Interview with Lucey Smalley
When and why did you start working with participatory art? Was it out of your own need, on your own initiative or through an invitation, assignment or other reason?
I started working with participatory art during my Masters programme. Pedagogy and social practice were key components of the course and encouraged me to start seeing my work and ideas in a new light.
What do you believe are the artistic qualities of working with others?
I think that as an artist working socially you need to be able to adapt to changing situations, you have to be willing to be vulnerable and you need to be open to unplanned collaboration. Often the projects themselves will then consequently have some degree of openness and fluidity to them. I think you need to offer plenty of space.
When you think of working with others, what are you thinking of?
It’s important for me to think about the needs or requirements of the group or potential audience, what kind of relationship they are likely to have to art and how I can possibly bring in something new or helpful.
How do you experience the conditions for your work with participatory art?
I find it hard to navigate around as I come from an art education background, which is so often (unsurprisingly, traditionally) bound up with ideas of a 'teacher' teaching something. It’s very close to many ideas about socially engaged practice, and makes it much harder to draw the line than if I was, for example, doing my job and working with sculpture as artistic practice. It’s often difficult to explain why there isn’t a known learning outcome in the work, or a tangible end product. From the other side, I often have cases of imposter syndrome and find it hard to justify why I should be described as an ‘artist’ rather than someone working within the art education field.
Do you enjoy participating in other people's art projects as an active audience? How does it make you feel?
It depends on the nature of the participation, what’s being asked of me and how I feel at the time. I generally enjoy participatory projects but I find it difficult to commit fully to something that I find uncomfortable. This might be why the participatory art and workshops I’ve done in the past tend to allow people to retreat into their own bubble!
How do you assess whether a participatory project is successful or not? How does it feel when it is successful, what is the gain for you?
This is a difficult one but I think you can judge a fair bit by energies. There will be times when you get feedback directly, but often it’s hard to know what people really think. I’ve learnt to judge success partially by the way that people behave afterwards - if they are in a good mood, if they’re frustrated, if they’re tired, feeling energetic etc. The best moments for me have been when my workshops create some kind of contagious lightness, when people are laughing and feeling good.
Do you have a target group that you usually turn to or that you are more interested in working with? If you are addressing an inexperienced art audience, what is your drive to specifically work with them?
I prefer working with adults who aren’t brought together by their relationship with art. It’s more interesting to me to work with community groups outside of art spaces that may otherwise be hesitant to engage with art and art making processes. I’ve recently completed a course about Dementia and the Arts and am looking for potential ways I can use participatory art in the context of post-diagnosis dementia support.
What would you like to get out of a network and a platform for participatory art?
I’m still really new to this and would love to see and hear about the work of others in the field. There are so many different approaches to participatory art and I think that creating a platform for discussion and exploration is an important way to develop artistic practice and make space for collaboration.