Cara Courage

Dr Cara Courage is a placemaking, and arts, activism and museums academic and practitioner and speaks internationally on topics covering the C21st museum, the civic and activist museum, socially engaged art in community and museum settings and arts and urban design, placemaking and planning and has published widely on these topics. Cara is author of Arts in Place: The Arts, the Urban and Social Practice (Routledge, 2017), and the co-editor of Creative Placemaking and Beyond (Routledge, 2018), and editor of The Routledge Handbook of Placemaking (Routledge, 2021).

Abstract

Square peg, round hole?

Should social makers bother with institutions? And do institutions know what they are doing?

The 2020 syndemic put social responsibility and accountability into sharp relief for cultural institutions, and many called upon social makers to programme their way through this. Social makers were also knocking on the institutional door, wanting to work with them to make good on their own desire to work with publics in need.

Why though? Why did so many think the museum space a suitable one for social making? Why were museums being looked upon for leadership by social makers? Do institutions know what they are asking for? Where does the power lie in this institutional- social maker relationship?

Cara works with and for museums as a social practice professional and knows the inherent tensions and the incredible transformative power in these relationships from first-hand experience inside and out of the institutional setting. In this session, Cara will speak with Kim Wide of Take A Part to the pivotal time that social making is in vis a vis cultural institutions and will ask, why should you bother?