Collaborative World Building

Socially Engaged Art and Art Education

Collaborative and socially engaged practices are central to contemporary artists. Understanding their work not just as discrete practices of visual expression, but as a form of world building, artists engage with culture writ large, within places, circumstances, and communities they live in. In this symposium, we aim to explore the unique opportunities as well as challenges of collaborative world building in shared spaces of civic engagement in three related areas: classroom, in the curriculum, and in the community.

We want to ask what artists can learn from the communities they work with. What knowledge or assumptions do they bring into such work? Likewise, how can communities benefit from their collaboration with artists? This intricate work with communities and the questions that it brings up cannot easily be transferred into the classroom. Thus, what tools and competencies are lacking in the teaching of collaborative world building that can inform artistic practices outside of art spaces?

Program Summary

Wednesday, May 24, 4.00 – 7.00 pm:
Welcome. Keynotes by Lydia Matthews, Shaheen Merali, Dorit Naaman.

Thursday, May 25
Session 1: 9.00 am – 12.30 pm
Safe and Brave Spaces
How do we have difficult conversations?

Session 2: 2.00 pm – 5.30 pm
Strategies of Engagement
What do we learn from working with communities?

Friday, May 26, 9.00 am – 12.30 pm
Session 3: Collaboration as a Critical Practice: How can we teach it?

Speakers: Ruth Anderwald, Mirna Bamieh, Işıl Eğrikavuk, Nicole Furlonge, Leonhard Grond
Lydia Matthews, Shaheen Merali, Dorit Naaman, Jo Schmeiser

Fellows: Omry Batkilin, T Braun, Adva Eshel, Verena Miedl-Faißt, Judith Haslöwer
Marla Heid, Arzu Mistry, Stephanie Spitz, Julia Stern, Jason Watson

Organizers: Livia Alexander, Richard Jochum, Işın Önol, Barbara Putz-Plecko

The symposium is organized by the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, in conjunction with the Art and Art Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the Visual Studies Program at Montclair State University.

Further information: worldbuilding.uni-ak.ac.at