Integrated researcher Vanessa Ribeiro-Rodrigues was invited by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (CGF) to write the third volume of “Art and Community” notebooks series and reflect upon the international conference “Building Capacities: rethinking the social value of culture”, hosted at the CGF on 6 June 2022, in partnership with the European project Traction.
Divided into seven chapters, the notebook summarises the ideas and practices discussed at the conference moderated by her, reflects on experiences encountered, and emphasises “the social value of culture in building community capacities”, where discourse, action and civic participation shape policy to create a place of individual and collective transformation. It is increasingly clear the role art can play in helping individuals gain skills and confidence, and also in strengthening social inclusion or a sense of community. But what might this mean for artists, researchers or policymakers? Does it imply burdening culture with inappropriate social obligations? Or is it rather a matter of reimagining relationships between those who create art and those who experience it, recognising that the old boundary between these groups is now porous? Such questions were explored in this international conference, co-organised by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and Traction, an interdisciplinary research project that develops new digital technologies for the co-creation of operas with the communities of Barcelona, Dublin and Leiria – Youth Prison.
The notebook is available in digital format in Portuguese and English, and is free of charge.