“This initiative is born out of my ongoing practice-based research around developing a more critical approach to the relationship between art and social issues,” says artist Hannah Hull, founder of Critical Spaces. Created in partnership with ixia public art think tank, Critical Spaces will be running pilot events for socially-engaged artists who want to be part of what Hull calls a “hyper-local critical support network”.
Due to take place in Newcastle, Bristol and Birmingham this spring, interested local artists are invited to sign up for the events, which will be collaboratively developed in response to their interests and concerns. Participants will come together to engage in dialogue around their work, in a playful and critical way, to improve and strengthen their practice and form a collective voice.
Says Hull: “The need and demand for this type of activity became evident during the development of the ART vs REHAB critical tool kits – a platform for people working in art and rehabilitation, including those working creatively in addiction, the criminal justice system, homelessness and mental health.”
Hull is insistent that the meetings will be “intentionally lo-fi” to “eliminate the need for specialist equipment or facilities, and empower a DIY approach to generating critical discourse and support.” She believes that it is important for artists to develop and define the value of artistic practice on their own terms. “Art has an intrinsic social value that is best manifested through its autonomy,” she says. “The current appropriation of ‘art’ by social policy is often literal and limits art’s capacity to affect social change.”
In recent research paper, Innovating Art Outreach, Hull reflects on the issue of social policy being used to deliver art: ‘If we see innovation as the root of social change, the use of a conceptual art model allows participants to become instigators of social change themselves, further expanding the capacity for outreach values to resonate.’
This approach can be seen in her own practice, too, which she says involves “catalysing dialogue and change for socially-excluded and at-risk groups”. One Thousand Homes – produced as part of an ongoing residency on the Johnson Fold housing estate, Bolton, commissioned by Bolton at Home – culminates in a series of situation-specific art interventions and an interpretation of the social ecology of the area. “The outcome of this process,” she says “might be an action, it might be an object, or it might be words.”
With an eye to the future, Hull hopes for a national launch of Critical Spaces “to enable hyper-local critical support networks that are not city-centric, or based on existing (traditional) arts infrastructures”.
She adds: “If you describe your art practice as socially-engaged, site-specific, situationist, public, community or outreach, then find out more and sign up!”
For more information visit criticalspaces.wordpress.com
The deadline for artists to sign up is: Newcastle – 22 February 2013; Bristol and Birmingham – 14 March 2013.
