History of Social Art Library

It all started when…

The history of Social Art Library dates back to 2015 when we realised that increasing numbers of Axis artists were making work in social settings. To understand more about the growing field of social practice we commissioned our first piece of research, ‘Beyond the Gallery’, in collaboration with Professor Amanda Ravetz from Manchester Metropolitan University and later the ‘Models of Validation’ project—also known as Social Works?. These projects, which involved more than 100 artists in total, helped us learn more about the challenges facing social practitioners, and culminated in a new journal, Social Works? Open, a report, From Network to Meshwork ) and a festival of social practice, held in April 2019 at Manchester School of Art.  

Through our research we learned that social practice lacks key infrastructures to connect those working in the field with each other and often, the wider art world. Social projects are typically amorphous, emphasising process and relationship building, and artists can often work in isolation for long periods in a particular place or community. As such, it can be difficult for those not directly involved in a project—including institutions and commissioners—to learn about what happened or what was learned. We wanted to build a social practice library to help create new visibility for the field and to enable the knowledge from social projects to be accessed by as many people as possible. The history of social art is a shared concern for all those working in the field, from artists to producers to the people and communities they collaborate with, and we are committed to showcasing everybodies’ stories and experiences.

In 2019, Axis began a new partnership with Social Art Network, an artist-led organisation that has already moved mountains in bringing social practice artists together to share and advocate for the field — and in 2020, during the lockdown, we were lucky enough to receive seed funding from the Art Fund to begin commissioning artists to share their response work to the present crises. We’ll also be working with museums and galleries to learn more about how social projects can best be showcased and collected. 

Who are we?

Social Art Library is an Axis project, led by artists Lucy Wright and R.M Sánchez-Camus (Marcelo), with Axis Executive Director Mark Smith and project coordinator, Daniela Liberarti.

Lucy has almost a decade of experience in finding new ways to share stories about people, places and the environment. Since 2018 she has collaborated with Marcelo, the force behind Applied Live Art and one of the founders of Social Art Network — including as co-ordinators of Social Art Publications. 

The team is super excited about continuing our journey with Social Art Library. Currently in a highly experimental, developmental stage, we have begun by gathering stories about existing works by social artists — with a particular emphasis on response work completed during the 2020 pandemic. In the next phase, scheduled for 2021, we hope to bring SOAL into your pocket with an interactive app that lets you record the story of your project in real time, with privacy functions that keep all your data private and safe.

Please join us to help make Social Art Library bigger and better by searching the resource, sending us your comments and feedback and most importantly, by sharing your work using the link above! We can’t wait to work with you!