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The impact of this case study is the evidence that public art can function for social benefit. Significant research projects were completed for Ashford, commissioned by Kent County Council (2010), New Art Gallery Walsall (2005 - 2009), Collective Gallery Edinburgh, UK (2008), Liverpool Biennale (2010). This research claims three types of impact: 1. Public Service: a public artwork as part of a shared traffic scheme, which demonstrates a reduction in traffic accidents, 2. Civil Society: participatory artworks that enable public engagement in the design of a place (Ashford & the Black Country) , and 3. Influencing Policy — making: a contribution to policy debates concerning public art's function for social and economic regeneration.
Nowhereisland by artist Alex Hartley was a public artwork curated and produced by Claire Doherty as part of the Situations public art commissioning programme. This large-scale touring public artwork and accompanying online programme of activity enabled over 23,000 active participants (including over 10,000 young people) from 135 countries to reimagine civic responsibility and citizenship and to rethink the nature of place, belonging and nationhood within the context of the London 2012 Olympiad. As an internationally recognised example of progressive, time-based, participatory public art Nowhereisland helped change perceptions about the nature of public art.
Bournemouth University (BU) research by White (BU 2003 to present) focuses on the relationship between art, technology and culture. Exhibitions, workshops and presentations across the UK, Europe and in the USA have provoked societal reflection on critical topics such as genetics and germ warfare, among other controversial ethical issues. The work examines how sites, technologies and events shape our ideas of culture, political and personal life, whilst exposing audiences to ordinarily inaccessible information. Beneficiaries include the arts organisation with whom White has collaborated, and their participants, but more widely, those benefiting from his contribution to socially engaged art. The work has also furthered art-science discourse, providing impetus and critical breadth to the development of art and science as a cultural sector in the UK.
The Unit's research is at the centre of changing approaches to the relationship between contemporary art and religious institutions by helping a variety of faith communities to reflect on their practices and by influencing public attitudes. The work focuses on 3 areas: the relationship between nature and spirituality; the spiritual well-being of individuals; the role of performance and temporary works of art to increase understanding of religious communities and sacred spaces. Our findings have been used in policy documents published by the Church of England on commissioning art in churches, in the National Conference of the Pagan Federation, the Swedenborg Society and by the Roman Catholic Church in Poland. These impacts are particularly relevant in the context of a new UK legal framework placing religious belief among the protected characteristics of Equality and Diversity.
Andrew Burton's practice-based visual arts research, presented through international public exhibitions, commissions, illustrated lectures, conference presentations and publications has impacted on international cultural life and public discourse around the creative intersection between the worlds of sculpture, ceramics, architecture and craft. This research has:
a) provided opportunities for public audiences to experience unique artworks which embody and combine an articulation of fine art and craft sensibilities, methods and skills;
b) stimulated practitioner-led debate around the relationships between the practices and educational disciplines of sculpture, ceramics, architecture and craft.
This case study focuses on three areas in relation to the social impact of art, across the categories of `cultural life' and `public discourse'.
1) Artistic collaborations with non-artistic specialists in order to generate new interdisciplinary pathways
2) Artistic collaborations with non-artists within a given community or non-artistic institutional setting in order to create new forms of artist-audience participation
3) The sharing of knowledge/skills between either non-artistic specialists or a non-specialist audience and artists in the production of a shared task or project.
4) Performance-based practice inside and outside of the gallery
The outward facing nature of this research, then, addresses the way such work tests the prevailing competences, boundaries and identities of artist and audience alike. This means researchers are involved with both artistic and non-artistic funding-bodies and agencies as the basis for work on a range of critical issues affecting the borders between the art institution and non-artistic settings and contexts.
Research carried out at the University of Southampton into the social and intellectual value of conceptual art has been the basis of creative education and personal development programmes designed for school children, teachers, young offenders and the general public. Through public engagement activities run through the University's John Hansard Gallery, public knowledge and understanding of conceptual art have been deepened. Research has had a significant impact on 93 young offenders whose participation in arts-based programmes has resulted in the attainment of educational qualifications, enhanced employment prospects and a drop in re-offending. New programmes, co-developed with Southampton Youth Offending Service, have influenced public policy at local and national government levels, with impact reach evidenced when they were recognised by the Ministry of Justice as a model for best practice.
Artists leading in the Public Sphere has generated, inspired and supported new forms of artistic practice that emerge out of artists working closely with cultural organisations within research led inquiry. These approaches confront the need for and the challenges of change, in a process of mutual support between academics, artists, organisations and communities to adapt to social environmental change and shifting cultural values. By re-examining the role of the professional artist as a catalyst for social change informed by artist activist pedagogies and theories, these new experimental forms increase collaboration, opening up the imaginations and sensibilities of individuals and groups.
Afterall is a research and publishing organisation founded in 1998 by Research Fellow Charles Esche and Professor Mark Lewis at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London (UAL). Afterall focuses on contemporary art, and its relationship to wider theoretical, social and political fields. Researchers associated to Afterall undertake and commission research, which is disseminated to an international audience through publications and events. Afterall impacts on the cultural sector and an extended audience by providing a platform for critical and creative responses to art, curatorial and cultural practice and by shaping discourse in this area. The significance and wide reach of this impact is demonstrated through partnerships and high-profile cultural events, publication reach, and support from the cultural community.
Furtherfield has inspired and supported new forms of collaborative practice and expression at the intersection of arts and technology cultures to co-create critical, contemporary public platforms and contexts for arts in networked society.
Furtherfield's innovative programmes have advanced practices and theories of collaboration, remix, and openness; inspiring and informing thinking in the UK Arts sector and international digital arts culture. This work has worldwide cultural and social impact. It reaches and engages new audiences through public gallery programmes, online collections, websites, and other award-winning virtual platforms, acknowledged by artists, curators and critics for their contribution to emerging digital art contexts.