‘Art and Social Context’, its background, inception and development

Abstract

This article is about a small scale educational project that tried to respond to its times. The course ‘Art and Social Context’ was conceived in the late 1970s at Dartington in Devon, and then re-launched in the early 1990s at the University of the West of England in Bristol (where it still continues under the title, ‘Fine Art and Context’). The late 1970s was a time of cultural ferment, which saw the emergence of such movements as community arts, public art, and feminist art. A new social and political awareness was also apparent in art criticism and gallery policy. This article looks back at the cultural climate of that time and considers how it gave rise to a course that offered an alternative in art education. It traces some of the educational principles and practices as they evolved over the years. Today much of what was considered radical in the 1970s is now part of official cultural policy. In the light of this, the article considers the continuing need for contextual art as part of educational provision.