The Arts in Society Research Network

The Arts in Society Research Network had two beginnings. The first took place in Australia, when Peter Sellars, then Artistic Director of the Adelaide Festival, collaborated with William Cope and Mary Kalantzis to organize an experimental symposium on the role of the arts in civic life. This early initiative positioned art as a space for public dialogue, inclusion, and creative citizenship. The second origin emerged in Edinburgh, where Tressa Berman, a cultural anthropologist and curator, convened a companion event in partnership with the Edinburgh Festival. That gathering in 2006 brought together artists, theorists, and educators to examine the arts as a form of knowledge and participation—establishing the foundation for the international, interdisciplinary community that would follow.

From these twin beginnings, the Network evolved into a global conversation. Early conferences in Kassel, Birmingham, and Venice, followed by later meetings in Berlin, Rome, London, and Los Angeles, built its reputation as an intellectually rigorous and creatively vibrant platform. Each host institution—from Sydney College of the Arts and The American University of Paris to Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Universidad San Jorge, and Hanyang University—has contributed new perspectives and collaborations, linking regional practices to an expanding global discourse.

In 2009, Mario Minichiello (University of Newcastle, Australia) assumed the role of Chair, guiding the Network through a dynamic period that emphasized the applied and communicative arts—design, visual storytelling, and illustration—as vehicles for public engagement and creative enterprise. His tenure strengthened the Network’s connections between studio practice, education, and creative industry, broadening its reach across design disciplines.

Barbara Formis (Université Paris 1 Panthéon–Sorbonne, France) succeeded Minichiello in 2014, ushering in a new era focused on performance philosophy, embodiment, and aesthetics. Under her leadership, the Network deepened its engagement with contemporary artistic theory and practice, exploring how art operates as a lived and social form of thought.

Throughout its history, the Network has welcomed distinguished and emerging voices shaping the conversation on art and society. Plenary speakers have included Sir Brian McMaster (Director, Edinburgh International Festival), Aaron Levy (Director, Slought Foundation, USA), Judy Chicago, Suzanne Anker, Nina Czegledy, Ruth Catlow, Etienne Turpin, Peter Sellars, and Delfim Sardo, among others—each contributing insight into the arts as sites of critique, imagination, and social renewal.

Today, under the co-chairship of Daniel Tucker (artist, curator, and educator) and Dra. Pilar Irala-Hortal (Universidad San Jorge, Zaragoza, España), the Network continues to expand its partnerships with universities, cultural institutions, and festivals around the world. Tucker’s leadership emphasizes socially engaged art and civic imagination, while Irala-Hortal’s work in photography, visual culture, and collective memory brings renewed attention to the arts as tools of documentation, reflection, and cultural identity.

Across nearly two decades, the Arts in Society Research Network has become a global meeting point for scholarship and creative practice—linking art, research, and community in a shared exploration of how the arts shape the contemporary human experience.

• 2006 - Arts of Engagement, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland
• 2007 - Art and Education, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany
• 2008 - Illustrating Life, Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, Birmingham, UK
• 2009 - Making Worlds, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venice, Italy
• 2010 - The Beauty of Distance: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
• 2011 - ArteFacts: Knowledge is Art – Art is Knowledge, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Berlin, Germany
• 2012 - Hospitality, Art and Design Academy, John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
• 2013 - Arts-Based Research and Technology: New Possibilities for Reaching the Public, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
• 2014 - The Lives of Art, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
• 2015 - The Work of Art in the Age of Networked Society, Imperial College, London, UK
• 2016 - The Practice of Art in the Age of the Anthropocene, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
• 2017 - Gestures That Matter, The American University of Paris, Paris, France
• 2018 - How Art Makes Things Happen—Situating Social Practice in Research, Practice, and Action, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, Canada
• 2019 - Art as Communication: The Impact of Art as a Catalyst for Social Change, Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
• 2020 - Against the Grain: Arts and the Crisis of Democracy, NUI Galway, Galway, Ireland (Virtual)
• 2021 - Voices from the Edge: Negotiating the Local in the Global, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia (Virtual)
  
• 2022 - History/Histories: From the Limits of Representation to the Boundaries of Narrative, San Jorge University, Zaragoza, Spain
  
• 2023 - New Aesthetic Expressions: The Social Role of Art, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
  
• 2024 - Art for Sustenance, Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea
• 2025 - The Art of Hospitality, Center for the Arts in Society, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA