Introduction to Socially Engaged Art Practice

An increasing number of artists, curators, critics and arts administrators have begun to turn their energies toward a new type of participatory art activism. This “social practice art,” as the New York Times describes it, seeks to bring about positive change within specific communities confronted by complex issues such as racism, urban gentrification, environmental damage, precarious labor conditions, high rates of incarceration, and an influx of global refugees among other challenges. This combined seminar and studio course aims to both investigate, as well as to create, collaborative social practice art projects. Class members will be assigned to work in small teams, generating original fieldwork focused on specific community needs.