• COLLABORATIONS

SOCIAL PRACTICE QUEENS

Social Practice CUNY is an expansion of Social Practice Queens (SPQ). Founded in 2010, SPQ is a unique pedagogical experiment and educational platform that supports the integration of studio art with interdisciplinary research, community collaboration, environmental justice and critical urbanism. SPQ links together the resources of an academic institution, Queens College and the City University of New York (CUNY), and the long-standing community-based activism of the Queens Museum and other partnering institutions. SPQ’s goal is to initiate real-world change through practices of care, social intervention and aesthetic experimentation.

SPCUNY supports Queens College MFA students who belong to the SPQ concentration with tuition remission in their second year, project support, mentorship, and connections to socially-engaged artists at the graduate and faculty levels across CUNY campuses. These second-year SPQ students are designated SPCUNY Student Fellows and participate in the larger SPCUNY Cohort.

For more about SPQ, and to explore past projects and publications, visit the SPQ website.

SOCIAL PRACTICE QUEENS
EXHIBITION CATALOG

On view at the Queens Museum Art as Social Action

On view at the Queens Museum from March 24–August 29, 2021, Art As Social Action honored the decade-long pedagogical experiment of Social Practice Queens by featuring interdisciplinary projects by nine local and international SPQ alumni: Alix Camacho-Vargas, Floor Grootenhuis (with Joel Murphy), Cody Herrmann, Jeff Kasper, Naomi Kuo, Julian Louis Phillips, Erin Turner, Pedro Felipe Vintimilla Burneo, and the Workers Art Coalition. The exhibition demonstrated a particular focus on issues of care: how do we provide for and celebrate each other in the context of intersecting concerns, including climate change, gentrification, and struggles with togetherness. Below, you can view or download the exhibition catalog archiving the exhibit and associated public programs, and including supplemental interviews and essays.

THE ART OF ENGAGEMENT

Initiated by pioneer of social practice and community arts Dr. Loraine Leeson, the Art of Engagement is a research project that explores how the teaching of social practice can be improved for arts practitioners through partnership between cultural and higher education institutions.

With a research grant from Arts and Humanities Research Council, the project pivots on a collaborative exchange focused on teaching socially engaged art between the Queens Museum, the Tate Modern‘s education department, Middlesex University London, and Social Practice CUNY. As a partnership between cultural and educational institutions, the research activities have involved planning meetings, workshops, symposia, and in-person exchange trips.

For more about the research project, visit the project site on the Tate’s page.

THE ART OF ENGAGEMENT
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Project Documentation

Below is a collection of photo documentation of Art of Engagement activities so far, which include planning meetings, online workshops and symposia, and site visits in September 2022.

London site visits included The Margate School, Platform, South London Gallery, and Autograph. NYC site visits included The Clemente Center, Abrons Arts Center/Henry Street Settlement, MORE Art, and Interference Archive.