Presenting two sides of a social arts project.

Anna Francis, who co-presented the Lab ‘Representing the change: Rules of engagement’, at The Social Art Summit, discusses why there is a need to be honest about the challenges for artists and the importance of sharing the full picture, in this article on pages 29 and 30 of the research paper Social Art Summit.
This research paper is a collection of reflections on a two-day event in Sheffield, November 2018. The Social Art Summit took place in Sheffield, 1-2 November 2018, convening over 300 practitioners and wider audiences for an artist-led review of socially engaged practice.
It was organised by Social Art Network, co-founded by Eelyn Lee and R.M. Sánchez-Camus (Marcelo) in 2016 as ‘a UK based community of artists committed to building agency for the field of social art practice with four goals: creating a platform to showcase and discuss current work, expanding critical and reflective dialogue around the work, developing a national network of artists to strengthen peer support and artists’ development, and by doing this building a database of current, past and historic projects.’ The Social Art Summit was coconvened by Eelyn and Marcelo with guest-convener Ian Nesbitt.
As a supporting partner of the event a-n The Artists Information Company has commissioned this publication to disseminate ideas and content from the Summit. Dr Cara Courage, Head of Tate Exchange, was invited to contribute a central essay; and a range of short contributions from participants, reflecting on specific themes and issues arising, were selected from an open call.
Published in April 2019 to coincide with Social Art Assembly, a follow-on event at Tate Exchange reflecting on the Social Art Summit and exploring where Social Art Network can go from here.