MA in Participatory Arts

Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh

“Participatory Arts” is an umbrella term that incorporates the practices of community arts, activist arts, arts-in-healthcare, as well as a plethora of other types of practices where artists work creatively within a social domain. As such, we don’t aim to define a single approach, but instead seek to support creative processes/skills operating within particular social contexts. This could include any creative practice (such as theatre, art, music, dance or puppetry, just to name a few) that does not exist in traditional spaces (such as museums, theatres or galleries) but rather is based alongside and with individuals and communities in the public domain.Over the past three decades within the UK, there has been a significant and sustained growth of the arts within a social context. Indeed, the current national cultural strategy in Scotland looks at embedding artistic and creative practices across numerous sectors, inviting artists, theatre makers, musicians and all creative practitioners to be productive within industry, business, education and social settings.