Social Practice Matrix

During his 2019 summer residency entitled Project Third, Fine Arts Department Visiting Fellow Shaun Leonardo partnered with students to conduct a Social Practice Laboratory, offering an investigation into forms of creative public engagement. Viewable from the window-front of the Dekalb Gallery on campus, a series of student-driven projects explored the interpersonal potential of this ever-broadening and messy practice, in various social spaces including the community center, prison, classroom, and living room, while instigating the public vs. private nature of this work. As part of their collective output, the group developed an evaluative matrix for arts-based, socially engaged practices. Removing the dichotomy of ‘good vs. bad’ the matrix instead maps both a project’s potential and limitations as inherent to its intended scope of work and objectives.