Applied Practice

Engaging with a diversity of contexts, locations and arts forms - including theatre, music and fine art - this collection brings together theoretical, political and practice-based perspectives on the question of ''evidence'' in relation to arts practice in social context. Chapters critically interrogate the potential of approaches ranging from narrative case studies to randomised control trials and ethnographic performance. Case studies include, among others, singing in prisons, music and mental health and community theatre in South Africa. For those involved with the arts in social contexts there often exists a powerful sense of the value and impact of the work. First-hand experience provides examples of how the arts can provide new opportunities, change lives and forge community connections across a diversity of contexts from education to hospitals, mental health to prisons. However, while arts in social context projects are frequently able to produce stories of tremendous impacts, in the context of reduced and competitive budgets such evidence is often of the wrong sort or not ''enough''.This collection is a unique contribution to the field, focusing on one of the vital concerns for a growing and developing set of arts and research practices. It asks us to consider evidence not only in terms of methodology but also in the light of the ideological, political and pragmatic implications of that methodology.