Literature/Guides: Playing for Time: Making art as if the world mattered

Introduction

In her book Playing for Time (available from Oberon Books Ltd.) theatre maker and artist Lucy Neal explores the pivotal role that artists play in different social contexts, particularly in times of uncertainty and systemic change. The handbook, written with over 60 artists, identifies collaborative arts practices in a range of community contexts and provides a useful breakdown of principles and practice for adaptation.

The below video shows Lucy Neal’s lecture at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in the UK which outlines key themes in the book, including the development of a ‘transitional arts practice’ that is able to draw on people’s creativity and imagination to develop artistic practices in a range of everyday settings. She also highlights the importance of play for creativity and learning.

Full Lecture

Caption: Lucy Neal’s lecture at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in the UK. Credit: Lucy Neal (2015) and RSA. This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Lecture Summary

Caption: A short 6 minute version of Lucy Neal’s lecture at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in the UK. This video gives a sense of the scope of the presentation, though inevitably without some of the detailed examples and the discussion afterwards. Credit: Lucy Neal (2015) and RSA. This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This resource came out of the 2016 Wellcome Trust Art of Health: exploring creative engagement with health Research workshop. Visit the workshop page on Mesh for more resources like this plus information on the workshop and its outcomes.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License