practitioners interpret and apply their practice as a means for social change. The implications of the research are impactful, exploring how art can facilitate, create or resist via theorisation of SEA as well as examining the lived experience of artists. This dissertation provides theoretical as well as empirical insights into the dialectic interplay of SEA with social inequality and the context in between. Theoretical Context & Framework This dissertation’s theoretical framework is rooted in key present-day discourses regarding socially engaged art. For the second section, the idea and the notion of participatory art, in which Claire Bishop's writing will be the focus, will allow an analysis of the dynamics of artist and audience in SEA while creating so-called "social art" that emphasizes collaboration and inclusivity. Much of Bishop’s writing highlights how this kind of art can shatter the distance between artist and viewer, creating spaces where mutual understanding and collective action can occur. Similarly, Nicolas Bourriaud's relational aesthetics will inform the study's analysis of the ways in which SEA Creates meaningful social interactions, in which art-making becomes a form of social exchange, allowing participants to recast their position in society. Alongside these frameworks, the study will draw from the broader discourse of community arts and socially engaged practice highlighting collaboration, community's voice and social engagement through art. The analysis of the practices of artists working with marginalised groups will be critical for understanding the ways in which these theoretical approaches can be employed in the sensitive context of the organisations Artlink Edinburgh and Wave Particle. The argument of this dissertation, therefore, will be that SEA is more than critique, it is an essential approach to understanding the real world, agency and collective responsibility in addressing real-world issues.

9 Organisation Of Dissertation This dissertation aims to meet such a composite inquiry into socially engaged art and its impact on stimulating social change by offering a combination of theoretical positioning and practical case studies. Introduction Describesthe research questions andmotivations and provides a theoretical grounding that will underpin the subsequent analysis. Chapter 1-Theoretical Foundations of Socially Engaged Art Introducing the fundamental theoretical framework of participatory art and relational aesthetics and an exploration of the theoretical development of SEA along with its applications in contemporary art practice. Chapter 2-Interviews as a Lens into SEA Practice The methodology detailing the insights from interviews conducted with artists Alison Stirling from Artlink Edinburgh and Peter McCaughey from Wave Particle. Chapter 3-Themes Emerging from Artist Practices This chapter will discuss how the artists’ practices become thematic and what these themes include such as inclusivity, collaboration, empowerment, ethical dilemmas etc. This will all be illustrated via specific case studies. Chapter 4-Social Challenges Addressed Through SEA This chapter will explore the social challenges SEA hopesto address(e.g.,trauma, homelessness, marginalization) and analyse howdifferent artists confront these challenges through their work. Chapter 5-Critical Analysis of Artist Perspectives Comparative perspectives- Critical analyses comparing the perspectives ofthe artists examining their views on the ethical implications of their work and the impact of SEA on social change. Chapter 6-Conclusion Summary of the dissertation and discussion of the implications of the role of socially engaged artin the pursuit ofsocial change as well asfuture avenuesforresearch and practice in the field.

10 CHAPTER 1 Theoretical Foundations of Socially Engaged Art Socially engaged art (SEA) describes a practice of action-oriented art that bridges social activism with community action and collective problem solving. It is the other way around:- The gallery or museum becomes the public library or the social centre, and the job of the artist is no longer to create aesthetic goods for engaged audience of shared sensibilities, but to provide the tools that allow communities to gather, to share, to build things together. This evolution challenges conventional thinking about art, its place in society and its connection to power structures. Also,the theoretical basis of SEA isrelevant in the context of social change that it can contribute to. Core theories of participatory art, relational aesthetics and the community arts discourse, which can be read as a prism between which the purpose of art in transforming does indeed reverse. Key Theories in SEA Socially engaged art revolutionizes the artist, changing them from maker of isolated aesthetic pieces to catalyst of community-focused action. This work defies normative modes of art practice, transgressing both the artist and recipient, and what constitutes a private space of making and a public site of social practice. The theoretical frameworks that form the basis of SEA, such as participatory art theory, relational aesthetics, and community arts discourse highlight various aspects of how art can effect social change. This is what activates the beginning of art, according to what Claire Bishop explains when she claims that “Art can provide a space for consideration, a layout for communication and a tool for objecting the status quo”.4 The theory of participatory art according to Claire Bishop Bishop’s theory of participatory art serves as a critical framework for understanding SEA. She critiques the commercialization of participatory art and argues that real participation involves mutual responsibility. Bishop calls participatory art “a political act” that invites real investment in social problems.5 This perspective is clearly present in projects like "Theaster Gates’ Dorchester Projects" in Chicago, as Gates's initiatives work to unite the community around cultural production and features that will revitalize the neighbourhood, allowing residents to engage in the production of their environment.6 Gates’s artmaking process embodies the virtues that Bishop describes- art as social engagement rather than aesthetic production. But Bishop also identifies ethical pitfalls inherent in participatory practices. One major question on the tip of every artist’s tongue is whether marginalized populations will be taken advantage of. The artist’s role must be critically examined, she writes, as the act of engagement itself might reinforce a new kind of colonialism”.7 An example of this concern is seen in the case of different kinds of art projects that work with vulnerable communities, where the artist's political and aesthetic interests may eclipse those of their participants.

11 Relational Aesthetics by Nicolas Bourriaud With its emphasis on human relationships, Nicolas Bourriaud's theory of relational aesthetics extends the conversation of SEA further. According to Bourriaud, contemporary art is no longer relationship to an object but rather one among people or social relations: “Art is no longer about producing an object to be consumed, but about producing the conditions for social exchange”.8 Such notions are evidenced in the participatory practices of artists like Rirkrit Tiravanija, works invite audiences to share meal within installations, fostering temporary communities and blurring the boundaries between art and life.9 In keeping with Bourriaud’s premise, the SEA rejects the notion of the artist as a solitary genius. In many community-dedicated art projects, for example, the artist acts more as a facilitator who instigates social interactions which ultimately motivate artistic production. These kinds of approaches are emblematic of the scale, site and community specific approach of relational aesthetics, which views the underlying social grid as more important than the object in itself. Community Arts Discourse Community arts literature likewise informs the theoretical discourse underpinning SEA, including the emphasis on collaboration and a commitment to social problems. One of the main areas of community arts is about breaking down the traditional barriers for both artist and audience, and empowering the voices of those who are often marginalised. For instance, the artist and activist, Suzanne Lacy, with her project "The Crystal Quilt"10 which brought together women of diverse backgrounds to discuss aging, identity, and societal expectations in a performative action format. One additional layer of meaning in Lacy’s work highlights the role of art as an active, participative agent in social change that empowers participants. The focus on engagement and community works of SEA can also be associated with the UKbased group, Superflux who have produced works like “The People’s Pavilion” bringing the idea of “community” home. These are collaborative and meaningful responses to social issues, such as climate change, that have engaged local communities to determine how to respond, in the spirit of community arts discourse,11 in which communities participate in both artistic production and decision-making.

12 SEA Contemporary Debates and Applications SEA also brings contemporary conversations regarding the ethical implications of working with marginalised communities. Another potential problem is commodification, for example if artists start producing works about social issues because they can be sold. The need is even greater in situations where artists are reaping financial rewards from the narratives of vulnerable groups the critiques of such high-profile projects in the art-market are rampant.12 How can artists make sure that their artworks do not turn social struggles into commodities? Another challenge from an ethical standpoint is representing marginalised communities. As Greg Sholette, a artist and educator, notes “The representation of disenfranchised communities is not just about telling their stories; it is about empowering them to control their narratives”.13 Indeed, a core tenet of SEA is co-creation between the represented communities and the artists who make artwork about their experiences, rather than a mere visitation in which the communities’ experiences are appropriated. Conclusion This troubled and open-ended concept of socially engaged art, grounded in the recent theories of Claire Bishop and Nicolas Bourriaud as well as of advocates of community arts, lays before us an intellectual challenge of how to redefine the relevance of art in society. As SEA develops, it presents crucial ethical concerns that challenge conventional paradigms of authorship and commodification in art. Participatory art, and relational aesthetics are calling for art that is collaborative, inclusive and socially responsible, trying to empower communities and have an effect on social change. As through the ethical, politic and creative aspects, SEA stays on of the most crucial means of engagement with the current social problems, interrogating the power structures which reproduce the inequality. 4Claire Bishop, "The Social Turn: Collaboration and Its Discontents," Artforum International 44, no. 6 (2006): 178. 5Ibid., Bishop. 6Theaster Gates, Dorchester Projects (Theaster Gates Studio, 2017). 7Ibid., Bishop. 8Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics (Les Presses du Réel, 1998). 9Rirkrit Tiravanija, Untitled (Free/Still) (Museum of Modern Art, 1992). 10Suzanne Lacy, The Crystal Quilt (The Women’s Building, 1985). 11Superflux, The People’s Pavilion (Superflux, 2018). 12Harriet Finkelstein, "Art and the Marketplace," Art Review 72, no. 9 (2020). 13Gregory Sholette, Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture (Pluto Press, 2011).

13 CHAPTER 2 Interviews as a Lens into SEA Practice Continuing the path laid out by the above I conducted interviews with Alison Stirling of Artlink Edinburgh and with Peter McCaughey of Wave Particle. In this chapter I will distill a couple of crucial concepts from the domain of socially engaged art (SEA) from these interviews. These emergent perspectives shine expansive light onto alternative approaches and philosophies with regard to the often messy landscapes of socially engaged practices. This is particularly relevant to public space and notions of community, as well as contextualizations for social realization. Considering SEA through practice but also theory, I will explore both the commonalities, but also differences between their work and SEA literature that can provide important perspectives in relation to the explanatory potential of how art cannot just have impact, but also how it resonates in its social context. SEA has strong inclusive, accessibility, and community values, primarily contributed to by Alison Stirling and Peter McCaughey. Through their interviews I hear not just about their artistic practices, but the broader ethical, social and political frameworks that inform their work. The interviews provide invaluable insight into how SEA artists think about society and their role within it, the approach they take within their practice, and the impact they hope to make through engaging with different communities. Alison Stirling, of Artlink Edinburgh, is keen on projects providing visibility and valuable experiences of people with disabilities in the art world. With a very different tone, Wave Particle, via Peter McCaughey, seeks to actively engage communities where they’re at, deploying public art as large scale, site-specific interventions that reflect and respond to the needs of a given population. These varying perspectives at separate scales can complement each other in depicting how SEA may manifest across different contexts. Through analysis of these interviews, and their integration into theories of socially engaged art, will bring to light the strengths and resources that socially engaged practices carry within the framework of contemporary art.

14 Alison Stirling, Accessibility, Community Art and Inclusion Alison Stirling (Artlink Edinburgh): Alison traces her art practice back to a desire for art to be available for everyone, and in particular for people who may have been alienated from art through physical or mental disability. A very good example is Artlink Edinburgh, which offers arts to enhance the quality of life for disabled individuals and encourages creativity, skill building and social interaction. Via her work, Stirling helps link artists and people with disabilities to make collaborative projects, emphasizing the process as a matter of importance as well as the end work of art. Stirling describes her practice as “centered around the philosophy that art is for everyone, no matter skill level or where you come from.” She stresses the importance of giving people the tools and the space to be artists themselves, not only material for an artist’s vision. “It was people like Leanne Ross — other people who do similar work — who inspired me in my approach to my own work,” Stirling Says. For her own work, which also prioritizes inclusivity, Leanne Ross offers an approach for creating accessible art that allows visitors to participate fully in a project, despite physical or mental hurdles. Stirling said she is a fan of Ross’s work and that her body of work displays how artists can dismantle barriers to create spaces of inclusion, where everyone’s voice matters. The crucial part of this kind of practice is the commitment to co-creation, Stirling tells me, which means that people with disabilities are not merely passive participants in a group discussion, but are involved in decision-making phases. “It’s giving people the armour or the baton themselves,” she says about this process that furnishes “locus of control” for the art that people make. Figure 2 Leanne Ross – “Dirty Dancing Flowers” film‘Dirty Dancing,’ and the idea ofintroducing a karaoke stage into the Tramway exhibition, alongside a new body of large-scale text works and paintings of flowers. Tramway 2024

15 the ethical basis of socially engaged art and inclusivity and accessibility are linked. As such, one of its influences on Stirling is the critical theorist Grant Kester, who coined and popularized the term “dialogical art” to describe art that facilitates a space for a dialog between the artist and the community. Kester explained that working collaboratively on SEA projects is sometimes as valuable as the finished product, for such projects build up relationships and create a sense of shared responsibility. Stirling’s “ its not about hiring bodies to get the work done”, focus on comaking , finding a common ground, learning from each other, and shared choice mirrors Kester’s thought, as both see the act of making art as a means for social change and empowerment. For her part, Stirling’s work is one that closely engages with the work of artist and theorist Claire Bishop, who writes about howartists navigate complex relationships with the communitiesthey encounter. And while collaborative art can make the making of it more democratic, as Bishop discusses, it can also complicate power dynamics and matters of authorship. For many SEA projects, artists are required to strike a balance between their vision, and the community’s needs or wants. This negotiation is vital for Stirling, She acknowledges that there’s a fine line between artist control and community ownership. “It is very much about striking a balance between the needs of the community and what I think I can do artistically,” Stirling says. One challenge that is important to Stirling’s , she acknowledges: Building in accessibility at each phase of a project. But ensuring that people with disabilities have real, participatory access requires deliberate structuring, agility and, most importantly, time. “We underestimate the time sometimes we need to build trust, to bring people along,” she says. This aligns with one of the critiques of SEA which is these types of projects will often fall short of success; if enacted, it might be because they assumed community members overstate their capacity for selforganization or long-term sustainability of the artistic project. 14Interview with Alison Sterling, refer to Appendix A, pp. 35-49.

16 Peter McCaughey: Public Art, Community Engagement, and Social Impact Whereas Stirling as noted has focused on those types of inclusivity considerations as part of collaborative workshops or more citizen set, small-scale community art projects, Peter McCaughey’s practice at Wave Particle centres on public art and large-scale, more societydriven community interventions. McCaughey hopes to create works that can address not just the material conditions surrounding it but the social structures of the communities into which it is brought. With Wave Particle, McCaughey’s projects are intended to reach everyday people in a more direct, and often adversarial, way — one that makes people question the spaces they inhabit and what public space can mean. Helensburgh:- McCaughey’s Outer Museum project reflects this attitude toward public art. With this project, they installed plinths in public spaces and invited the community to display objects that represented their shared heritage and identity. The Outer Museum, as McCaughey described it, was a way to enable people to “exhibit their own history,” to display things that meant something to the neighbourhood around them. The work was less about the art itself and more about granting the public a direct stake in the curatorial process. “It’s not about an artist coming and telling people what people should be looking at, it’s about going into the community and finding out things they have a mutual interest in; it’s about finding objects of which they all respond to,” he explains. Attuned directly to these themes of public art and audience participation, SEA artists, like Rirkrit Tiravanija, who engages audiences through shared activities — cooking, eating reverberate the moods expressed by the artists revealing the life of SEA. Tiravanija’s art dismantles the traditional barrier between artist and audience, as the public becomes integral to the artistic experience. McCaughey’s Outer Museum, in contrast, likewise seeks to demolish walls, but instead of foregrounding experience, it urges us to grapple with our collective memory and identity through the exhibition of objects and artifacts. McCaughey’s work also engages with the theory of Nicolas Bourriaud, and, in particular, his idea of “relational aesthetics.” A work like that must produce experiences that connect human expressions to humanity, who is a part of nature, and to the environment — the value of art lying not in the piece/artwork itself. McCaughey’s projects embrace this sort of thinking in a big way, as they foreground the social aspect of art. Through collating and presenting objects with the community, McCaughey’s public art projects offer people opportunities to connect with each other, reconsider their history and re-engage with their environment in new and different ways. And while Stirling and McCaughey both express something of a passion for community involvement, the way they spices their message with that spirit could not be more different. A lot of Stirling’s work is focused on individuals or small groups and she’s often working with people who have almost no access to the art world. McCaughey, by contrast, is out to radically change public spaces on a macro level, involving a broader spectrum of the population in the creation of public art. Where Stirling’s doings are often more local and focused on access, McCaughey’s are panoramic, attempting to integrate entire neighbourhoods in conversation with one another through site-specific gestures that alter people’s notion of what can happen in a given space. 15Interview with Peter McCaughey, refer to Appendix B, pp. 50-61.

17 A New Inclusive Culture (The Role of the Artist in Socially Engaged Art) Stirling and McCaughey both share an understanding of the artist’s role within SEA but their approaches to activating that role are radically opposed. The role of the artist for Stirling is a facilitator an enabler; somebody who allows the community to lead the creative process. “It’s not an idea that’s being forced,” she says. “It’s about how you help people bring their ideas to life.” This views overlaps with Kester’s frame of "dialogical art," which emphasizes the collaborative, process-based nature of SEA. On the other hand, McCaughey believes the artist should facilitate and curate but also bring the community along. The artist must be at the front of the charge of things,” he says. “You get unfocused in the work without that kind of guidance.” So this is much more in keeping with Bourriaud’s idea of “relational aesthetics,” in which the artist is firmly in control of the artistic vision and just creates a framework for the social exchange to take place. And yet both Stirling and McCaughey were on the same page about one thing; how building trust with the community, and ensuring that the work reflects the community’s values and aspirations, will be key. Both artists are referring to socially engaged art, which is not only about creating art but also creating a space to gather, talk and transform the environment. Conclusion (Art as a Tool for Social Transformation) As these Socially Engaged Practice examples from Alison Stirling and Peter McCaughey demonstrate, community-based work can be applied in many ways to generate social change in communities. While their methods differ in scale and scope, the two share an orientation toward inclusivity, access and community engagement. Their work exemplifies how art can reimagine public space, popular power and how art can provide a sense of collective ownership over the creative process. In this way, I noted that their practices mirror the main theories of the SEA, those of Grant Kester, Claire Bishop, and Nicolas Bourriaud. The above theorists also provide lenses through which to view how SEA acts as a vehicle for social change, emphasizing that collaboration, dialogue and relationship-building are at the heart of artistic practice. Stirling’s and McCaughey’s examples demonstrate how art can undermine hierarchies even when conditions are brutal, but in doing so they also create spaces for social contact and imaginative work. Because social practice is not product, its about the process that focuses on relationships, and how it moves people and communities. Whether it’s through the technology driving Alison Stirling’s intimate, community-focused work and her recent digital tool that aims to decolonize grief or through the expansive, public interventions of Peter McCaughey, SEA offers a strong vision for how art can create social change. And through their practices, both Stirling and McCaughey remind that art can change the way we look at the world, the people in it, and our own selves.

18 CHAPTER 3 Themes Emerging from Artist Practices My own art practice is informed by my personal struggles, their implications in the social field and how they shaped my wish of collective storytelling and healing with art. Reproductive work, that did not come from myself as an individual, is much easier to capture and reflect on and put into a context of socially engaged art (SEA), which is changed from the world inside out approach I previously took. Based on my practice and interviews I had with artists like Alison Stirling and Peter McCaughey, I imagine how art participates in dealing with trauma, healing, and the space around me of empowerment, asit relates to those that feel disenfranchised. This chapter contextualises my practice through the theoretical frameworks of prominent practitioners in SEA, as I relate to contemporary discourse surrounding the proposition that art should serve as a tool for social change. Thematic content of practice Somewhere beneath it all is an excavation of my own trauma; narcissistic abuse; domestic violence; homelessness; poverty; discrimination; etc. These early experiences drove me to learn about how trauma shapes identities and mental health, especially among vulnerable communities. My early work explored traumas that I experienced, personally, until I began to understand the collective trauma of those experiences, so I constructed those pieces to create space for others to tell their stories and move through this process of healing together. Figure 3 Story Sharing Performance “You Make Up Me” 2023

19 Figure 3 Story Sharing Performance “You Make Up Me” 2023 As Caruth explained, This speaking and this listening--a speaking and a listening from the site of trauma--does not rely . . . on what we simply know of each other, but on what we don't yet know of our own traumatic pasts. In a catastrophic age . . . trauma itself may provide the very link between cultures: not as a simple understanding of the pasts of others but rather, within the traumas of contemporary history, as our ability to listen. . . 16 My practice is shifted from trauma representation toward healing, empowerment and social/political engagement. I want to use art as a healing tool, not just something that shows pain. In doing so I create opportunities to explore the issues such as mental health, social isolation and the marginalization of people who just seem to be out of tune with society, while at the same time creating opportunities for collective dialogues and empowerment through participatory arts. We are coming together as a collective of collaborators, and moving toward more meaningful work within this ecosystem of community. A part of this evolution depends on my growing curiosity around socially engaged art practices the ones where, rather than the artist’s point of vision being the point of origin, proposed is space for others to give, collaborate, create. I aim in my work to create space for marginalized/people voices, “A Voice OF People For Healing And Empowerment” and to advance the status of art as a vehicle for healing, unity and social change. The other participatory element that reflects, I believe, the need for collective action and shared experience as tools for social change. 16Cathy Caruth, Trauma: Explorations in Memory (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), 11.

20 The Individual in collective, collaborative, participatory and community narratives My transition from self-expression to social engagement mirrors a larger trend in socially engaged art as the artists’ concern becomes secondary to the space they create for social action and community reflection. On the contrary, socially engaged art seeks to be a means of community empowerment, to act as a catalyst for dialogue, and to be about collaborative processes. This shift is now central to my practice, which has increasingly involved public performances, participating in other people’s workshops, projects , or projects to help them in some way. Figure 4 Coversation Performance “You Make Up Me” 2023 As an example, my recent work happened during a participatory performance that I did where I invited people to come and talk. Participants were able to expresstheir emotions, fears, hope, happiness, sadness through writing, makeup and mark making on body, a free Conversation which would be wiped off and transformed as a metaphor for empowerment and healing through the project. This act of transformation that was both physical and emotional mirrored the process of healing from trauma and reclaiming agency. This participatory idea echoes Claire Bishops ideas in the book Participation, that she has noted the audience in participatory art practices and argues that participatory art challenges the traditional role of the artist as the sole producer, emphasizing the creation of authenticity through collaboration by involving the public into this process, 18 I refuse the notion of art as an object, complete and consumable, in favour of art as a set of social transactions and shared experiences. My own practice embodies this in that I invite participants to not just attend the work, but to enact it and co-generate the collective meaning.

21 Furthermore, Nicolas Bourriaud’s concept of relational aesthetics can be a useful reference to understand this transition in my practice. Bourriaud's argument is that the work of art should be read as a network of relationships, rather than as a convenient object. 18 In this respect though, my performance deals not only with storytelling within the constricted circle of the piece itself but rather a social experience of storytelling as each participant gets to seize the art work to build a narrative, interact with others, and take that experience into the world, where they can relate it back to the work and to one another. It is also a process that underlines the power of relationality and the power of the arts to build connection and empathy. SEA in relation to empowerment, healing, and support for social issues For many years social engagement art has been employed against the most pressing social issues facing us as a society, as a means of addressing inequality, trauma and marginalization. My own work, too, through doing the work of creating these spaces for collective healing, has attempted to respond and engage to some of these issues. My emphasis on people or a groups and those who have been traumatized provides a sort temporary solution to hear all voices because they are able to share their pain, tell their story and feel the comfort of knowing each others and building emotional connection through the same lived experience. The power of listening to people, talking, learning from each other’s common experience and finding a common ground of interest and what they are interest in whether itis listening to them,talking, or involve in making in some way which is empowering voices collectively. Art has the ability to be a vehicle for self and community empowerment. By supporting others to take their agency and voice back by offering people the chance to see art in a way that is meaningful to them. We can look to the example of artists like Theaster Gates, whose art-based practice empowers communities by remaking neglected spaces into cultural epicenters and fostering collective action and social change. In a similar vein, Tania Bruguera's concept of arte de conducta (art of behaviour) expands and redefines traditional forms of art as a forum for political engagement and social change where the audience is embedded into the artwork. Like Gates and Bruguera, I do believe art can be a lever forsocial transformation. It gives people the chance to process and heal their trauma, and to bond with others who may be struggling with similar demons. So, my art in this context, speaks to the tenets of socially engaged art, where it is both a tool of social change; a tool of empowerment and not solely, a self-expressive act. So I want to empower folks in the process of creating in some way that we can both have a sense of collective responsibility, and to share a sense of solidarity through art. 17C.Bishop, Participation (Whitechapel, 2006). 18Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics (Dijon: Presses du Réel, 2002).

22 Ethical Issues in SEA Practice In parallel with my practice’s trajectory, which has shifted almost entirely to social issues, I have found myself increasingly aware of the ethical concerns around socially engaged art. There is an ongoing tug of war between artistic freedom/initiatives and social responsibility. Socially engaged artists may fear that some of what they do, in providing subject matter, but not agency, to an exploited community, puts them on the margins of their own work. It’s almost obvious in the case of trauma, mental health, and marginalization. The artists walk the fine line between depiction and appropriation. So, for example, when there is a project about one of these communities that have encountered trauma or systemic inequity and more people, from outside those communities come contribute to that art project, the healing process and stories of resilience can easily be appropriated or turned into “megastories.” This dynamic parallels Claire Bishop’s criticism of participatory projects in Artificial Hells, in which she notes the exploitative possibilities of participatory projects, allowing participants to be objectified as symbolic figures rather than as active agents.19 This ethical dilemma is exemplified by the work of Santiago Serra. His earlier controversial performances, such as “160 cm Line Tattooed on 4 People”, underscore an imbalance of power inherent in the artistic process. In this piece, four jobless Cuban men were each paid a small sum to have a line tattooed across their backs. Between competing critiques of capitalist exploitation and the commodification of labour, the piece raises pointed questions of its own: Did the participants actually have choice in the matter, or did their financial situations effectively force them into (or even out of) the experiment? Serra’s approach of laying bare systemic inequity often perpetuates the exploitation he causes constant controversy about the ethical implications of his work, and whetherit is justifiable or actually in collusion with existing power dynamics that he seeks to undermine.20 In “Workers Who Cannot Be Paid, Remunerated to Stay Inside Cardboard Boxes”, for instance, Serra hired undocumented immigrant workers to sit inside of boxes for hours at a time. And while the work certainly offers a stinging critique of the invisibility and dehumanization of marginalized labourers, it also exposes the participants to vulnerability, mirroring the dynamics it critiques. Critics argue his work is thin line between sparking conversation and causing harm and that it is a prime example of ethical boundaries in SEA practice getting blurry.21 The tension in SEA are not only in those initial ethical decisions but also in the way the projects are framed and their ongoing sustainability. Artists must care for each other, maintain relationships, and ensure mutual benefits. For example artist like Alison Stirling recall a community workshop designed to engage people about the closure of a hospital, which descended into chaos when participants overindulge in edible sugary art materials, it turned into a hyper-sugar fest. The project failed, But Stirling says she learned the importance of understanding community’s needs before pitching a concept.22 19Claire Bishop, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship (London: Verso, 2012). 20Santiago Serra, “160 cm Line Tattooed on 4 People”, 2000. 21Santiago Serra, “Workers Who Cannot Be Paid, Remunerated to Stay Inside Cardboard Boxes”, 2000. 22Interview with Alison Sterling, refer to Appendix A, pp. 35-49.

23 Conclusion Contextualising My Practice within the Wider SEA ConversationMy evolution from the depths of my pain to my growing social consciousness, to my understanding of collaborative participatory storytelling and how I have been able to use art to not only create social change but empowerment. I am constantly driven by a desire to give agency to the voiceless that have been oppressed by social, cultural or political forces. This resonates with the works of artistslike Suzanne Lacy, who uses participatory art to give voice to marginalized communities and share their stories, and Marina Abramović, whose work reflects on ideas of endurance and vulnerability and the metamorphosis that can happen in the relationship between the artist and audience. SEA frequently invites participants to share personal experience, but it also suggests critical ethical issues pertaining to representation, power dynamics, and the possibility for forcing or exploitation. In my practice, I have endeavoured to create contexts in which participants feel secure to share their stories without being judged or exploited. This stated commitment draws upon critics of SEA like Claire Bishop, who in Artificial Hells finds that in some instances, participatory art work can lead to a loss of agency of participants for the benefit of an artist’s vision, therefore making participants symbolic figures.23 My method, however, is an attempt to keep the voices of those I engage with remain at forefront, rather than subsumed by the artist’s narrative. This becomes especially relevant in trauma and mental health and marginalization, where the content being shared is intimate and often painful. This brings an awareness of the ethical responsibility to represent voices faithfully, empowering participants to be contributors rather than subjects of my work. In doing this, I connected my practice to the broader discourse of socially engaged art production through the theory provided by Nicolas Bourriaud, idea of relational aesthetics has been particularly relevant to my own practice. Crucial to Bourriaud is focusing on human interactions as the foundation of art, focusing on the micro-utopias created within participatory processes. Storytelling and collaborative art-making in my work, allowing me to embody that ethos so that I can create connections. These encounters are not only producing art but creating a sense of shared experience and community that engages with those larger social issues that inform SEA.24 Further, the focus on dialogical aesthetics (Grant Kester) is also influential on my approach. SEA embraces dialogue, Kester highlights the transformative power of dialogue within SEA, where the process of conversation becomes as significant as the final artistic outcome.25 In my works, “You Make UP Me”, stories told by participants are at the centre of the, meaning the work is grounded in real exchanges rather than gestures of performance. By responding to their thoughts, I situate my work within the larger discourses surrounding the aesthetic of art within social change and the ethical dilemmas in socially engaged practices. It will remain an exploration of how art can respond to trauma and support healing for populations who are systematically excluded. 23Claire Bishop, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship (London: Verso, 2012). 24Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics (Dijon: Presses du Réel, 2002). 25Grant Kester, The One and the Many: Contemporary Collaborative Art in a Global Context (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011).

24 CHAPTER 4 Social Challenges Addressed Through SEA Socially Engaged Art (SEA) is part of a movement that emerged in the 1980s to address pressing social issues such as trauma, homelessness, stigmatization and marginalization. SEA creates space for dialogue, healing, and action through collaborative practices. This chapter examines how these concerns are compounded by SEA in relation to methodologies and the potency of artists-leading social change. Through theoretical lenses and relevant artistic references. Art as Healing and Resilience in the Violence Individual or collective trauma, can manifest silence and solitude. SEA shows a path then activate the artistic process as a means of catharsis and resilience. By providing spaces for humanization, engaging directly with affected individuals and communities, it fosters environments where participants can externalize and reframe their experiences example Artlink Edinburgh, their program such as creative connections for mental health, specifically support people. By creating a space for peace and healing. It helps reduce feelings ofisolation, providing participants with opportunities for creative expression, social interaction. 26 Elin Diamond notes the performative nature of trauma in art, “the act of staging the unspeakable permits a transference of power back to those silenced”27. A notable case of this paradigm shift is represented by Adrian Piper’s My Calling (Card) #1, a performance-based work that confronts racism directly through face to face encounters. This work prompts participant to re-evaluate their implicit biases through a collective dialogue that transforms both individual and collective mindsets.28 These encode a remarkable capacity by which, as Susan Stewart argues in the context of both trauma and embodiment, “objects and gesturesin art can offer anchors for displaced memories, enabling their recovery and reinterpretation”.29 One work that demonstrates this is Suzanne Lacy’s Whisper, the Waves, the Wind. Displaying a dialogue among women from diverse backgrounds, the project weaves their individual tales through a collective narrative that acknowledges private trauma but celebrates shared strength.30 Marina Abramović, for example, looks specifically at endurance and vulnerability, opening trauma to exploration. In The Artist Is Present, Abramović’s wordless encounters with entrants resulted in profound emotional exchanges. Such interactions hinge on micro expressions of empathy that recalibrate the inter personal dance between subject and observer SEA thus transforms trauma into a participative recognition and an act of healing.31

25 Homelessness There's No Place Like Home, Reaggregating Space and Identity This has dealt with several psycho-social issues from the perspective ofsocial sustainability like homelessness, most of which can be traced socio economic inequalities. To combat these dynamics artistic interventions in the field often aim at reclaiming spaces, humanizing victims and challenging public representations. One example of SEA’s response to homelessness is Michael Rakowitz’s ParaSITE.32 Transforming urban ventilation systems into inflatables shelters, Rakowitz's work highlight on the resourcefulness of homeless populations while condemning systemic neglect. As Hal Foster writes, these ventures “blur the lines between art and activism, embedding aesthetic interventions into sociopolitical realities”.33 Krzysztof Wodiczko’s Homeless Projection: A Proposal for Union Square also used large-scale projections to amplify the voices and stories of the homeless.34Gordon writes, “the way of the ghost is haunting... Being haunted draws us affectively... into the structure of feeling of a reality we come to experience, not as cold knowledge, but as a transformative recognition.” By projecting Wodiczko's work humanized his subjects, shattering the viewer’s passive gaze and urging active participation.35 In combating homelessness, SEA adds to this with long-term community-building projects. Homebaked by Jeanne van Heeswijk transformed an abandoned bakery site in Liverpool into a community cooperative combining art, activism, and sustainable development in the process.36 In this respect, Olivia Gude stress that “art as social practice thrives on collaboration, fostering shared ownership of both process and outcomes”.37 Marginalization: Giving A Voice Project Row Houses by Rick Lowe, Houston, Texas is a revolutionary example on how art can serve as a catalyst for social change and community development. Lowe, who founded the organization in 1993, transformed a row of dilapidated shotgun homes in the Third Ward one of Houston’s historically Black neighborhoods into venues for art shows, cultural events and community activity. Turning these houses into art galleries, artist residencies, and community centers, Lowe carried out the cultural exchange and local artists, especially African American artists, were given the opportunity to show their work. By giving a platform for community programming, providing educational initiatives, health care access, and support for local entrepreneurs to help shrink racial and economic inequities. 38 Project, Nalpar (The Well) Navjot Altaf’s work with tribal communities in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, local women battling water scarcity and gender inequality. She conducted a design process guided by her community, in which women were involved in the work for the design and construction of sustainable water systems. Focusing on empowerment by engaging women to create solution to challenges affecting their lives. The project tackled water scarcity by engaging the community in designing practical water systems like wells and water storage that meet local needs. It also brought symbolic attention to the critical role women performin managing natural resources asit challenged deep-seated

26 gender roles in rural India. In engaging women on both the creative and hands on level, the work not only interrogated, but challenged, antiquated patriarchal systems by committing women to the agency of decision making and contributing to the reformation of both the physical and social landscape of their environment.39 26Artlink Edinburgh, https://leylineswestlothian.org/. 27Elin Diamond, Performance and Cultural Politics, Part IV, "Identity Politics: Law and Performance" (New York: Routledge, 1996),219. 28Adrian Piper, My Calling (Card) #1: Meta-Performance (1987). http://www.adrianpiper.com/berlin/vs/video_cc.shtml. 29Susan Stewart, On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press Books, 1993). 30Suzanne Lacy, Whisper, The Waves, The Wind (performance, La Jolla Cove, San Diego, CA, 1986). 31Marina Abramović, The Artist Is Present, 2009, performance at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, March 14–May 31, 2010. 32Michael Rakowitz, ParaSITE, 1997. 33Hal Foster, The Return of the Real: Art and Theory at the End of the Century (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996),67. 34Krzysztof Wodiczko, “Krzysztof Wodiczko/Public Projections,” October 38 (1986): 3–22, https://doi.org/10.2307/778425. 35Avery F. Gordon, Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008),8. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/gla/detail.action?docID=346045. 36Jan Van Hijkwik, Homebaked, 2010–ongoing, community art project, Liverpool, UK. Cooperative City. "Homebaked: Anchoring the Community Through Small Businesses." Cooperative City. Accessed January 17, 2025. https://cooperativecity.org/homebaked-anchoring-the-community-through-small-businesses/. 37Gude, Olivia. "Principles of Possibility: Considerations for a 21st-Century Art & Culture Curriculum." Art Education 60, no. 1 (2007): 6–17,13. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27696187. 38Rick Lowe, Project Row Houses (1993). 39Navjot Altaf, Nalpar (The Well).

27 CHAPTER 5 Critical Analysis of Artist Perspectives in Socially Engaged Art (SEA) Socially Engaged Art (SEA) is a radical remapping of the relationship between art, artist and the communities they work with. It breaks the convention of artistic production boundaries, which traditionally reflected artists as the singular genius in a studio, and instead builds the artist up to the role of a facilitator, collaborator, and activist. The nature of SEA as collaborative, often addressing issues of social trauma, marginalization, and empowerment is both powerful and complex. This chapter explores the critiques of SEA through the words of major artists such as Theaster Gates, Tania Bruguera, and Suzanne Lacy and through the perspectives that Alison and Peter, share through their conversations with me. In SEA, the artists become someone who needs to shift between their artistic practise and the communal objectives, an ongoing negotiation. Theaster Gates’ Dorchester Projects is just such a shift. Gates has imagined the artist’s role not as a maker of stand-alone objects, but as a maker of social space, reconstituting abandoned structures in Chicago as places of culture and community engagement. His work subverts the conventional understanding of art as a commercial product in favour of relationship-building and creating a safe space for marginalized voices to share their narrative. Gate’s plan isn’t to create isolated works of art to consume aesthetically but to implement art as a vehicle for social change through intertwined community experiences. Gates captures this shift in his famous saying: “The studio is wherever you are.”40 Yet, there come challenges with this community-centric way of doing things. It’s a very complicated business, engaging with social and political issues through art, and especially so when it comes to questioning authorship, and Tania Bruguera’s work demonstrates that. Bruguera’s Immigrant Movement International (IMI) is a prominent example of how artists can employ their art as an instrument of political activism. With this project, she addresses the realities of immigration and displacement directly, and challenges systems of injustice. But Bruguera’s method also stokes questions about the artist’s role in these kinds of participatory efforts. Her concept of arte de conducta or “behaviour art” stresses the aspect of collective action and the importance of the community as co-producer of the work, but also recognizes the ethical and practical limits of such engagements.The artist aims to open a productive space for a movement, rather than taking on the role of a leader. This shift highlights the dialectical tension between artist as leader and artist as facilitator, which is core to SEA but also fraught when acknowledging the dynamics of power and authorship at play. The artist's vision may ultimately overshadow the role of the community, leading to a superficial partnership in which their work serves to legitimize the artist's own vision instead of a truly co-creative endeavour.41

28 With this in mind, Alison and Peter, two artists with field experience in SEA, still reaffirm these concerns, providing insight into the nuanced barrier the artist holds within such practices. Alison, in particular, explained how what you are doing through process, the way you are building relationships with the communities you are trying to engage with, must have an acute awareness of both the consequences and the ethics. “you don't lord over people” She says. 42 This resonates with a major ethical dilemma in SEA: where is the thin line between empowerment and exploitation? There is a real risk that SEA will become just another commodity or spectacle. Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of others stands as a cautionary reminder that trauma represented through art can be a kind of commodified suffering.43 With each participation in these art projects potentially bordering on performative, the risk is particularly loomed in the case of SEA signs of social engagement can be watered down to a catalogue of gestures with the potential to feed an artist’s political or social agenda. In the interview with Peter, he discussed how working with communities on SEA projects exposed the hidden, and oftentimes invisible social structures that influence those engagements. He described the challenge of balancing the artist’s vision against the community’s autonomy. “Peter added sometimes people are exposed while sharing their vulnerability.”44 This is an encapsulation of a serious issue in SEA: the possibility that the artist’s role will overshadow the process and, in doing so, dilute the collaborative, community-oriented principles that underpin the practice. The artist’s vision can unintentionally eclipse the experiences and voices of the people the project aimsto empower, instead creating whatshould be a collective narrative and making it one authored solely by the artist. The challenge of conducting realistic project evaluations is rendered even more difficult by the institutional and financial pressures that often affect SEA projects. As a result, the direction of the project can become distorted, which risks diminishing its radical potential. Another pivotal example of these dynamics can be found in Suzanne Lacy’s work, particularly her Oakland Projects. Lacy’s projects engaged young people from marginalized communities and each aimed to dampen urban violence and the systemic power dynamics that fuel such violence. Lacy’s aim was to offer a space where those impacted by violence could speak, but her work raises questions about authorship and control in participatory art.45 Claire Bishop’s critique of participatory art in particular, her examination of relational aesthetics in pieces by artists like Rirkrit Tiravanija argues that such projects can erase the implicit power relationships between the artist and community. Bishop argues that, despite its egalitarian appearance, participatory art often still comes down to the artist controlling the important part of the project.46 Even prior to implementing this, however, the narrative risked not appearing to be truly collaborative as Lacy was positioned all at once as both curator and facilitator; in the project to empower, this subverted its essence. It is a parallel to the issues raised by Alison and Peter, who both noted the inherent dangers of such control, as well as a reminder that artists will have to tread lightly when it comes to straddling the line between artistic freedom and a true shared effort.47 In addition, Doris Salcedo and Adrian Piper have important engagements with the ethical aspects of SEA against trauma and violence. Salcedo’s Shibboleth, which literally breaks the museum space, making a fissure in the floor, compels the viewer to engage with the social stratifications born of inequality. 48 Piper’s Cornered does the same, forcing viewers to examine their own complicity in the perpetuation of racial discrimination, deploying trauma in the service of contemplation and conversation.49 While they are important works that engage directly with pressing social issues, they also do raise philosophical questions about the ethics of representation that is, of depiction of trauma and wider social injustices, especially when

29 trauma is seen as a catalyst forsocial change. According to me , “Art can’t only be about showing suffering it has to also be about healing.” But this has a very real concern in SEA that trauma not become a form of exploitation of the suffering of both the artist and the community. It is crucial in participatory projects in particular, where the possibility of re-traumatization looms large. A Circle of Trauma exposes the cycle of violence, confirming artist’s responsibility create a form of the diffusion of empathy and awareness versus the ethical duty to provide shelter and safety for participants. The balance between activism and aesthetics is a crucial concern in the evolution of SEA. As Hal Foster and others have noted, however, by privileging social issues, SEA could be dilute its artistic output. Foster argues that the aesthetic dimension of art is essential for it to impact and matter. And without that dimension, SEA risks being social work rather than art. SEA proponents like Grant Kester, though, insist that the aesthetic awareness of these works is not in an object per se, but in the dialogue and engagement process as the work. As Kester argues, the true revolutionary ability of this type of SEA is not so much the work that’s produced, possibly without producing a traditional object of aesthetic appreciation, but rather in its way of challenging the established modes of empathy and promoting social change. This tension between aesthetics and activism is explored further in the work of Francis Alÿs, whose When Faith Moves Mountains featured a group work to move a sand dune by shoveling small amounts of dirt.50 The project’s poetic resonance is unquestionable, but measuring its concrete social impact is tricky. This ambivalence mirrors the core existential crisis of SEA itself balancing artistic expression with demonstrable social benefit.51 When it comes to the ethical, aesthetic and social complexities inherent in SEA the viewpoints of Alison and Peter help sharpen the focus on the microscope even more. Both artists stressed the need for SEA projects to avoid tokenism and superficiality, and instead lead to tangible change for the communities engaged. They said, artist should never stop being self-critical, asking what their part is in these endeavors and working to create works that meaningfully serve the communities they want to empower. Art can only be transformative in a way that it feels real if it’s done with integrity, if it’s done with a dedication to the people you’re working with.”52 Ultimately, Socially Engaged Art is a fluid and dialectical approach that asks artists to make careful ethical, aesthetic, and social decisions. The views of artists such as Theaster Gates, Tania Bruguera, Suzanne Lacy, Doris Salcedo and Adrian Piper, not to mention Alison and Peter, provide context for the difficulty of striking the right balance between artistic independence and social engagement. SEA is a social mechanism as potent as it is popular, but one that requires a detailed engagement with its intersections of extraction, reduction, and privatization. Through this engagement with such issues, SEA artists thus have a role in reimagining art’s purpose in society more broadly, a role which seeks to manifest empathy, challenge institutionalized power and work towards a more equitable and justice world.

30 40Theaster Gates, The Dorchester Projects: The Role of Art in Community Building (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016). 41Tania Bruguera, Arte de Conducta and Social Engagement. 42 Interview with Alison Stirling, refer to Appendix A, pp. 35-49. 43Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003). 44 Interview with Peter McCaughey, refer to Appendix B, pp. 50-61. 45Suzzane Lacy, The Oakland Project,1990. 46Claire Bishop, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship (London: Verso, 2012). 47Ibid, Alison Stirling. 48Doris Salcedo, Shibboleth: Art and Trauma (London: Tate Publishing, 2008). 49Adrian Piper, Cornered, 1988, video installation. 50 Francis Alÿs, When Faith Moves Mountains, 2002, sand dune intervention, Lima, Peru. 51Grant Kester, The One and the Many: Contemporary Collaborative Art in a Global Context (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011). 52 Ibid, Alison Stirling & Ibid, Peter McCaughey.

31 CHAPTER 6 Conclusion In this dissertation, I have explored the multifaceted dimensions of socially engaged artthrough different chapters that engage with historical, theoretical, and practical insights into its role in the social change process. The study provided an extensive overview of the ways in which socially engaged art functions as a means of engaging with pressing social issues, mobilizing communities, and fostering social change. I started with carefully placing socially engaged art in its historical and theoretical contexts. The overview traced how the art form developed in contrast to established artistic paradigms, emphasizing participation, collaboration, and shared authorship rather than single authorship. Theoretical discussions followed which gave a solid grounding for the ways in which socially engaged art can break conventional power dynamics, or create inclusion, or give voice to the marginalized. Critical theories of equity, intersectionality, and participatory ethics deeply informed these concepts, providing lenses through which the practices were analyzed. Through the case studies, with Alison Stirling and her work,the transformative power ofsocially engaged art within the context of real-world applications was also examined. Stirling’s groundbreaking methods of inclusivity and collaboration provided keen insights into how artists can cultivate participatory environments that encourage collective healing and empowerment. By analyzing how she did things, including her focus on dialogue, cooperation and co-creation. The dissertation also highlighted the relational aspects ofsocially engaged art. Interdisciplinary research informed by sociology, psychology and cultural theory complemented these findings and contextualized the practice on a larger scale. A primary conclusion drawn here is that socially engaged art can counter systemic inequities and open up opportunities for empowerment. Socially engaged art highlights the experiences of the participants at the center, providing space for marginalized voices and narratives. The study provided insight into the impact of art as a vehicle for social change, with the potential to imbue empathy, awareness and the feeling of agency among individuals and communities. For example, Stirling’s practice demonstrates how participatory processes are created that build trust, open dialogue and encourage collective action. But the research also uncovered many challenges common to socially engaged art. The need to navigate power dynamics, ensure long-term engagement, and balance the preservation of artistic integrity and social impact were some of the most pressing issues. Socially engaged art can also be exclusionary; it cannot be assumed that participatory engagement is equitable unless power structures are disrupted. Also,many projects do notsurvive ifthey rely on funding or other things, indicating how these projects often find themselves lacking support that can providing the permanence or stability necessary to continue in the future.

32 These findings have far-reaching implications, Art that engages with social issues is not only powerful for tackling certain social problems; it can also enable wider cultural changes toward equity, empathy, and inclusivity. Socially engaged art can question established power systems and foster a more just and equitable society through spaces for dialogue and collaboration. By bringing to the fore experiences and perspectives of marginalized communities, artists can advocate for systemic changes that can tackle the deeper social, cultural and economic problems. This shows the need to embed socially engaged art within wider systems of social innovation and activism. The opportunities for future research and practice in socially engaged art are numerous and will be detailed below. In order to broaden the perspective of the field, including non-Western and indigenous analysis. Another important thing is exploring how digital and hybrid practices facilitate participation across geographical and social boundaries. The need of longitudinal studies that measure the longer-term impact of socially engaged art projects, and the development of robust ethical frameworks to inform participatory practices. Ultimately, through this dissertation I found how socially engaged art can drive social change, engage communities, and build equity and inclusion through a robust combination of theoretical and practical approaches. Though challenges exist, the resultsstated the significance of interdisciplinary work, ethical practices, and systemic advocacy in this field. With ongoing exploration and innovation, socially engaged art has vast potential to tackle pressing global issues and create a more equitable and inclusive world.

33 BIBLIOGRAPHY Bishop, Claire. Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. Verso, 2012. Bishop, Claire. Participation: Documents of Contemporary Art. Whitechapel, 2006. Bishop, Claire. "The Social Turn: Collaboration and its Discontents." Artforum, 2006. Bourriaud, Nicolas. Relational Aesthetics. Les Presses du Réel, 1998. Bourriaud, Nicolas. The Radicant. Lukas & Sternberg, 2009. Carroll, Noel. Philosophy of Art: A Contemporary Introduction. Routledge, 1999. Demos, T. J. The Migrant Image: The Art and Politics of Documentary during Global Crisis. Duke University Press, 2013. Derrida, Jacques. Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning & the New International. Routledge, 1994. Dewey, John. Art as Experience. Perigee, 1934. Diamond, Elin. Performance and Cultural Politics. Routledge, 1996. Elkins, James. Artists with PhDs: On the New Doctoral Degree in Studio Art. Routledge, 2009. Finkelpearl, Tom. Dialogues in Public Art. MIT Press, 2000. Foster, Hal. The Return of the Real: Art and Theory at the End of the Century. MIT Press, 1996. Gogarty, Larne Abse. “Working Together.”Art Monthly, Issue 481, Britannia Art Publications Ltd, Nov 2024. Gordon, Avery F. Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination. University of Minnesota Press, 2008. Gude, Olivia. "Principles of Possibility: Considerationsfor a 21st-Century Art and Culture." New Art Examiner, 2006.

34 Halberstam, Jack. The Queer Art of Failure. Duke University Press, 2011. Harvey, David. The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change. Blackwell, 1989. Jones, Amelia. Body Art: Performing the Subject. University of Minnesota Press, 1998. Kester, Grant. Conversation Pieces: Community and Communication in Modern Art. University of California Press, 2004. Kester, Grant. The One and the Many: Contemporary Collaborative Art in a Global Context. Duke University Press, 2011. Lippard, Lucy R. The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society. New Press, 1997. McRobbie, Angela. The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change. Sage, 2009. Nelson, Robert S. Art in Theory: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Blackwell, 2003. Rancière, Jacques. The Emancipated Spectator. Verso, 2009. Schneider, Rebecca. The Explicit Body in Performance. Routledge, 2006. Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003. Stern, Daniel N. The Interpersonal World of the Infant: A View from Psychoanalysis and Developmental Psychology. Basic Books, 1985. Stewart, Susan. On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Duke University Press, 1993. Sullivan, Graeme. Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in the Visual Arts. Sage, 2005.

35 APPENDIX A Interview with Alison Stirling (Artlink Edinburgh) on Socially Engaged Art Date of Interview: 7/11/2024 Location: Glasgow (Café) Interview with Alison Stirling, conducted on [Date 7/11/2024], explores her experiences in socially engaged art. The conversation providesinsight into the practical and theoretical aspects of her art-making process and how it connects to the themes of collective healing, empowerment, and social change discussed in this research. My name is Nidhi, and, I'm MFA student. Please introduce yourself and how you came to Artlink? My name is Allison Stirling, and I'm artistic director for Artlink, Edinburgh. I started working in Artlink about 30 years ago as artistic director. I had, for that, lots of experience of working with different communities, HIV drug users, prisoners, all that stuff. There are disabilities that that we wanted to work in. So, I ended up working for it a long time ago. And you shared stories about your sister? Oh, I have a sister who has profound and multiple learning disabilities. And even when I made artwork, I would bring that into because it wasthe idea of difference and what difference meant. And so throughout, my career, I've tried to ask artists, people with disabilities, artists with disabilities, to explore the idea of difference and togetherness. So, this is the point when you thought to bring this into the practical solution about the looking at your sister and the environment where she lived. It's not it's more about ways of being together. It’s about equity and equality. And so, not to make assumptions about people, the way they or how they are, but to actually look at what we have in common and to look common ground, because that's what makes people feel and makes things happen. And art is very good. So, that's what learning to do that was an inspiring time and then When I was a kid. Yeah. And then through my work and making work and realized that for me, work on walls wasn't what I wanted to do. I wanted to draw attention to them, which is beautiful.

36 whatfeeling do you have when you look at people around you, with the learning disabilities? I look at you. It's, you come from a different continent. And then I think what I have in common with you, that's what I look at. How can I find a common ground between us? And I'll do the exact same with somebody with learning disability. I'll do the exact same with NFT in a room. It’s like I'm interested in who you are and where you're from. I'm interested in learning about you and then interested in things all between us because that's where we'll meet and where real things will happen. So how do Artlink, like, approach the balance between fostering individual creative expression and providing social support? That's taken an awful long time to do because a lot of people so you'll come across the arts and one of your questions, I thought, oh, that's an interesting one because you're younger. And so, it's the idea that you can't divorce the 2, nor should you? So, the idea that art can be really high quality but also can very happily sit with people with higher support needs and disabilities. You don't dumb it down, you actually make it higher, you make, you push it up so you get people involved too, with each other who wouldn't necessarily always work with each other and wouldn't necessarily go on because they come from very different backgrounds. But you put them together, you find a common ground, and you make things happen. So, this finding a common ground takes a lot of time, like, when you need, involvement with a person and then you found a base there and your interest. The approach is to find an artist to work. It takes a long time now. I know who works and who doesn't. And now the artists have taken over. They've been working with Art Link for a long time, and so they've taken over. They're developing all these new ideas, and I think, brilliant. That's lovely. So, it just it's not static. It's always moving, always changing, but also that it in it's socially engaged art, but it's socially engaged art that challenges people with white boxes as much asit challenges people with base centers. So asto challenge people in the higher art world, so that and all because you can't divorce it too because there's common ground between, they just don't know that, so you have to point it out. K… So, in what way do you do your project help people? Addressing real life challenge while maintaining the essence of art? Yeah. I can give you examples. Just what Lianne show? Send you the invite. Did you go see it?

37 See it. So, Leanne's life expectancy is much shorter than any bosses, I guess. Months, years. Look like that. And her family really look after her. She's got Down syndrome and a hippo. She's an absolute amazing painter. She's a naturally brilliant painter. Like, she should have gone to art school, but art school don't support people with learning disabilities the way they should, but she's an incredibly talented artist. But what that meansto herfamily and to other people isreally important, you can't dumb it down at all. So, her family who we've brought up, who have lived their lives thinking this person's Down syndrome and there's no worth of value, now see their daughter as a painter who's been brought up by British Government collections, art collections who, as an artist who has a dealer as well. So that's one part, so that's just the financial and status part. But there's you have no idea what difference that makes to something because people are written off and actually, they aren't there the same as anybody else. This is what can happen if you take the time and the patience to be able to make things happen for that person so they can do what they need to do. Other forms are with people with higher support needs or people with real really complex mental health issues. You work with them and build them up together and create these environments where people can be in and work together and stuff like that. So, we have studios in a psychiatric hospital, but that is the most beautiful thing because people look out for each other and they develop these parades and all that. So, it's about it's about the interpersonal. It isn't even about being visible or accepting. It's about the interpersonal. That because that's more important, being visible. It's like, who are you and how much do I have in common with you, and how can we find what that is? The same with energy, as I say, it runs through all that we do, who are you, what is it that interests you, how can we make things happen in a different way? And then when you have people in the same room, so some of them it's folks that support each other, but it's there's so many different end results or outputs that you can't even list them. But you take the time and you believe the quality and you believe in the individual, you believe in the relationship between people that are working together, and that's what you're pushing all the time. And then you push the relationship with them in the audience, and then you push the relationship with them and their families, and your relationship with them and the people who care for them, and the people who fund them, and all that is really wide variety. So socially engaged is a sort of 80s term.

38 I don't think that co exists because we're all socially engaged one way or another. I've learned overthe years it's more than that because we need it as much as other people need it. And so, it's like it is seriously about interpersonal relationships, that's what it's about. It isn't about making change in somebody's life. That'll happen if you've got a positive interpersonal relationship, it will happen. You can change systems of care, interpersonal relationships again. So how do you establish that? Howdo you build that? How do you make that happen?And then you start to see the change. So, I've seen shifts in the way people are cared for. I've seen shifts in the way their workers are with each other, The last over a long time, and it does change parts of our relationships, really. It really takes a long time in this process to build a connection. It's more about emotion and feeling what person has and what they are looking for in their life, the purpose of their life. The living circumstances, their lived experience. It's about respect and their lived experience. And then if they make changes, concept, and what you do is you start to work. It's not therapy or, it's about you have people together and people together can make things happen and make things change. People from cross culture, cross, ability, cross gender, cross sexuality, if they come together, they can make things happen. When they're all disparate and separate, they, you know, make small things happen. It would it would make a difference, but come together and you've got massive change. Because at the moment, we've got hell of a lot of right big governments. I saw that there are a lot of artists, animator, and performers, and makeup artists all are working with the Art Link, but you have the support for individual, like, 1 to 1. Okay. Uh-huh. Yeah… So, I would like to hear on that. How this artist make things like, if somebody's interested in this particular thing, how do you provide them? This is the first So you've got kids who are on the spectrum. Yeah, I see. The spectrum is quite a difficult thing to negotiate if you're in a group because you need space and you need structure. And as if you have autism, space and you need structure, and you need somebody to believe in you, to give you what it is that you need to make things happen. So, for example, Caraboo runs up the area of Art Blake. There'd be a wee boy who's on a spectrum, thrown out of school. He loves dinosaurs. So, what we would do is you can learn so much from doing that.

39 You don't need to go and read a book because you've written a book about dinosaurs. You can learn about structure because you're building dinosaurs. So, what we did was we linked him to, specialists in the university who studied dinosaurs, and he made a book about his own made up dinosaurs. So, for example, in normal life, people usually not only about talking about learning disabled people, but some people who have struggles with somebody they don't in their potential. So is it also helping those people, right, from different background, notjust a small community group or No. You have some people. Yeah. Of course, it does. So is somebody in daily life facing this kind of issue that they are lacking potential or they have some I work with them. So, the artist it depends. So, what you have to do is you create a healthy environment to work in, to share ideas with each other. It's not competitive, and it's flatlined. So, we're all equal within it. So, you'll have younger artists who have no idea what they're doing, and you build them up. Because most of the time, we are in and there's younger artists with disabilities as well as so you can't see what you can't do is succeed, and I won't do it either. I won't separate people. I'll always constantly try and push when you talk about the different groups, I push them together. There's like in India, there's a caste system. Here, there's a class system, how much difference between the 2. But you don't lord over people. Like here I am an able-bodied person telling you a person in a wheelchair, here I am a middle class person telling you a working class person what is you to do. It's not about that, is it? It's about their experiences and how you work together. I really like the idea how Art Link provided individual solution, not only just a specific demographic group or but to the people individually and their interest area and spending time with them and then working with artist together and bringing something really innovative. And then I see some of the videos you kept on the art language was quite interesting. So, I would love to hear on some of the work which were very inspiring for other people in terms of feedback. The ideas to the human thread exhibition on the channel, it took 20 years to develop, and that was working with really complex disability and then getting artists then who think in similar ways even though they don't have conflicts and get them to work together. Like, so Wendy Jacob, for example, from MIT, and they had MIT. She came and overpaid a 100 and 15 years developed that floor that vibrates. Did you see it? It's a green, a blue slope.

40 Have a look. There's film. I'll send you a film of it. But it was the idea that you've got all this artwork and it's all doing a couple of things. How do you then activate the artwork in different ways so as other people could find it? I put on concerts, a sound massage, drummers, singers, or dancers etc. All in the space. So, it became whoever was in there and whoever was performing changed the space. So, you were allowing for lots and lots of different audiences to take it aboard. And then what I'd always do is make sure that core to that in any audience or any participant is for people with prepared learning disability. But it was the idea that so I've got photographs and the documenting everybody together, absolutely together on this stage and in this space.That most evidence is possible and that you can do it and, you know, what takes time is possible. What do you think have been some of the most impactful projects, similar to the examples you mentioned recently? Use of the art where there's specific everyday difficulties faced by an agency. Things that we did years ago Yeah. Was, because everything builds up, was you have all these families that are facing difficulties, and, nobody wants to hear them. Nobody wants to hear what they are because they've heard them. Why did so what we did was we got a writer to write fiction and create their experiences as a fiction, and then they used it and brought it to MPs. So, they brought the fiction because people who need the fiction, they can. They don't want reality, but actually it's real. So, did that cross lots of different projects to see how that would work? creating a fiction and how people are responding after reading it. Do you think this is making some impact on their feelings, or is there something that is changing? Yeah. So, it's who's directed us? people don't think it's like we all have our own lived experience, and we all understand things in different ways. For example, with Clara’s project, it was a smell project, so we wanted to know if somebody was very if they could actually smell because we didn't know because he couldn't tell us. And we got a scientist and a psychologist in with Clara to determine whether they could smell and what they liked, what smells they liked. And for one person, it was the smell of cut grass. And the psychologist then said to me, what? And I thought, oh, that's lovely. He's been out in his wheelchair lying on the grass, and he loves the smell of cut grass. And he said you're putting that story on his from your experience, not from his, and you're determining what his past has been. But I think that's key to how you understand people's situations.

41 You take what it is that they like and you turn it around on yourself, and then you create the narrative of a story. Butthatstory helps you understand each other because it's common ground within people who would not have anything in common at all. So,the story becomes something that people can relate to, that they can see themselves in one way or another as well, and in doing that they find a space to be able to talk. So, I did that with a project not long ago actually with Bill Doherty. What I did was I commissioned a series of writers to write about different subject matters that I would give them. The subject matter comes from the lived experience of people with learning disabilities. So, I said right okay I want you you're a trans artist, I want you to write about writing, so they did it, but from their perspective. And then I said to some, Jacqueline Donaghy, he says sculpture, I want you to write about structure because people need structure in their lives, so I want to write it from your perspective. Write about structure so she wrote. There were another 5 other essays there. And then what I did was I brought people from very different backgrounds together to discuss the essay like it was a book group, and so rather than say I want you to talk about this subject I said, we said, we want you to talk about the book, the story. Talk about the story and talk about it fromyour loved experience, please. And they've really loved it because it was so easy forthem to do. So, we did race as well. We did one on, people assuming things because somebody had darker skin, and it was red color. And then we brought lots of different people together to discuss that source. But her one was, the subject of hers was making assumptions due to, what you see. So that was that one. So, it opened up lots of different ways of thinking. And that informs the next stage, that informs what's going to happen on the Leanne's exhibition. I'm gonna invite people in to talk about the paintings from their perspective. I'm gonna invite in very desperate people to do that and there'll be a small audience for it. So, people to do that, and there'll be a small audience for us. So specific people who you target to bring in and talk about the word? The subject? So, I'll ask somebody. So, what I was thinking to do was I want a disability activist then. To talk about the work. They'll talk about from their perspective, and then I'll invite lots of different people from different backgrounds and say I got I take part in that. I want to ask, somebody who's interested in color to come and talk about color, but from a very different perspective. So, I was thinking about how everybody is looking at it from their perspective, but also getting this other person's lived experience. So, they're starting to see it very differently.

42 When you said you had a discussion about the book, people's lived experience and written on people's lived experience,so I want to know just discussion when it was happening. What are the people's feeling? Because everybody has lived some experience. Are they able to connect with those experience of people on which the book is written, are they having different kind of feeling towards this book? What kind of dialogue isthere? Because it's about the subject matteris about that person'slived experience. They have to make the connection to it and their own. And I always think, like, well, that's where I lost my thing, but if you, give somebody the space, and you take the time to understand their experience, then what you can do is introduce these other opportunities where other people can come in and share that. You have to be really careful, so for example, when we wrote a book from we got something to write a story, a short story, from the perspective of a family who just found out they had somebody with quite extreme disabilities, a baby who had quite extreme sorts of written from that perspective, but then they could use that with other people, they could just read the story and then they take from that what they want but it is from that person's lived experience. They take from it what they want for any of the conversation, so you're not telling them and throwing it at them. You're doing it really gently and quite subtly because sometimes they're complete fictions, like complete fictions, and so folks don't notice that that's what's happening and that's what they've been told. They've been told about this other person's lived experience, what they think is they're just reading a short story, and then when the conversations happen people can start to relate to each other,they can see themselvesin it because what you're trying to do is to get them to think about it from their experience ratherthan that person's experience and then cross over because ifthey can relate to it personally thenthey can relateto each other. So, there is, like, any change happening with this activity? Is it helping the people? Just opening things up.Just opening things up. So, building a more, like, a relation or If you think of art as a way of helping people, you know, put new ways. Does it help mentally or physically? Not physically, but something like art therapy when you do. Sometimes people have engagement and they bring something new, and then they have some nice emotion towards it when you make, art is also like a therapy... There's what it is the connection that's happening. You have connection between whether they feel good about it or bad about it, but usually they feel good about it. I wouldn't put somebody in a situation where they were threatened or horrible. But, it's it is usually it's not initially right away. It's how that impacts on them later. So at least that's so for instance, my boss doesn't know any transactionalists but was part ofthat discussion and said it actually had a major impact on him because he hadn't thought like that before. He didn't realize it was he had lots in common with this person, but he never because all he could see wassomebody who was trans,

43 could see past it. But doing it that way allows folk to relate, to learn more. Just allowing themmore. Learningmore by exchanging each other's opinions. And understanding. So, to what helpful. Yeah… So, I want to ask, to what extent does partnering work on 1 on 1 basis? Participants to address unique personal challenges, using art, and how does organization determine which needs are best met through the individual support, versus community focused initiatives. So, we work with groups, add 1 to 1. It depends on the person. Some people can't work in a group and you're wasting your time. They've been thrown out of everything because they can't fit in a group, so you have to work with them individually. There's no other way you can do it. So, and the quality of that is determined by the individual and who you're working with. There's usually a goal set, like, you are to do this. Sometimes there's no art involved, it's just like, you let horses ride, okay, go horse riding, I'm gonna take you to horse riding. And then it's what happens. It's being more creative in how you think about how people learn and how people access things and how people need support and how what interest people and how abstract these interests can be. So, when you say that it is not always about our Yes. So, there are different kind of perspective to look at if it is also art. Like, you know Yeah. But what are we doing? Just asking for the connection is Yeah. The thing is that art in its true greatness allows you to look at different perspectives. That's it. It's a series of perspectives. Because there's a painting or a sculpture, it's a perspective. When you said about the horse riding, and I saw there are different kind of other activities which are quite different. But it can be also seen as problematic. You know? That's gonna be see,the thing isthat people have to categorize all the time. Art isin, like,there's creative thinking, there's creative problem solving, and you have to use your imagination. At the moment, everything is getting more and more rigid, and so what you get are people there are more and more boxes, and you don't want that or cause a lot of problems. What you want to do is be creative in how you think about people and be creative in how that works and what you're aiming for, and be creative in your goals and your aspirations, and respect the people that you're working with before, and then things happen. You have to respect people, and it's a good relationship. I'll go back to that again and again. And it can be a relationship that lasts 5 minutes, or it could be a relationship that lasts 15 years we work with some people.

44 How do you handle a tough participant, you know we always work like, is there any experience you would like to share, which was really difficult to handle? So, I'll tell you a couple. A very difficult child, you know. That's Or Adam. And how you managed to work with that person? You make mistakes. You have to make mistakes. So, for 1, I remember a 100 years ago, was they were closing a hospital down and people were going into the community. And a local church went up in arms about these people moving into their community. So, we put a workshop on in their hall. We decided that everything that we reduce you can eat. So, we used water, delicious and pink instead of ink, just in paper we used sweeties and things stuck to themall. Anyway, it turned into a hyper sugar fest and, sort of blew up quite a bit because people were eating too much sugar. So that was a wow. But what that helped us do was understand that, first of all, you don't get too clever too quickly, that you get to know people first before you do that. That was I loved that project for what I learned from it, not because it worked because it didn't. I tried to do too many things with it, so take your time is what you learn from that. With kids, some kids run away when you're working with them. Attention span, some of the hardest ones are people who aren't verbal, who just sit and they passively are. Nothing there's nothing. It's how we break through that anti time. It just takes time. And it's also not, not acting like God or things like that. Some sort of religious figure who can make change, that you agree and because I've come across them a lot in in my times where you have people who come up with an idea and this way of thinking, and it's so dark. So, it's things like, person centered planning is one. It's common sense, you plan around an individual. It's not rocket science or it's what you, where you listen to a person and you let them lead what it is that you want to do. But it was common sense take your time. Listen. Learn from something, get lots to teach you. So don't do it like you're the teacher because you're both learning. And if mistakes are made, learn from them. So, we've always had things that have happened that have gone wrong. We always use that as part of it. So, I can't give you a definitive this didn't work because it worked. And there's always difficult people, but what you do is don't give in because it's so easy if somebody not shared to give in. But you don't give in. You just don't give in, and you put in lots of safetiesto make sure it's okay, but that's for years of doing this. And it's not just me. There are other people in that like who've been doing it a lot of times, and they know what they're doing and they know how to so you always think ahead and don't immediately so I think maybe that example I used was wasn't thinking ahead properly. So, you think ahead, 'If I do this, will this happen? What will happen?' Oh, we'll take a chance here and we'll try this because who knows because you've got people who haven't actually been given choice and have no ways of understanding what choice is or are too mentally ill to understand what choice is. So, you do it slowly, you do it slowly and you introduce things and you let them

45 take control because they're the ones that are going to tell you what works and what doesn't. And then what you do is you try to establish networks for them in different ways as well. So, Patrick who runs Arts For Mental Health has always networks ofsupport for people and it's quite a lovely project. So, he's just started to work with refugees the mental health issues, and amongst all the other people with mental health issues, and he really makes things happen for him, and they get themselves better. He doesn't get them till they get themselves better, but they get better…. It's because they start to believe in themselves and they have the networks ofsupport that they need. Because just think about it, you have a mental illness and you're like living in a flat in Glasgow and you don't know anybody. How hellish is that? But if you have networks of people who are there to support you and where you can be whoever you want to be Expand. That lovely. That's amazing. Thanks. Yeah… So, my next question is, How do you measure the success of art interventions aimed at improving quality of life and addressing personal challenges? Are there specific indicators or outcomes that Artlink looks for? So, we work with people for a long period of time, you can see the change, we talk to people around them, we hear the change and the changes that happen physically with people and how they are themselves mentally but also physically it makes a difference. Say Leanne's mum, I can see it's made a difference because we're making her proud of her daughter. That's all we're doing. We're giving her a belief in her daughter. She had to believe in her daughter anyway, but it's a positive belief in her daughter. Whereas you get everybody else telling me she's got Down syndrome. I mean, really, you know, for long and that's it. And you think your daughter's an incredible painter, and all these people are really believing in our daughter, and that is an amazing thing to have happen. And you get the feedback on that and you watch what happens. One of the things we did in a project was I got people to drawtheir responses to a project. That's one I did in Nicholas Cave, I think Cave exhibition, at Cave exhibition. We, for a period of a month, put on a series of events about 5 years ago, and it was me testing ideas to see what would work and what wouldn't. It's normally a note that tiesin about all we ask people to draw, we give people pen and paper and said don't write the evaluation, draw it'. So, I used that in the evaluation before. The otherthing I tend to do isI wait a while. I sometimes wait quite a while and then phone people. So, did this project have any impact? What does it mean? Then you get what it means.

46 So do you think that when you see any person's artwork, like you told, when they are handed to draw something, it tells a lot about their mental health. From the oh, no. No. That's out there. But so, if you go from when you start working with somebody to when you've been working with them for quite a while Yes. And you put 2 pieces together, you'll see the difference. It's a focus because that's what it gives focus and purpose. So, we don't do the therapeutic stuff because that's our therapy. We're not reading that somebody's mental health. What we're doing is we're giving them purpose in that they so with Patrick's projects or with AM's project that recently did this thing called the worm walk, we know how old people are. I don't need to I don't need to see a dawn to see how old they are, but they repurpose and they focus. And if you have purpose and focus, it takes you away from your illness. You're not in it. Yeah. You're somebody else. You're valued as a person. Yeah. It's more the fact that they have function and purpose Yeah. Rather than the work because some of them paid graphics. There's just not really any fluff. It's the purpose and function that's important because you're giving somebody something to do when they're sitting in a ward doing nothing and, a function, like, a skill that they have, and you just build on it. They come out by themselves. So, we'll say the people in Royal Edinburgh Hospital, which is the psychiatric hospital, they just believe in themselves. It's just a nice belief, and it's an environment that supports them. And the belief in themselves, regardless of whether they can or can't gain, is a belief in themselves, but together they can all gain. You know what I mean? Together they can make things happen. So, the worm walk was a really lovely example of, it's taken from, I can't remember the name of the artist, but is these processions, arts processions, and what that does is get people to come together from what's different backgrounds, and they just take part in the session, dressed as worms or whatever. It's just playing about with it, and it's fun. And in a psychiatric hospital where people are not well and there's lots of stresses, back in the soup bloody necessary. Artlink has all these access and people partnership with. But in normal life, like, when a artist trying to do this, there are some challenges and people who want to really work something like this. Is there any difficulty for them in this kind of practice specially for emerging artists? Emerging artists. I want to and have to find the right way to bring in new artists and to learn from the artists who are there. The artists who are there have been doing 15, 20, and they're really amazing. They're they are brilliant. And also,they've got gallery they're well known artists quite a lot ofthe time. So, shall we tell everyone to cover? I just got Natalie,through that Natalie nominated photographers used to work for it's just like the we've had loads of people come through who are good, but we've got this core of amazing artists, and that includes the ones on projects as well there who have health issues or like there's a core that and KMA is the artist with learning disabilities, and I want to I would like to find a way to not take up the artist's time, but to put in young artists for a period of time to learn from them.

47 That's quite interesting. I really like some of the projects from KMA… It's really Oh, there's some lovely ones. Yeah. what role do partnership with the social work and health care organization play in Artlink’s work? How this collaboration enhance the artistic aspects of your projects? Over the years, we've built up a reputation. So, people the social work department comes to us a lot because we do make things happen, and we bring in additional money. So, we have a whole history of that. So, say with social care, we work with the managers of day centers, and then develop projects. But we're working for a long time, It was something 1984.But, you build up your reputation, so you know how to talk to people. I also could my sister can understand the social work aspects. I understand what families are going through as well. So, I can talk to people I'm older as well, so I can talk to people really easily and relate to them when maybe I couldn't grow up when I was younger. So, I really love the idea of young artists who are more open to different ways of thinking, to coming in and being open to learning from others because there's lots to learn. And I know the artists who work for Art Link now have learned a lot from working at Art Link. It's changed their practice, radically changed her practice. So, Laura Aldridge, who had worked on Jupiter Artland, who had showed Jupiter Artland quite recently, her practice is radically different from when she started, working with us. And the way she talks about work is radical. And she's very good. So based on your experience, what aspects of contemporary art practice do you believe hold the great potential of solving real life challenges? And what type of projects would you like to explore in future to deepen this impact? I'm just writing one now, which is, one of the people that we worked with, died recently, and she had found learning disabilities. And I was talking to the care manager, and they said people wrote her off. I mean, because she had found disabilities. They wrote her off and actually gave her really subdued cam stuff all but quiet, and actually what she said that she was an adrenaline junkie. She absolutely loved noise and movement and everything else, but not because she wastrapped in her body, nobody gave her that space, but eventually we did. We had to learn that that was what she liked. So, what I want to do next is take the Human Threads exhibition and create 2 sensory spaces in a community, 1 quiet and one out quiet, and that will build and wrap itself around people who use technology that we already have. So that's my next thing, so people can come in from it.

48 And it because also I know that there's a real lack of opportunity and a growing lack of opportunity. So basically, there are pubs, but they're experimental contemporary art hubs because we're playing with the idea of, immersion in something. And we're playing with the idea of, relating to people in the how staff support people within that. So, it's not just for the SNAP project and that's all it's going to be, it has to last longer. So, I'm interested in how you make things last for me them so as you're not just an art project, that you're doing something that will have long lasting impact. And I know in doing that you have to work with the systems, which I've always done, now what I want to do is implant the art back into the community. So, it's real contemporary art. I'm going to put it back in. I'm going to turn it into something else. This is able to use it in This is, like, really nice to something experimental, and you come with something very nice, which is unexpected. I like the way you said about when you learn with this kind of people. It's more about you learning from them, which give you another input to bringing this art practice to some other thing. We all learn from each other. Hence, these storiesis about learning from each other. So, all into mixes and intermingles, and it's all about learning from each other and respect to people, Experience. So how far do you agree or disagree with the idea that Art Link project might focus more on social inclusion and the participant engagement than on creating visible impactful high art ? Or do you see potential for developing project that equally emphasize aesthetic strength and social support? I think it's a real mix. It's you shouldn't like I said, you people are segregated. You shouldn't segregate an approach either. So, It is a mixture of the 2. I don't disagree or agree. It's a mixture of the 2. It depends on the person. It depends on the group. It depends on the social situation. It depends on what goal that you're looking for. So we've done higher. Higher We see that. I have sufficient of the arts. Okay. We see that. That's higher. That's something for learning disability. It's high art, but it has a whole lot of other things that we're doing behind the scenes that so because it can't be one of, it can't be one or the other. It has to be a lot of different things. So, it can't be this is high art'. Because Artlink doesn't only work in social inclusion, Artlink challenges artists and others to think differently, and that includes about the purpose of art and the relevance of art and what art actually is and what high art is. I'm constantly on about that, so with the Human threads exhibition that was artists from New York, artists from MIT. It was high art, but it that's beside the point because what it was

49 trying to do all these other things to create spaces and places where people came to give up without actually noticing their differences. And it was a bit challenging for white cube spaces to think differently. There's still I know I made a difference there, but it took a little while. And I know the woman thinks about it, the curator thinks about it. It's just like the passage from how she thinks and itis that sort of virtue thing. Keeping racist and you're being just able you're being the ablest because you're actually just collecting bodies. You're not respecting people for who they are and what their lived experience is and how they should come together. And I know, with this person that there's a change there in what she's thinking, not quite enough, but it's getting there. Because then Italked to her about putting, a person of colorin the space and asked themto talk about the aims of their experience. Just talk with them. And she said, you've got to watch that intersectional because you've got Maude Sulter in next door. Sulter is black. And she's in next door, and can't mix the 2. And you think, what the fuck can't, you know? That's the problem in the world. So, and it's all the wrong way of thinking. It's all the same small groupsshow up against each other, That makes sense. Yes. It's lovely talking to you. Thank you very much for your all the answers that you gave, and I really appreciate it. Thank you.