The Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts is a philanthropic collaboration between 11 leading European foundations that champions the power of socially engaged arts in driving positive social change across Europe. The Alliance’s activities include scaling recognition and support for the socially engaged arts (SEA) field, and to advance this work, the Alliance has commissioned a major research project reviewing the ecosystem of socially engaged arts in Europe.
The research aims to map and weave together the diversity of socially engaged arts practices driving social change, cohesion and citizen-led action across the Council of Europe area, and produce insights that will:
- deepen understanding about the challenges and needs the sector is facing;
- increase the sector’s visibility within and beyond the arts and cultural field; and
- help to shape future support and policies so that the sector can thrive.
The research will be published as a report in 2026.
You are invited to contribute if you are an arts organisation and relate in some way to the following definition of “socially engaged arts”: Socially engaged arts are collaborative, community-centred practices where artists and participants co-create artistic responses to social, environmental, and political issues. Instead of focusing on art as a material creation or experience presented to audiences, SEAs emphasise process, dialogue, and collective action, fostering local ownership, social cohesion, and active citizenship through art.
Terminology varies across Europe. Organisations and practitioners may refer to community arts, participatory arts, civic arts, citizen arts, artivism - or may avoid labels altogether. The Alliance uses ‘socially engaged arts’ as an umbrella term.
