Making Another World Possible (Paperback)

Making Another World Possible offers a broad look at an array of socially engaged cultural practices that have become increasingly visible in the past decade, across diverse fields such as visual art, performance, theater, activism, architecture, urban planning, pedagogy, and ecology.

Part I of the book introduces the reader to the field of socially engaged art and cultural practice, spanning the past ten years of dynamism and development. Part II presents a visually striking summary of key events from 1945 to the present, offering an expansive view of socially engaged art throughout history, and Part III offers an overview of the current state of the field, elucidating some of the key issues facing practitioners and communities. Finally, Part IV identifies ten global issues and, in turn, documents 100 key artistic projects from around the world to illustrate the various critical, aesthetic and political modes in which artists, cultural workers, and communities are responding to these issues from their specific local contexts. This is a much needed and timely archive that broadens and deepens the conversation on socially engaged art and culture. It includes commissioned essays from noted critics, practitioners, and theorists in the field, as well as key examples that allow insights into methodologies, contextualize the conditions of sites, and broaden the range of what constitutes an engaged culture.

Of interest to a wide range of readers, from practitioners and scholars of performance to curators and historians, Making Another World Possible offers both breadth and depth, spanning history and individual works, to offer a unique insight into the field of socially engaged art.

Corina L. Apostol is the curator of Tallinn Art Hall and previously served as the Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at Creative Time. She is the cofounder of the activist publishing collective ArtLeaks and editor in chief of the ArtLeaks Gazette. Her recent publications include the book Theories and Methodologies of Art History: A Guide (2016), as well as numerous essays for volumes, textbooks, and catalogues.

Nato Thompson is the Sueyun and Gene Locks Artistic Director at Philadelphia Contemporary. He served as the curator of the Creative Time Summit from 2009 to 2017 and has written two books of cultural criticism: Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the 21st Century (2015) and Culture as Weapon: The Art of Influence in Everyday Life (2017). He has also edited Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991–2011, Experimental Geography, Ahistoric Occasion, Becoming Animal, and The Interventionists.