Riding the tide: Socially-engaged art and resilience in an uncertain future

This chapter explains how theoretical and practical approaches developed in the field of socially-engaged art can extend discourse around resilience and community engagement in the social sciences. It discusses how resilience is defined in relation to a perceived climate of uncertainty, and reviews the implications of habitual discourse around concepts such as community and engagement, as well as the challenges facing co-productive approaches to both research and artistic practice. The chapter sketches out the historical development of contemporary socially-engaged art practice and review some of the ethical, aesthetic and political considerations that have shaped its critical evolution. It proposes four dimensions of socially-engaged art practice we believe have a bearing on how we think about resilience: New ways of working, Embracing Uncertainty, Expanded frames of reference, and Creative language. The chapter also reviews these ideas in relation to a brief case study and discusses some of the practical considerations when putting them into practice.