FEINART - The Future of European Independent Art Spaces in a Period of Socially Engaged Art

FEINART is a large-scale research project between university research units in the fields of political philosophy, art theory, art practice and curatorial studies as well as cultural management on the one hand and art institutions - primarily in the independent scene - on the other. These are cooperating to conduct the first comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis of the role and function of socially engaged art in European democracies. In this context, 11 emerging scholars (ESRs) will be trained within the framework of a PhD programme. The candidates will acquire the appropriate academic and non-academic skills to understand and actively shape a changing art and cultural landscape with all its challenges. The 11 ESRs are distributed among four academic institutions (University of Wolverhampton, University of Iceland, University of Edinburgh and Zeppelin University) and seven partner organisations (Tensta Konstall, Sweden; BAK, Netherlands; State of Concept, Greece; W-Est, Italy; Tranzit.ro, Romania; Teatr Scena Prezentacje - Biennale Warszawa, Poland; and Icelandic Academy of the Arts, Iceland). The selected partner organisations represent an exemplary cross-section of smaller and larger independent project spaces, art and cultural centres as well as laboratories and research centres and work with very different requirements and expectations. All, however, provide indispensable focal points and resources for those artists working in the fields of socially engaged practice. The PhD training programme aims to provide valuable information on the dissemination, effects and role of socially engaged art and to analyse funding and financing needs; this also in order to develop recommendations for government funding of these new art practices. In this way, the programme will make an important contribution to the debate on the traditional role of art and cultural institutions.

FEINART Website