That is to say, practices that are “social” enable a social group to survive and thrive under existing social conditions.

At this point, it is important to take our analysis of these terms to the next level by asking a crucial question. What social practices do communities adapt to not merely reproduce themselves under existing conditions? But rather, what social practices become tools for transforming social conditions?

"Ultra-red members have come to define “social practices” in ways that diverge sharply from contemporary art discourse. Once we understand “social practices” within a framework of struggle, it becomes immediately clear that one’s participation is not based on authorship of a social practice. Rather, a practice, if it is “social,” has no individual author."
Cara Baldwin, Dont Rhine, Ultra-red.

The Creative Playground, an initiative of LDD founder Angelina Kumar, is an open-air green space situated at The Westplein in Utrecht. The Creative Playground will kickstart and inspire a sustainable hub at the Westplein through art and creativity. With a mandate from the Gemeente Utrecht, together with our partners Perron West and the Pluktuin we are joining up to curate a 5-month public art program in the summer of 2021. The Creative Playground offers visitors from the surrounding area a multi-diverse experience in this space. From a place that contrasts the busy city surroundings like an oasis in the desert, with a sculpture garden and pluktuin, to discovering and engaging in new creative sustainable projects through artistic events and upcycling workshops in a functional train wagon and tinkering workspace in a refurbished container.

Relevance: The Creative Playground is a valuable extension to the art strip on the Croeselaan. While the artworks on the Croeselaan showcase classical art forms and have been placed with a sustainable intention, The Creative Playground, will represent the active alive forms of art that welcomes interaction, participation and playfulness during its creative process. Art that captures current, relevant themes and topics in a way that visitors can participate. The projects and events hosted at The Creative Playground are aimed to stimulate organic crossover connections and interactions around the themes of art and the global sustainable goals together with the local public.
Activities
In collaboration with our partners and the local community we organize activities to cultivate The Creative Playground into a place that exudes active, alive, engaging, experiences with relevant forms of social art and sustainability.
We will do so by
A. hosting an art residency program for starting artists working on the intersection of art and social interaction.
B. giving workshops on art and sustainability
C. creating a meeting space through a publicly accessible sculpture garden and pick-your-own flower garden

Doelgroep: the broad demographic surrounding the Westplein location - the local community of Lombok, the corporate development projects, etc - and young artists in The Netherlands and beyond.
Stakeholders: Gemeente Utrecht, Perron West, Green Business Club of Utrecht, LA LA Foundation.
Duration: July – November 2021


Art residency program, workshops and sculpture garden:
For 5 months, The Creative Playground will host a residency program for (emerging) artists working at the intersection of art and social interaction.
The purpose of the residency is to respond to the need for more art spaces in Utrecht that support artists who are engaged in social and crafted art. It provides a direct connection for them to work with a wider audience. Through the artists' activities, a bridge will be created as a meeting place to this green island and surrounding spaces.
LDD selected 11 artists, including art duos, who responded to an Open Call for artists who have a public-facing, interactive and social artistic practice. We selected a combination of local and international Netherlands-based artists to appeal to a wide range of people.
This diverse group of artists was selected because of their interactive approach and because the themes of their proposed residency, workshop and event ideas are intertwined with the global sustainable goals central to The Creative Playground. Each artist and group will explore different perspectives, actions and interactions in the field of community-based art, such as through group activities such as storytelling, sculpture making, or simply cutting and pasting and spending time with nature. In a multifaceted way, this group of artists will provide different entry points and meeting points for the communities living in the surrounding area of West Square. It will offer new encounters and experiences for both the artists and the public.

(Click here to view the full application in Dutch)

Background of The Creative Playground.

We would like to explain where the idea for this outdoor art project space originated.
To begin with, LDD’s vision is to bring circularity and sustainability from within the arts to make a positive impact in society. By walking the walk of practical engagements, we aim to inspire and transform the art and cultural sector with long-term behavioural change and a mindset towards sustainability.
https://lucrativedumpsterdives.nl/

In September and October 2020, LDD hosted a 2-month art residency in Westplein, Lombok sponsored by Initiatievenfonds. The residency was conducted in collaboration with Perron West Stichting, which believes that with a diverse collection of socially involved residents, entrepreneurs and initiators, they can make the Lombok district and the city of Utrecht more beautiful, sustainable, social and lively. https://perronwest.nl/open-call-for-artists-and-creatives/

This residency was conducted as a pilot project exploring ways to bring more engagement and inclusivity through art into Lombok and the surrounding area. It was a good learning period for our team to gauge the needs, desires and level of interests for the involvement of the residence, creative makers and artists in the neighbourhood. The artists involved found innovative ways to reach out and make connections within the neighbourhood through their socially engaged art projects, despite the corona restrictions. For the residency a shipping container was acquired to host the artists and it will now remain in the space for up to a year.

What was highlighted by the local initiatives that we wanted to collaborate with, such as De Voorkamer and the artists, was the need and desire for a long-term creative program. This program would make it easier for our target groups to plan and incorporate their participation in advance, thereby increasing the prospects of their regular and customised engagement. Also due to the corona rules, opportunities and spaces for artists to experiment, exhibit and connect to wider audiences in Utrecht has been limited more than ever before. Therefore, LDD and Perron West were inspired to design and develop this cohesive community-based art project “The Creative Playground”. In order to regularly host inclusive activities, art and social events in this central open space, the Westplein. We believe that the Creative Playground will create more opportunities in the cultural field for making new connections and possibilities while enhancing and complement the goals and vision made by the Gemeente Utrecht for the Westplein location. We also see this as a positive testing ground to play with concepts of circularity and sustainability bringing them from within the art and cultural sector into society.

In this podcast Bart talks to Angelina Kumar about sustainability and art. What is sustainability actually? And how can sustainability also be a lifestyle. She also talks about The Creative Playground, a new meeting place on the Westplein.

“For things to be sustainable they have to keep adapting and responding creatively to their current environment.” – The Biggest Little Farm Film

- Lara Khaldi, in reference to the project she is involved in for Documenta 2022 working with different collectives’ artists and other collectives from Indonesia Jakarta.

(Click here to read parts of our conversation on this subject.)

Learning from other social examples through reading, visitations and participation.

(Click here for some references)

(23rd February 2021)

By making funding application in a format that is business like, with a theory for how to write it, structure it, plan it and budget etc. The expectation themselves goes hand and glove with foundation of capitalism. After all you are asking for money. The Fact that most artists and creative makers hardly get the opportunity to learn how these structures are set up, automatically makes them depended upon those from the 'Arts and Economics' departments of life. They are trained to navigate the linear/economic system. They are not connected during their study to collaborate and work with artists and makers, but to engaged with the business world, creating a vast divide between those that are more fluid and sensitive in their process and that aren't easily moulded into a system or format. Or that are expected to find a way to be presented and represented within these formats and structural parameters. And so, it is that these delicate, sensitive, time-based process become in conflicted with the speedy, structured, reliable format that are essential to monetary transactions. What occurs is this feeds into various yet similar ventures that tend to take place. Each sort of reflecting or representing part of what sustainability should be but not going deeper or really challenging the structures that are deeply ingrained in these systems and frameworks that the ventures are embedded in. I find myself in a similar position all the time with my artistic practice that also entails a new artistic, cultural venture for sustainability.

It's difficult to go deeper because to do this you need to go slower, you need to zoom out and into the systems that are set in place, there needs to be new visions, that connects and disconnects, tests, experiments, proposes, tries, fails, works with others, nurtures a much more. This can seem disruptive but is a necessary approach in order to truly shift from the structure that have already set the destructive approach that were set within*. (* https://medium.com/disruptive-design/tools-for-systems-thinkers-getting-into-systems-dynamics-and-bathtubs-1f961f7c4073 )

(23rd February 2021)
By making funding application in a format that is business like, with a theory for how to write it, structure it, plan it and budget etc. The expectation themselves goes hand and glove with foundation of capitalism. After all you are asking for money. The Fact that most artists and creative makers hardly get the opportunity to learn how these structures are set up, automatically makes them depended upon those from the 'Arts and Economics' departments of life. They are trained to navigate the linear/economic system. They are not connected during their study to collaborate and work with artists and makers, but to engaged with the business world, creating a vast divide between those that are more fluid and sensitive in their process and that aren't easily moulded into a system or format. Or that are expected to find a way to be presented and represented within these formats and structural parameters. And so, it is that these delicate, sensitive, time-based process become in conflicted with the speedy, structured, reliable format that are essential to monetary transactions. What occurs is this feeds into various yet similar ventures that tend to take place. Each sort of reflecting or representing part of what sustainability should be but not going deeper or really challenging the structures that are deeply ingrained in these systems and frameworks that the ventures are embedded in. I find myself in a similar position all the time with my artistic practice that also entails a new artistic, cultural venture for sustainability.

It's difficult to go deeper because to do this you need to go slower, you need to zoom out and into the systems that are set in place, there needs to be new visions, that connects and disconnects, tests, experiments, proposes, tries, fails, works with others, nurtures a much more. This can seem disruptive but is a necessary approach in order to truly shift from the structure that have already set the destructive approach that were set within*.

(* https://medium.com/disruptive-design/tools-for-systems-thinkers-getting-into-systems-dynamics-and-bathtubs-1f961f7c4073 )

Fair Practice Code, Governance Culture Code, Diversity and Inclusion Code