Power of the Temporary: Social Art in Spaces of Transitional Living

Jody Wood

doi:10.3390/arts10040078

Abstract

This communication paper addresses the role of ephemeral and temporary artistic interventions into the systemic problem of homelessness and the question of sustainability in social art practice. I approach these issues through my work with homeless service agencies that are shaped by rules and procedures intended to increase predictability, whereas, as an artist, my work resists such rigidity by carving out space for spontaneity, vulnerability, and renewal. The dilemma of sustaining socially engaged art long-term raises particular questions within the context of institutions such as these. Can a project be successful as a temporary intervention within systems of predictability? If a project does become sustainable in the long-term, is there a way it can retain a level of energy incited by newness and unexpectedness? I discuss these issues in the context of two of my long-term projects, Beauty in Transition (2013–2016) and Choreographing Care (2016–2021), both working within homeless service agencies. Beauty in Transition was a pop-up mobile hair salon offering free haircare for transitional housing residents. Choreographing Care, a project supporting homeless service staff, started as a socially engaged art project and was adopted into an emergency shelter in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.A as an organizational initiative. The ideas I discuss in this paper are supported and inspired by disciplines of research including care ethics of Gilligan, social behavioral science of Goffman, and approaches to participation discussed by Helguera and Kaprow.

Highlights

Whether artists are responsible for sustaining social art initiatives for the long term is a contested issue
Both projects are grounded in conditions particular to homelessness and the agencies that serve to address it. This paper explores these questions by elucidating the context of homeless service institutions and my own practice-based research, further analysis is needed to situate these projects within a broader discourse about temporality and ethics that has been discussed by critics and practitioners such as Claire Bishop, Grant
Choreographing Care aimed for a goal of staff health that necessitated system change and deep shifts to organizational priorities, which was not/could not be? achieved within the project’s constraints

Summary

Introduction

Whether artists are responsible for sustaining social art initiatives for the long term is a contested issue. With the rise in popularity of social arts practice, more artists are entering vulnerable communities and leaving once their project is completed, not always taking into consideration what happens next. With the rise in popularity of social arts practice, more artists are entering vulnerable communities and leaving once their project is completed, not always taking into consideration what happens This ‘here today gone tomorrow’ attitude can leave vulnerable communities back in the same position they started in, or as some may argue, worse off for having a glimpse of an unattainable utopia. The importance of resolving this ethical concern can be summarized in the controversy surrounding the Gramsci Monument, a project in a Bronx public housing project by Swiss artist Thomas. Gramsci Monument functioned as a community center that Bronx Forest. Whitney Kimball, writer for a well-known art blog Art F City mused, “

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