Art Practice as Policy Practice: Framing the Work of Artists Embedded in Government

Abstract

Embedded artists in government incorporate connect art methods and esthetic perspectives in non-arts contexts, working in collaboration with government staff whether through their own professional choice or through a formal program established by a government agency or arts organization. This article contextualizes embedded artists in government in connection to artist residencies in the art world, arts in non-arts contexts, and creative placemaking to understand how work is framed and to demonstrate potential impacts while making suggestions for future research. Benefits include cross-sector collaboration and idea generation, with the potential for agency culture shift and systems change in how civic work supports residents.

Keywords:

• Artist residencies
• creative placemaking
• cultural policy
• government agency
• collaboration

Notes

1 Social practice has been widely discussed in writing by art historians, artists, and curators including Finkelpearl 2013; Helguera 2011; Jackson, 2011; Burton et al., 2016. Tania Brugera’s arte útil has been expanded into a framework that contextualizes many other artists and projects documented at https://www.arte-util.org/.