Acting on the Margins: Arts as Social Sc

The central problem AMASS addresses is that the arts has not been harnessed to address societal challenges through comparative and European-wide Research Innovation Action (RIA), analysis, synthesis and policy development. This untapped potential of the arts undermines joint action between different artistic genres and geographic locations, and thus the advancement of the EU as a stronger global actor, the fostering of fundamental rights based on mutual trust and democratic change within the EU. The overall objective of the project is to address this European-wide lack of synthesis of the potential of the arts that can lead to generating alternative or unconventional solutions to societal challenges and policy development. The aims thus will be to discover and analyse the underpinning structures that influence the functioning of arts in societal challenges (specifically SC6) through arts-based RIA. The challenges addressed by AMASS are geopolitically oriented: the future of work in creative, cultural and other sectors; radical ideologies and extremism; societal polarisation and stratification; lack of civil society participation; populism; migration.

This project will identify, explore, collate, evaluate and analyse existing and new innovative productions, experiments and case studies from the perspective and the physical positioning of the European countries “on the margins”. AMASS, which is located in Europe’s culturally often underserved Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern regions, will set up 35 experiments in these peripheries to investigate the educational effects of the STEAM model in integrating the arts with science through participatory and multidisciplinary approaches. This will be accomplished through technologically enabled visual expression and problem-based learning that will offer solutions to the geopolitical challenges, and policy recommendations and development that will foster inclusive, innovative and reflective societies.