Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

I was struck on leaving art school that everyone seemed to be asking ‘how do I get “in” to the art world’. Baffled by this notion of scarcity of attention, I set myself to establishing arts projects that generated interest and resulted in inspiring relationships that sparked new collaborations, first in London, then in rural South-West England. It left me questioning the scramble to be noticed by a very particular and centralised few, over innovation in creating more space for engagement through the arts. Exposure, celebrity, and influence have long underpinned many of our societal structures, which includes issues surrounding ‘seen’ and ‘unseen’ art ventures and the dynamics of urban and rural creative communities, where the complicated politics of the convenience of centralisation leads to the dominant exposure of art in urban locations. The issue of ‘us and them’ in the context of a centre that one is either ‘in’ or ‘out’, leads further to debate around ideas of the social function of art through ‘public engagement’. Who is ‘the public’? Is this another phrase for ‘the powerless’ or ‘oblivious’ or ‘unenlightened’? Has the ‘non-public’ had the say for long enough on what is worth listening to or looking at? If art is for all, for freedom of expression and openness of debate, then in this era of grassroots movements and reminders of the importance and fragility of democracy, perhaps the time is for these rules to be rewritten.