The Arts of Social Change

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 5
• Convenors and tutors: Dr Molly Flynn, Dr Simone Wesner
• Assessment: a 1000-word critical reflection (30%), 2500-word research essay (30%) and 10-minute group presentation with 10-minute student-led discussion (40%)

How can arts and culture intervene in the social, ecological and political problems of our time? Can they play a role in advocating for a fairer and more just society?

In this module you will explore forms of art and culture that strive to respond to specific global challenges, by examining key contemporary and historical case studies and taking part in collaborative art projects in class. You will learn to understand, adapt, create and analyse art for social change through the study of community, collaboration, activism and political art from theoretical and practical perspectives. The global challenges addressed include cultures of care, art in spaces of social conflict, community arts, identity and inequity.

Indicative syllabus

• Arts policy and democracy
• Art activism and craftivism
• Community arts and cultures
• Audiences and participation
• Socially engaged art and the ethics of care
• Performing testimony
• Memory, identity, and re-enactment
• Civic engagement and post-truth

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• demonstrate knowledge of the ideas and practices underpinning socially engaged arts as seen through a contemporary and historical lens
• understand the relationship between socially engaged arts and activism in the local community context and on a global scale
• participate in socially engaged project-making.