AMASS
Acting on the Margins. Arts as Social Sculpture.

AMASS – Acting on the Margin Arts as Social Sculpture – is a project founded by Horizon 2020 EU program.

The central problem AMASS addresses is that the arts have not been harnessed to face societal challenges through comparative and European-wide research, innovation, action, analysis, synthesis and policy development. This untapped potential of the arts undermines joint action between different artistic genres and geographic locations, and therefore also the advancement of the EU as a stronger global actor and the fostering of fundamental rights based on mutual trust and democratic change within the EU. The overall objective of the project is to address this European-wide lack of synthesis of the potential of the arts that can lead to generating alternative or unconventional solutions to societal challenges and policy development. The aim therefore will be to discover and analyze the underpinning structures that influence the functioning of the arts in societal challenges through arts-based ‘Research Innovation Action’. The challenges addressed by AMASS are geopolitically oriented: the future of work in creative, cultural and other sectors; radical ideologies and extremism; societal polarisation and stratification; lack of civil society participation; populism; migration.

This project will identify, explore, collate, evaluate and analyse existing and new innovative productions, experiments and case studies from the perspective and the physical positioning of European countries ‘on the margins’. AMASS, which is located in Europe’s often culturally underserved Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern regions, will set up 35 experiments in these peripheries to investigate the educational effects of the STEAM model in integrating the arts with science through participatory and multidisciplinary approaches. This will be accomplished through technologically enabled visual expressions and problem-based learning that will offer solutions to the geopolitical challenges, policy recommendations and developments that will foster inclusive, innovative and reflective societies.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870621.