Artists and The City Masterclass with Jeanne van Heeswijk

Create and Fire Station Artists’ Studios (FSAS) Artists and The City programme strand is concerned with collaborative practice and the city. Enquiries include how do artists engage with the city, and what role does collaborative, socially engaged arts play in animating greater engagement with key issues of sustainable development, accessible public spaces, equitable housing policies, playful spaces and spatial justice?
We are delighted to announce a masterclass with Jeanne van Heeswijk, a leading practitioner in the field of collaborative arts and the city. This masterclass will act as a significant opportunity for socially engaged artists and those from other sectors to engage in an in-depth exploration and learning environment about art, artists and the city and how socially engaged arts practice can make the conditions for change to happen.

Jeanne van Heeswijk is an artist who facilitates the creation of dynamic and diversified public spaces in order to “radicalize the local.” Her long-scale community-embedded projects question art’s autonomy by combining performative actions, discussions, and other forms of organizing and pedagogy in order to assist communities to take control of their own futures.
Recent Projects include Philadelphia Assembled (2014 – 2017), a collaborative endeavour with The Philadelphia Museum of Art and collaborators across the city, and Trainings for the Not-Yet (2018 – 2020); an exhibition as a series of trainings in in civic engagement, radical collectivity, and active empowerment, the project brings together collaborators from various fields and communities to create and practice alternative imaginings of being together in the face of the pressing emergencies that shape the world today.
Other notable projects include The Blue House (2005-2010) and Homebaked (2010 – ongoing) commissioned by the Liverpool Biennial. Awards include The inaugural Keith Haring Fellowship in Art and Activism at Bard College in 2014 and the Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change, 2011. www.jeanneworks.net