Vol. 15 Supplement issue on Socially Engaged Art and Global Challenges / December 2021

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is one of the most severe health challenges that affect the lives of an increasingly large number of people in the World. Lack of information, stigma, and marginalization of people with HIV are serious challenges that prevent early diagnostic of HIV infections and timely interventions that can improve the conditions of the affected people and the transmission of HIV. The existing body of research provides some evidence about the potential of socially engaged arts to expand knowledge, influence attitudes and empower participants to regularly take tests and visitors to understand and accept people affected by HIV. However, studies in this domain are scant and usually conducted in the areas with the highest prevalence of the HIV epidemic. Due to the limited evidence and the need to examine the potential of socially engaged arts in empowering people with HIV, this study examined and presented the initial results from an experimental theatre production focusing on participatory design and co-creation by applying a mixed method research design. A set of structured interviews with the participants, and discussions during the experimental reading session were used to study participants’ experiences, complementing pre-, and post-reading survey results of this small sample of participants. Results demonstrate very high interest in and expectations from socially engaged arts and a particular value of participatory design and co-creation during the development of the evaluated artistic creation.

This article seeks to understand how social engagement and policy change in the cultural sector in Malta can cater for the needs of various individuals and communities, particularly minorities, based on the island. As it contextualises local cultural policy in the broad theoretical field of intersectionality, the article articulates a general backdrop linking geographical and political dimensions to the cultural scene and specific minorities in Malta. It then presents an outline of the recent National Cultural Policy issued by the Ministry for the National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government in 2021, giving an overview of some of the policy’s references to social inclusion and cultural access in the work conducted by various public stakeholders in the cultural and educational sectors. Finally, it describes and analyses data collected from two meetings held with various stakeholders representing different sectors in the country in order to elicit some conclusions about the significance of socially engaged arts, training and other perceived needs in the sector.

This article adopts a cultural policy perspective to address diversity and sustainable development in the context of cultural enterprise in Malta, where projects and scholarly research supported by European funded programmes in the promotion and protection of diversity in local and regional environments are at an early stage. This article first argues that engaging in a critical assessment of the field is timely because of the growing importance that matters of diversity and sustainability are having in the light of the cultural-driven and -led models employed that are having significant impact on human and natural ecosystems; this is
particularly due to a booming population that is becoming more diversified, a greater economic activity especially related to tourism and travel and the consistent rise in the demand of creative products and services. In this light, references to the research conducted by the project Acting on the Margins: Arts as Social Sculpture (AMASS) will support this argument. It then argues that cultural operators and educators who are drawn to this area of interest and whose work consists of evaluating the scene and proposing novel ways of collaboration and research contribute towards building sustainable models of operation. The methodology applied is based on a pertinent literature review and observations made directly in the field of practice.

This article reports on a pilot project, developed within the scope of the AMASS project ‘Acting on the Margins: Arts as Social Sculpture’, in Portugal, by APECV (Association of Teachers of Expression and Visual Communication) in the year 2020. This is the year in which the Covid-19 pandemic plagued the world and changed the way we live and relate to each other. In Portugal, the project was started during lockdown, forcing constant changes to the initial plans, given that society’s challenges are constantly changing and contexts change methods, populations and objectives. Here, we explain the choice of the population that collaboratively participated in this study (people with multiple disabilities), the work context (the Covid-19 pandemic in Portugal), the participatory methodology, the use of artistic and artistic techniques, the affective pedagogies and the importance of poetry, metaphor and love in a work process rich in meanings, understood by all, emancipatory and impactful on the surrounding society.

This article will introduce the Love Talks and Neighbourhood (later Love Talks) project, part of the AMASS, Acting on the Margin: Arts as Social Sculpture project. Love Talks was realised in Finnish Lapland in 2020, as part of an effort by local artists and art education students to explore how arts initiatives can build tolerant, community-focused neighbourhoods, while reflecting on how such activities can be scaled up to larger initiatives. The artists and art educators involved in the project took on the roles of teachers, developers, enablers, curators, facilitators, producers and creators of a new dialogic operational culture. The project asked whether socially engaged art can provide new tools for social interaction and increased collaboration. Can it lead to a new dialogue, critical discussions and new forums for participation? This paper highlights the importance of paying attention to how activities are organised and realised in the diverse and often challenging environments characteristic of socially engaged art and community-based art education. It explores how to promote encounters, tolerance and well-being through the use of art, and the role of culture and art in promoting social inclusion, capacity building, networking and participation in daily life and living
environments.

This article presents the design and research process of a design team of four designer-researchers, who are also the authors of this article and collaborated to develop training guidelines and a toolset for stakeholder workshops. The intention was to use the series of stakeholder workshops as a key method for developing policy recommendations about the role of arts in mitigating societal challenges. The stakeholder workshops were implemented across Europe by the partners of the European Commission
H2020-funded project, Acting on the Margins: Arts as Social Sculpture (AMASS). Due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the designer- researchers had to transfer all activities, such as face-to-face workshops and their own work processes, to a digital environment and online participation. The digital toolset and user guidelines were aimed at training the project partners to conduct stakeholder workshops and collect data for creating cultural policy roadmaps that would be context- specific for the European region where they were located. The design process for creating the digital artefacts, such as the digital toolset, user
guidelines and online workshop environment, is discussed in this article, in addition to this study’s opportunities and limitations.

Teaching about contemporary art is a problematic curricular area with a constantly growing knowledge base and methodological repertoire from teachers. This paper presents an effort to mentor art educators of disadvantaged educational institutions to appropriate socially focused contemporary arts with special relevance for their students. The programme is based on constructivist educational methodologies and critical arts pedagogy practices. We briefly introduce the venue: the Ludwig Museum of Budapest, placed spiritually and geographically at the intersection of Eastern and Western Europe, and discuss the contents, assessment methods and results of the mentoring programme.