INSIGHTS 41
INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SOCIAL PROJECTS
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the high levels of responsibility
placed on artists working in social settings, practitioners often
felt unsupported in the work they did, receiving little training or
mentorship. Sometimes based in communities for long periods
of time, social artists reported feeling isolated, both from other
social practitioners and from the wider art world:
You don’t have any support. You’re just
kind of launched off into this thing
and unless you put those supports in
for yourself, they don’t really exist
(Artist, 21A)
This was inevitably felt to negatively impact on projects, as
artists lacked formal support systems and resources to conduct
their practice in the manner that they wished.
Artists routinely commented that they experienced isolation
in their work, stressing the importance of face-to-face
support systems and opportunities to share experiences and
challenges with others in the field. Some commissioners also
recognised the importance of helping artists counteract the
negative effects of loneliness and imposed self-reliance:
As an individual artist working in a
socially engaged way, there are moments
where actually you are very much on
your own (Artist, 12A)
It can be a really lonely job…the more
you can connect people up the better
(Commissioner, 9B)
Social practice was also described as lacking visibility as a
contemporary art form, often taking place below the radar of
mainstream arts networks. Artists felt invisible to each other,
as well as in the context of the wider art world:
You can do a great project and no one
will see it (Researcher, 1C)