This symposium presents a collection of results from the activities of the Horizon2020 AMASS project (Acting on the Margins, Art as Social Sculpture) – a project which has been established specifically to address the need for a coherent, pan-European understanding the critical potential of the arts in generating radical, alternative or unconventional solutions to social challenges and how these can further influence policy development.

The aim of AMASS is in how we might rigorously investigate the use of arts-based methods – which move from Research to Innovation and then Action – so that we are then able to locate and determine those underlying structures and concepts which  influence how art can and does function to address the challenges we currently face. AMASS looks to both directly confront our most pressing geopolitical challenges and address the needs they create among marginalised communities across Europe: the future of work across creative, cultural and other sectors; the rise of populism, radical ideologies and extremism; a lack of participation in civil society, societal polarisation and stratification; and the ongoing pressures of migration.

Research questions:

By assuming and maintaining a position or perspective that is on or at the margins, what do we see? How does such a position create particular (shared or common) sensitivities? Might these sensitivities, and the transformative potential that they engender, be of greater impact or affect than those found elsewhere - in particular in more established or prominent centres of power and among dominant social groups? Might the inherent skills found in domains of art and education be capable of activation by or resonating more powerfully in response to these challenges – so that their responses are transformative?

The contributions in this proposal explore two overarching themes or concepts which are fundamental to the AMASS project and which form the basis of our two sessions. The varied work of AMASS is situated within and through Foucault's concept of marginalized social practices and draws deeply of Beuys's concept of the transformative power of art in both society and the individual.

Thus, this project will identify, explore, collate, evaluate and analyse existing and new innovative productions, experiments and case studies from the perspective and the physical situation of the European countries "on the margins" – so that such marginality might become a position of strength.

The AMASS team is located in Europe's culturally often underserved Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern region and consists of 8 countries (Finland /Lead/, Malta, Czech Republic, Portugal, Hungary, Italy, UK, Sweden). After our completion of the project’s WP3 which pilots a research model, in 2021 we aim to further develop a larger number of experiments which will investigate the educational effects and the cognitive potential of an integration model combining the arts with science through a range of participatory and multidisciplinary approaches. Our work will also focus on developing a range of disruptive practices, as the special call NW29 expresses it, within art, culture and education institutions (museums, universities, schools, public spaces) and upon culture/educational policy.

Methodology and research methods:

Mixed methods within qualitative participatory research and arts-based research

Collecting data: Pre- and post-assessment surveys, focus groups, interviews, journals and PhotoVoice, visual and auditive archives, neonarratives, online curriculum structures, websites

Analysis: Using ATLAS.ti software for qualitative analysis and assessing

Against this background, we will present different figures of visibility of the above-described issues in case studies from different countries. Examples will be taken from their socio-cultural situation and from different human situations showing possible solutions, but also asking new questions to artists, educators and students, but also to representatives of governmentality and management of relevant institutions.

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