Insights and Themes from ArtWorks Alliance Gathering – March 2025
On 20th March 2025, ArtWorks Alliance and Take A Part co-hosted Crossing Boundaries, an online gathering focused on socially engaged arts practices in a global context. The event brought together practitioners from India, Malaysia, and across the UK to explore how creative work rooted in community and place responds to local challenges—ranging from social injustice and funding constraints to environmental degradation and cultural displacement.
The gathering opened with a prompt from Kim Wide (Take A Part) and Anurupa Roy (Katkatha Puppet Theatre, India), followed by breakout discussions among UK-based practitioners. A final session featured insights from Shaq Koyok, an Indigenous artist from Malaysia whose work integrates environmental advocacy, oral storytelling, and intergenerational collaboration.
Across the sessions, several recurring themes emerged:
- Innovation through constraint and adaptation
- The role of informal and overlooked spaces in creative placemaking
- Challenges of working within and against institutional systems
- The importance of care, cultural continuity, and community-defined leadership
This event was particularly relevant to ArtWorks Alliance members as it highlighted practical, grounded strategies for sustaining meaningful arts work in contexts of uncertainty. By listening to voices from beyond the UK, participants were invited to question their assumptions, recognise shared struggles, and identify new possibilities for place-based, participatory practice.
The insights summarised in this briefing are offered as a resource for reflection, dialogue, and future action within the ArtWorks Alliance Community of Practice. They are accompanied by reflective questions that can be used in workshops, team meetings, or individual practice reviews.
Creative Placemaking and Working with What Exists
Kim Wide (Take A Part) reflected on the challenges facing the UK cultural sector—including diminishing resources and democratic erosion—and made a case for learning from global majority contexts. Drawing on asset-based community development, she encouraged practitioners to work with existing networks and avoid over-reliance on institutional permission or funding.
She challenged the notion of ‘best practice’ and highlighted the value of diverse networks as a way to surface new ways of thinking and acting in communities. Her remarks positioned artists as part of the community asset base.
Reflective questions to go forward with include:
- What are the tangible assets in my community that I might be overlooking?
- In what ways do I or my organisation replicate hierarchical thinking?
- What’s stopping me from starting a project with what I already have?
Innovation Through Constraint – The Concept of Jugaad
Anurupa Roy (Katkatha Puppet Theatre) introduced the Indian concept of ‘jugaad‘—a form of improvised problem-solving. She described performance strategies that bypassed formal restrictions, including cricket-themed puppet theatre in public parks, and working with girls resisting child marriage in rural India.
Puppetry served as both a distancing mechanism and a storytelling method, enabling sensitive issues to be explored safely. Anurupa stressed cultural relevance and accessibility, such as using TikTok to reach young boys during lockdown.
Reflective questions:
- What symbolic or everyday forms could we draw on to make our work more locally resonant?
- How do we design projects that invite participation without requiring formal permission?
- In what ways can abstraction, metaphor, or non-verbal forms be used to explore sensitive topics?
Breakout Room Discussions and Collective Reflections
Breakout discussions offered practical insights from practitioners across the UK. Key themes included care for freelance workers, use of alternative spaces (e.g. launderettes) as community hubs, challenges posed by rigid funding systems, and leadership models such as rotating responsibilities inspired by the ‘goose formation’.
Participants reflected on the tension between creative autonomy and funder expectations, and the need to create informal infrastructures of care to sustain collaborative work.
Reflective questions:
- What do we need in place to care for ourselves and others in a freelance-led project?
- Are there informal or unexpected spaces in our community where creative work could thrive?
- How can we be more transparent about the compromises and choices behind our projects?
Environmental Arts and Indigenous-led Activism
Shaq Koyok (Malaysia) shared a practice grounded in the defence of Indigenous land, language, and cultural identity. His work includes turning children’s drawings into puppetry-based performances and organising public parades to protest land encroachment and overdevelopment. He emphasised the use of art as a medium for civic expression and community memory.
Shaq also described symbolic gestures—such as children presenting illustrated memoranda to politicians—as acts of quiet but direct advocacy. His work connects oral storytelling, environmental knowledge, and intergenerational leadership.
Reflective questions:
- What environmental or cultural issues are present in the communities we work with, and how might art offer a means to respond?
- How might we involve young people not just as participants, but as authors and narrators of their own stories?
- What does cultural continuity mean in my context, and how can creative practice support it?
Summary
This gathering offered a valuable moment of connection between practitioners working in vastly different contexts but facing shared challenges—uncertain resources, contested public space, and the need for more equitable and locally grounded cultural work. The stories shared by Anurupa Roy and Shaq Koyok, alongside the reflections from ArtWorks Alliance members, illustrate that socially engaged arts is not a fixed method but a set of evolving practices shaped by circumstance, culture, and care.
For ArtWorks Alliance members, this is both an invitation and a reminder: the strength of our community lies not just in shared values but in the active exchange of experience. The learning doesn’t end with the event—it deepens when we continue the conversation together.
Ways to Stay Involved and Share Your Practice
Watch the Recording: An edited version of the event will be made available via a private link, exclusively for members. It will include subtitles and segment markers to make it easier to revisit and share with your teams.
Join the Community Conversations: Regular online discussion sessions are held for members to reflect on practice, share challenges, and ask questions in a supportive space. Keep an eye on your inbox for the next invitation.
Connect with Peers: Use the members’ email list or tag #artworksalliance on social media to share reflections, ask questions, or point to your own projects. A short post or comment might spark a valuable new exchange.
Contribute to the Podcast Series: We’re developing a podcast led by members, featuring short, reflective interviews and practice-based insights. If you’d like to share a story from your work or suggest a theme, get in touch with the AWA team.
Document and Discuss Your Story: You might want to:
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- Write a short piece about a project you’ve recently completed
- Share a dilemma or learning moment in a member session
- Pair up with another member to interview each other and reflect on your practice
These small actions help build a richer, more representative picture of the socially engaged arts field.
By continuing to reflect, share, and support one another, we strengthen not just our practices, but the wider infrastructure that socially engaged arts depends on. If this event left you with questions, ideas, or a sense of possibility—follow it. Take one next step. And invite someone else to do the same.
