Art as Social Action: An Introduction to the Principles and Practices of Teaching Social Practice Art

by Gregory Sholette (Editor), Chloë Bass (Editor), Social Practice Queens (Editor)

Overview

"Art as Social Action . . . is an essential guide to deepening social art practices and teaching them to students." —Laura Raicovich, president and executive director, Queens Museum

Art as Social Action is both a general introduction to and an illustrated, practical textbook for the field of social practice, an art medium that has been gaining popularity in the public sphere. With content arranged thematically around such topics as direct action, alternative organizing, urban imaginaries, anti-bias work, and collective learning, among others, Art as Social Action is a comprehensive manual for teachers about how to teach art as social practice.

Along with a series of introductions by leading social practice artists in the field, valuable lesson plans offer examples of pedagogical projects for instructors at both college and high school levels with contributions written by prominent social practice artists, teachers, and thinkers, including:

• Mary Jane Jacob
• Maureen Connor
• Brian Rosa
• Pablo Helguera
• Jen de los Reyes
• Jeanne van Heeswick
• Jaishri Abichandani
• Loraine Leeson
• Ala Plastica
• Daniel Tucker
• Fiona Whelan
• Bo Zheng
• Dipti Desai
• Noah Fischer

Lesson plans also reflect the ongoing pedagogical and art action work of Social Practice Queens (SPQ), a unique partnership between Queens College CUNY and the Queens Museum.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781621535522
Publisher:	Allworth
Publication date:	05/22/2018
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Gregory Sholette is an artist, writer, and activist focused on excavating the history and theory of socially engaged art. His books include Delirium and Resistance: Activist Art and the Crisis of Capitalism and Dark Matter: Art and Politics in an Age of Enterprise Culture. He is a graduate of the Whitney Independent Studies Program, holds a PhD from the University of Amsterdam, and teaches Social Practice Queens, Queens College, CUNY, which he cofounded with Maureen Connor and the Queens Museum in 2010.
Chloë Bass is an artist and public practitioner focused on scales of interpersonal intimacy and daily life as a site of deep research. She is a regular contributor to Hyperallergic, where she writes about the urban environment, performance, social practice, and race. Her artistic work has been supported by many organizations, including the Laundromat Project, the Pulitzer Foundation, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. A graduate of Yale and Brooklyn College, she is an assistant professor of art, teaching in Social Practice Queens, Queens College, CUNY.

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface


Art As Social Action


Gregory Sholette and Chloë Bass, Social Practice Queens (SPQ), New York City.

Introductory Essays


Where Who We Are Matters: Through Art to Our More Social Selves


Chloë Bass, New York City.

Pedagogy as Art


Mary Jane Jacob, Chicago, Illinois.

Lesson Plans I: Art as Social Research / Listening / Self-care


Transactions, Roles, and Research


Marilyn Lennon, Julie Griffiths, and Maeve Collins, Limerick, Ireland.

Luxury to Low-End Link. An Economic Inequity Experiment for the Age of Brand Temples


Noah Fischer, New York City.

Activating the Archive


Ryan Lee Wong, New York City.

What Will Your Work Organize?


Ashley Hunt, Los Angeles, California.

The Listening Workshop. A two-hour relational encounter that exposes the politics of voice and listening


Fiona Whelan, Dublin, Ireland.

Social Practice Studio


Katie Bachler and Scott Berzofsky, Baltimore, Maryland.

Ways of Being (Support)


Susan Jahoda and Caroline Woolard, New York City.

SexEd + PPNYC + Parsons


Norene Leddy and Liz Slagus, New York City.

Sounding Place - MA SPACE Acouscenic Listening Workshop


Sean Taylor, Limerick, Ireland.

Participatory Asset Mapping


Susan Jahoda, The Pedagogy Group, New York City.

Calling in Sick


Taraneh Fazeli, The Pedagogy Group, New York City.

Essay


Toward a Social Practice Pedagogy


The Pedagogy Group, New York City.

Lesson Plans II: Teaching and Performing Direct Action


The Arts for Social Change. Development of a Strategic Plan for Direct Action


Christopher Robbins, Ghana ThinkTank, New York City.

Assignment: Displace an Object or Everyday Action


Pedro Lasch, Durham, North Carolina.

Socratic Mapping


Daniel Tucker, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“Graphic Responses to the NW Detention Center: Work by Art & Global Justice Students”


Beverly Naidus, Tacoma, Washington.

Interventionist Art: Strategy and Tactics. Graduate course for art and public policy


Todd Ayoung, Ithaca, New York.

March of Solidarity: Cultural Workers of St. Petersburg


Russia School of Engaged Art, Rosa House of Culture, Chto Delat/What is to be Done?, St. Petersburg, Russia.

A Training Ground for the Future: Taking on Campus Issues with Art


Sheryl Oring, Greensboro, North Carolina.

Misplaced Women? One-day-long intense performance art workshop on migration in the public spaces in Belgrade, Serbia, October 29, 2015


Tanja Ostojić, Belgrade, Serbia.

Documents of Resistance: Artists of Color Protest (1960–Present) Collective Timelines


Antonio Serna, New York City.

Interviews


What We Produce: Social Models That Can Be Re-purposed and Reapplied


an interview of Pablo Helguera, Jeff Kasper, and Alix Camacho Vargas, SPQ, New York City.

Fail Better: An Interview with the Center for Artistic Activism


Alix Camacho interviews Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert, New York City.

Lesson Plans III: Art and Social Injustice


NYU Flash Collective: An Art Intervention in the Public Sphere


Dipti Desai and Avram Finkelstein, New York City.

Future IDs: Reframing the Narrative of Re-entry


Gregory Sale with Aaron Mercado, Dominique Bell, Dr. Luis García, José González, Ryan Lo, and Kirn Kim, Phoenix, Los Angeles, California.

Due Time


Sarah Ross, Damon Locks, and Fereshteh Toosi, Chicago, Illinois.

Balloon Mapping the Calumet River Industrial Corridor in Chicago


Laurie Palmer, Sarah Ross, and Lindsey French, Chicago, Illinois.

SPURSE Lesson Plan: Designing a Multi-Species Commons


Matthew Friday and Iain Kerr, New Paltz, New York.

CONTACT ZONES. Understanding Art in Processes of Territorial Research


Alejandro Meitin, La Plata, Argentina.

Sensing Social Space


Bo Zheng, Hong Kong.

Becoming Zoya


Natalia Pershina-Yakimanskaya (Gluklya), Jon Platt, and Sonya Akimova, Chto Delat School of Engaged Art, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Freedom. Safety. Now!


Jaishri Abichandani, New York City.

Essay


Why Socially Engaged Art Can't Be Taught


Jen Delos Reyes, Chicago, Illinois.

Lesson Plans IV: Collective Learning and Urban Imaginaries


Poetry Workshop


Joseph Cuillier, New York City.

Ask the Tarot. From Personal Belief to Collective Reflection


Alpha Elena Escobedo, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

Social Practice and Community Engagement Seminar—Trust Exercises


Justin Langlois, Vancouver, Canada.

Experience as Art: Fine Art Social Practice at Middlesex University


Loraine Leeson and Alberto Duman, London UK.

Writing the Social: A Participatory Workshop


Gretchen Coombs, Brisbane, Australia.

Up Against the Wall: Public Art, Precarity, and Witness, Occupied Palestine 2003–2011


Susan R. Greene, Palestine and San Francisco, California.

Framing Neighborhood Decisions


Dillon de Give, New York City.

Lesson Plan for Public Faculty No. 11: Imagining a Curriculum for Sunset Park


Jeanne van Heeswijk and Gabriela Rendón, The Netherlands.

Embracing Ambiguity: Re-appropriation and the Making of Public Spaces

Brian Rosa, New York City.

SPQ seminars and Art As Social Action Projects


Transforming Corona Plaza / Corona Studio


a seminar developed by Queens Museum, Queens College Art/SPQ, and the Urban Studies Departments with instructors Professor Tarry Hum, Maureen Connor, Gregory Sholette, and Queens Museum staff members Prerana Reddy, and José Serrano-McClain, SPQ, New York City.

Protecting Our Nature and Our Sacred Land


Floor Grootenhuis and Erin Turner, SPQ, Oak Flat, Arizona and New York City.

The Beacon of Pluralism


Nancy Bruno and Gina Minielli, SPQ, New York City.

Towards a Workers Pavilion: The Forming of the Workers Art Coalition


Barrie Cline, SPQ, New York City.

Concluding Essay


Dewey, Beuys, Cage, and the Vulnerable yet Utterly Unremarkable Heresy of Teaching Socially Engaged Art (SEAE)


Gregory Sholette, New York City.

Editorial Reviews

"Art as Social Action presents a sharp set of pedagogical tools for teaching and learning about art as a vehicle for social engagement. Having evolved from an innovative collaboration between Queens College and Queens Museum, the book's offerings are embedded in the workings of both community and artists, breaking down the very idea of what participation means in art and non-art contexts. Key questions of authorship, which audiences are served, how does engagement happen, and whose needs are met and how are addressed with forthright vigor. The volume importantly provides rigorous interrogation of the process as well as the outcomes; it is an essential guide to deepening social art practices and teaching them to students." —Laura Raicovich, president and executive director, Queens Museum, NYC

"It's no small thing to educate at the intersection of art and social justice. It's a scope of inquiry that has tripped up art historians, artists, and college deans for multiple decades. This contribution is valuable to educators in its insight, pragmatism, and breadth." —Nato Thompson, artistic director of Creative Time, author of Culture as a Weapon: The Art of Influence in Everyday Life

"As a curriculum resource, this book is most useful for artist-educators who are already doing and teaching socially engaged art. . . . Art as Social Action also provides a snapshot of the many ways in which socially engaged art practices overlap with social justice approaches to art education, particularly those that attend to power relationships between teachers, students, schools, and communities, and to the social structures that shape art education pedagogy." —Studies in Art Education: A Journal of Issues and Research

“I find Art as Social Action to be a workhorse of a book that is filled with a vast array of social practice projects, teaching strategies, and resources. . . . [T]his book opens up a much-needed conversation about issues that arise when teaching something that is, for the most part, always under development, in conflict with traditional ways of making art, and requires some serious shifts in thinking about the potential for art/pedagogy in contemporary contexts.” —Lynn Sanders-Bustle, Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal

"This book is a great resource that connects the dots between the pedagogy for socially engaged art and the most pressing pressure points for social change. In doing so, it reinforces the urgency of this art practice, and signals clearly that social practice prioritizes societal change over academicism." —Paul Ramirez Jonas, artist and professor, Hunter College CUNY

"Art as Social Action is a powerful testament to the resliience of artists and educators in keeping critical thinking and creative expression central to how we define ourselves as a people in the era of late capitalism. Chloë Bass and Gregory Sholette bookend this anthology of methodologies with their key wisdom on how, where, and why art and education blur into the social realm. Now more than ever there is a need to recognize the plurality of voices, approaches, and directions that socially engaged art practice offers. This book shows that the many-headed beast of social art practice cannot be defined singularly or sold in duplication. Any practitioner working with communities or any educator looking for strategies for engagement would benefit from the wealth of information in these pages." —R. M. Sánchez-Camus, PhD, Social Art Network, UK

"Art as Social Action is not your typical book about socially engaged art. . . . It is a collection of texts by teachers who, together with their art students, look for creative ways to enter in a discussion with society outside the classroom about topics as different as labour conditions, immigrant rights or mining on sacred Native American sites. Texts by teachers who want to make works with rather than about local communities. And, hopefully, make this world a slightly fairer and kinder one." —we make money not art (blog)

"Art as Social Action presents a sharp set of pedagogical tools for teaching and learning about art as a vehicle for social engagement. Having evolved from an innovative collaboration between Queens College and Queens Museum, the book's offerings are embedded in the workings of both community and artists, breaking down the very idea of what participation means in art and non-art contexts. Key questions of authorship, which audiences are served, how does engagement happen, and whose needs are met and how are addressed with forthright vigor. The volume importantly provides rigorous interrogation of the process as well as the outcomes; it is an essential guide to deepening social art practices and teaching them to students." —Laura Raicovich, president and executive director, Queens Museum, NYC
"It's no small thing to educate at the intersection of art and social justice. It's a scope of inquiry that has tripped up art historians, artists, and college deans for multiple decades. This contribution is valuable to educators in its insight, pragmatism, and breadth." —Nato Thompson, artistic director of Creative Time, author of Culture as a Weapon: The Art of Influence in Everyday Life
"This book is a great resource that connects the dots between the pedagogy for socially engaged art and the most pressing pressure points for social change. In doing so, it reinforces the urgency of this art practice, and signals clearly that social practice prioritizes societal change over academicism." —Paul Ramirez Jonas, artist and professor, Hunter College CUNY
"Art as Social Action is a powerful testament to the resliience of artists and educators in keeping critical thinking and creative expression central to how we define ourselves as a people in the era of late capitalism. Chloë Bass and Gregory Sholette bookend this anthology of methodologies with their key wisdom on how, where, and why art and education blur into the social realm. Now more than ever there is a need to recognize the plurality of voices, approaches, and directions that socially engaged art practice offers. This book shows that the many-headed beast of social art practice cannot be defined singularly or sold in duplication. Any practitioner working with communities or any educator looking for strategies for engagement would benefit from the wealth of information in these pages." —R. M. Sánchez-Camus, PhD, Social Art Network, UK
"Art as Social Action is not your typical book about socially engaged art. . . . It is a collection of texts by teachers who, together with their art students, look for creative ways to enter in a discussion with society outside the classroom about topics as different as labour conditions, immigrant rights or mining on sacred Native American sites. Texts by teachers who want to make works with rather than about local communities. And, hopefully, make this world a slightly fairer and kinder one." —we make money not art (blog)

From the Publisher