FTHo

The programme explores issues and best practice relevant to the public art sector providing attendees with the opportunity to learn more about contemporary, socially engaged art, and public art debates. The events will feature a range of UK and international speakers whose socially engaged practice and methods of co-creation explore how art can help communities reimagine new futures. Informed by notions of care and alternative economies, Constellations 2023 explores lines of enquiry that are vital to public and social practice today addressing ideas relating to the value of attention, climate empowerment, and conflict & care.

All Assemblies will be held online, accessible via UP Projects’ digital participation space, The Hall.

The full line-up of speakers will be announced throughout the programme.

Constellations 2023 also includes Co-Creating Public Space: How can we thrive? an in-person conference realised in partnership with John Hansard Gallery.

Alongside the events, the Constellations ° Cohort, a selected group of artists, curators, producers, and practitioners operating in the expanded field of public art, will take part in a programme of free learning and development opportunities.

Constellations 2023 is curated by UP Projects in partnership with Flat Time House and in association with Liverpool Biennial. The programme is generously supported by Arts Council England, the Barrington Hibbert Associates Access Fund, and the Constellations Patrons.

PROGRAMME

• What is the value of attention?

12 July 2023, 14:00 – 15:15 BST 

What is the value of attention? is moderated by Neelika Jayawardane, Associate Professor of English at the State University of New York-Oswego, and a Research Associate at the Visual Identities in Art and Design (VIAD), University of Johannesburg. Speakers include Ahmet Öğüt, artist based and working in Amsterdam, Istanbul and Berlin, and Magdalena Malm, curator and advisor in organisational development based in Sweden, who will explore these questions from their individual perspectives.

• Co-Creating Public Space: How can we thrive?

Conference curated by UP Projects in partnership with John Hansard Gallery

27 October 2023, 9:00 – 17:00 GMT | MAST Mayflower Studios, 142 - 144 Above Bar Street, Southampton, SO14 7DU

Presented as part of Constellations 2023, the Co-Creating Public Space: How can we thrive? conference comprises a series of panel discussions and workshops taking place in Southampton and open to all artists, curators and practitioners, commissioners, communities, and those working across public art, social practice and regeneration. Informed by notions of care and principles underpinning alternative economies, the conference will look at how creative practice can build collectivity by sharing resources, values and opportunities in equitable ways. 

Please click here for more information

• Climate Empowerment

15 November 2023, 14:00 – 15:15 GMT 

How do we transition from climate awareness to climate action? There is much we can do to tackle the climate emergency including challenging the Governments and corporations causing the problem. What role can art play in developing narratives, stories and emotional connection to empower more effective climate action?

Speaker details to be announced soon

• Conflict & care

24 January 2024, 14:00 – 15:15 GMT 

Is good intention the opposite of good? Exploring the contradictions beneath the notion of care, this event asks what constitutes a genuine caring environment, where it is possible to address our differences in safe, constructive and positive ways. How do we balance honesty with care?

Conflict & care includes speaker Jack Ky Tan, artist based in London and is moderated by Morgan Quaintance, artist and writer based in London, who will explore these questions from their individual perspectives. Full details to be announced soon.