Arts

Led by Maria Rovisco

socially/politically engaged arts, co-production, cultural policy, new media

In ‘Liquid Arts’ (2007), Zygmunt Bauman argues that aesthetics saturates the world in which we live and is no longer confined to the appreciation of objects of art, which can be found, for example, in museums. In so doing, Bauman invites us to think about what we are made to pay attention to as ‘art’. Inspired by this legacy, this research area opens up a space for (1) researching art as a practice of the political, and (2) for discussing artistic and cultural policy responses to pressing social and political problems from climate change, alternative economies and urban resilience to migration, displacement and political polarisation. This research area is concerned with examining contemporary arts practice – in particular, socially-engaged and collaborative arts - in relation to issues of public space, creative and critical pedagogies, democracy, diversity and inclusive community art practices.