Commoning Art: Activating the Transformative Potentials of Commons in the Arts

A much-needed contribution to the literature on commoning, offering pragmatic, structured and transformative strategies to rethink and reshape the arts

First published in German in 2022, Commoning Art has since become a standard reference in debates on art, commons and cultural self-organization. Discussed in academic contexts, artist-run spaces and cultural institutions, the book has shaped how commoning is theorized and practiced in the arts. This English edition now makes that discourse accessible to an international readership.
Commoning Art develops a methodology that advances an ontological reorientation of art, understanding it as a shared infrastructure, collectively stewarded through practices of co-creation, peer decision-making and mutual support. This reorientation opens pathways toward supportive legal, organizational and material conditions that allow artistic work to be sustained with reduced dependence on market- and state-based arrangements. The book combines conceptual clarity with a wide range of situated examples, case studies and ideas drawn from real work in art and culture.