THE COMMISSIONING PROGRAMME 53
Launch of ‘Social Works? Open’,
Sheffield, 2018
Members of the stakeholder group were invited to apply for
these paid commissions. The group was regularly updated about
the progress of the programme and were invited to send ideas
and feedback, either informally via email or through a tailored
online survey. Each commission included a small budget for
a blog post to be written profiling the event (see quotes from
some of these blog posts below). The stakeholders commissioned
in earlier iterations of the programme were invited to
assist with selecting later commissions, trialling and reviewing
outputs for follow on actions.
Here, Harvey Diamond, Lauren Velvick, Les Monaghan and
Joe Cotgrave.
The writing demonstrated the value of artists providing
accounts of what they do and know — taking the pulse of society
— in their own voices:
If we are creating work with people and are putting
our finger on the pulse of society, what is our blood
pressure reading? How is this very act defining and
redefining cultural output today? And what does this
mean within the current UK context?’
R.M. Sanchéz-Camus (‘Social Works? Open’ 2018: 66)
‘SOCIAL WORKS? OPEN’
This was the first UK-based journal issue dedicated to social
practice, with support from Arts Council England, Heart of
Glass, Peckham Platform and Manchester School of Art. The
publication included contributions from Jen Delos Reyes,
Kerry Morrison, R.M. Sánchez-Camus, Claire Mead, They Are
To date the publication has sold more than 350 copies, is
included in all major repositories, including the British Library
and Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, and the online pdf receiving
1,423 online reads so far. Cognisant of the issues around paying
both artists and writers for their labour, all contributions were
paid at standard professional rates.