Limerick Institute of Technology

MA Social Practice and the Creative Environment (MA SPACE) is a vibrant, experimental level 9 programme, which focuses on Social Practice and the Creative Environment. The programme maintains a reputation as a world-class provider of postgraduate education in the field of social art practice/socially engaged art practice.

This taught MA programme is based on the study of the theory and practice of socially engaged creative practice and the production of work based on these principles. Social Art Practice has been described as art activism, critical art, socially engaged art, social practice art, activism, political art, participatory, dialogical or collaborative art. MA SPACE invites candidates from Art, Design and other related fields who are interested in creating art that addresses topics such as; Space and Place, Food Politics, Gender Politics, Ecology, Climate Change, environmental politics, Science and Art, Civil Rights, Globalization and Economics, Health, Trans-Global Movement, Labour and Land Politics and more.

MA SPACE offers a strong theoretical and critical grounding in the area of social practice. It equips postgraduates with appropriate research skills, educates in the roles participants will play within communities/situations/spaces, and ultimately, offers a deep level of authentic experience and situated learning through the delivery and documentation of a self-chosen social practice project.

MA SPACE is delivered by both LSAD staff and a varied range of visiting lecturer specialists through a mix of active learning, field research and engagement in the wider world. The core teaching staff are high profile practicing artist's in the field of Social Art Practice. MA SPACE also has a panel of visiting artists and practitioners, both national and international, who lecture on the programme providing diverse exemplars of social art and design practice.

This taught programme is designed to fulfil student demand from art, design and related fields, nationally and internationally. This is a one-year full-time/2 year part-time taught MA programme, multidisciplinary in nature, which focuses on the growing area of social practice.

This innovative MA programme is distinctive in that;

It is focused on Social Practice
It is delivered through theory and practice
It is open to practitioners of art and design
It is also open to experienced graduates outside of the art and design fields.

MA SPACE students will immerse themselves in a challenging seminar programme which supports their engagement in a range of theoretical dialogues encompassing the position of artists, designers, cultural practitioners and other engaged disciplines in contemporary society.

An important element of this programme is a wider public engagement in the process. This is an opportunity for postgraduate students to apply their knowledge and abilities to initiate, develop, and complete a Social Practice project.

The aims of the MA SPACE programme are to:

•Build on the MA SPACE reputation as a world-class provider of postgraduate education in the field of social art practice/socially engaged art practice.

•Develop the LSAD focus on art education towards a more contemporary, collaborative and adaptive level.

•Offer a specialisation in social practice that leads the growing significance of the discipline within contemporary art and design practice.

•Produce students who can think, act, manage and collaborate at an appropriate post-graduate level.

•MA SPACE graduates form a new network of creative professionals.

•Respond in a more focussed way to the needs of broader society, the city and beyond.

•Ensure that postgraduate students will work closely with cultural, educational, voluntary and public and community partners.