ART 451 Art as Social Practice

How much can art amplify the civic dimension of knowledge, how much can it be an agency that facilitates such effect? The course asks this question of social practice, frequently called socially engaged art, in a very specific way by relating it to the agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In other words, it asks how much art can serve as an agency that activates the SDGs, how much it can engage major social challenges of our times that are outlined by the seventeen SDGs? This course will reach out to artists, curators, social activists and people who work in the government as well as in the private and not-for-profit sectors for conversations on the topic of major challenges of today's society framed by the SDGs. The course will showcase selected cases associated with specific SDGs in relation to social practices in contemporary art and their potential to activate the SDGs agenda.

The determination to harness cultural and educational institution represents an emerging global trend manifested in recent and forthcoming events such as the Future Forward Summit on Sustainable Education in Brussels or the Culture Summit in New York hosted by UNESCO at the UN. Students in this class will have an opportunity to become involved in the new tendency to engage art in addressing the most pressing issues of today and become part of this larger effort.