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Viewing sustainability as a process rather than a goal places artists, designers and art educators in a key position to contribute to sustainability. Following Anthony Giddens’s theories of structuration and socialization, we can see that established values, world-views, structures, rules and norms influence human behaviour. However, as individuals begin to recognize the potential of reflexivity and ask themselves how change is possible, they learn to modify their behaviour. Art education needs to promote reflexivity in order to contribute to a sustainable process of change. Artistic practices and art education stress the value of shaping the self and our relations with others, and can lead learners to transcend common boundaries through creative thinking and imagining alternative realities. Partnerships forged by art educators amongst themselves and with other stakeholders can create new spaces of experience and empower individuals to achieve change. This Special Issue explores how art educators, activists and artists engage with processes of educational, cultural and political change and embrace sustainability inside and outside school.

Review of: Joseph Beuys and the Artistic Education: Theory and Practice of an Artistic Art Education, Carl-Peter Buschkühle (2020) Leiden: Brill/Sense, 238 pp., ISBN 978-90-04-42454-8, p/back, €50.00

This chapter argues for a model of art education informed by the sustainable development goals and education for sustainable development. It explores connections between the discourses of contemporary art, particularly socially engaged forms of art, and sustainable development through the temporal lens of present and future, arguing that any transformative outlook on our understanding of development, education and art must first engage with the social and political realities of present times, as demonstrated in the work of many artists. Transformative and reconstructionist conceptions of teaching and learning are considered, while the fourth pillar of sustainability, culture, is seen as a bridge that could reposition and broaden debates on art education within the political goals of education for sustainable development and its competencies. In particular, the activist and collaborative dimensions of contemporary art, its sense of wonder and uncertainties are seen as overlapping concerns in art education and education for sustainable development. This leads towards inquiry-based pedagogies that open the door to a sense of agency that is relevant both to art and to all those who believe in the possibility of change., peer-reviewed

Contemporary artists are increasingly engaging in curatorial work and strategies while curators interpret the exhibition as an artistic medium in its own right. The teaching of art in schools and art education programmes in universities, however, does not often integrate curating as an activity or field of study within more conventional studio classes or methodologies for teaching and learning art. After briefly outlining a history of key artist-curators, this article suggests that curating – particularly its collaborative, social qualities – can enrich art pedagogies and curricula, and proposes four curatorial processes that could positively expand the remit of art education. These processes are understood as integral aspects of art-making and focus on the development of a pedagogy of dialogue, creating dialogues between different artworks and objects, dialogues between curatorial positions, dialogues between works of art and various publics, and finally, facilitating the etymological notion of ‘care’ within the art class.

Review of: Art as Unlearning: Towards a Mannerist Pedagogy, John Baldacchino (2019)London and New York: Routledge, 166 pp.,ISBN 978-1-13831-871-7, h/bk, £120.00

Defining excess as surplus seems to imply the existence of a scale ranging from ‘too little’, leading to completeness, and ending with ‘too much’. Yet, once we question what supposedly makes anything complete, conventional parameters like these are blurred. Raphael Vella asks whether it might be possible to conceive of ‘less’ or ‘loss’ as a form of excess, distinct from the visual gluttony that characterizes many examples of contemporary art. The chapter explores this question by drawing attention to the amputation of a bodily part that leaves behind an invisible yet unmistakable trace or phantom limb sensation. A sculpture by Maltese artist Austin Camilleri and controversy sparked by its public display provide the basis for a discussion about the political dimensions of art, disability and loss, leading to the possibility of a questioning pedagogy.

This article explores researchers’ perceptions of discrepancies between the creative goals of research projects in which artists are recruited and requirements established by ethical review boards in higher education. It describes issues that researchers typically face when applying for the ethical clearance of research projects that engage various communities in participatory activities involving creative professionals. While the observation of ethical codes of practice is very important in all academic research, it is equally important to understand how the goals of research and artistic outcomes may be affected by regulatory procedures as well as variable institutional practices related to ethical reviews of research. Ethical requirements may impact research in any discipline and are certainly not unique to the arts, but it is important to understand the specific effects of ethics review boards on research projects that venture into new creative areas that might involve vulnerable participants or include unforeseeable artistic outcomes. The article analyses studies undertaken by a research team made of academics, artists and other entities at the University of Malta and shows how the ethics review process affects timeframes, levels of participants’ involvement and the organic development of creative processes. Finally, it makes some recommendations for ethical review boards in the evaluation of socially engaged arts research projects.

The open principles of socially-engaged arts practice frequently come into conflict with ethical considerations despite positive intentions on the part of the artist or commissioning body. When confronted by crises in society, particularly challenges and forms of discrimination that tend to slip under the radar, artists and other stakeholders in the arts and education often engage with dilemmas related to power imbalances, responsibility, political agendas and artistic quality. These dilemmas are discussed through a handful of projects created in Malta as part of the artistic research project ‘Acting on the Margins: Arts as Social Sculpture’ (AMASS), and other arts-based community- and artist-led projects. The article discusses possible methodologies towards fully democratic, horizontal, and sustainable processes, and opens questions around agency and intent in participatory art practice.

The thematic number on Art(s) as Social Sculpture in the Research in Arts Education (RAE)journal focuses on socially engaged art practices and research for using arts to overcome societalchallenges. We present and discuss a variety of artistic and arts-based studies and innovativearts-based practices. While the RAE welcomes research papers on all arts disciplines (visualarts, music, dance and other performative arts, their theories, practices and education), thisnumber focuses on socio-political contemporary art and artistic interventions in communities,such as care institutions, villages and educational organisations and networks.The call for research articles, practise-based reports and visual essays was based on theproject Acting on the Margins: Arts as a social sculpture (AMASS) in 2020–2023. The projectseeks to analyse, synthesise and promote the role of arts in societal challenges. The Universityof Lapland, located in Lapland in Finland, leads the research consortium. Local, regional andnational research and development projects from different parts of Europe are brought intointernational discussion in the AMASS project and also in this number of the RAE journal.

This toolkit is intended to help artists and artsresearchers to plan, organise, document andevaluate participatory arts projects in differentcontexts. Its publication evolved in thecontext of a Europe-wide research projectfunded by the EU Research and Innovation programmeHorizon 2020. This research project –Acting on the Margins: Arts as Social Sculpture(AMASS) – is an arts-based three-year project(2020-2023) that aims to bring people basedin different European contexts together withartists to work collaboratively on creative andexperimental research. Through participatoryapproaches conducted in new artistic productionsand research projects, AMASS exploresand analyses the role of the arts in engagingwith societal challenges and evaluating the societal impact of the arts. It also addressesthe marginalisation of certain groups insociety by analysing power imbalances and exploring artistic, pedagogical and other waysof promoting inclusive strategies and sharingthe benefits of innovation and service solutions. The many strategies adopted by differentAMASS partners call for the involvementof various stakeholders like NGOs, artists, regionalarts advocates, community membersand others in decision-making tactics andforum group discussions revolving aroundsocial needs and constraints. Strongly embeddedin the value of alternative knowledgesystems and the belief that the arts can initiatesignificant transformations in policy andperceptions, AMASS is intended as a catalystfor change in various contexts, and multi-disciplinaryresults emerging from an evaluationof its testbed will contribute towards policyrecommendations at local, regional and internationallevels. This toolkit shares many ofthe challenges and enthusiasm for the artsthat characterise AMASS and its activities.