Synopsis

What can art do? What should art do? What can art be?

These questions sit at the heart of socially-engaged art practices. As a form that prioritises participation, community, and lived experience, socially-engaged art operates beyond traditional aesthetics, often responding to urgent social, political, and economic realities.

Can such work exist outside institutional support, or does it inevitably require resources from galleries, museums, and funding bodies? How do we measure its impact when its effects may be intangible or long-term? And most importantly, how do we ensure that socially-engaged practices will foster genuine, non-extractive collaboration with communities, rather than reinforcing existing hierarchies of power?

About Pooja Sood

Pooja is a founding member and Director of Khoj International Artists’ Association, a not-for-profit society committed to experimentation and exchange in the visual arts in India. Under her stewardship, Khoj has grown from an annual event in 1997 to a vibrant building-based institution which plays a central role in the development of experimental, interdisciplinary and critical contemporary art practice in India and South Asia. She is on the Advisory Board of the Prince Claus Foundation (2023-2026), a member of the International Programme Advisory Committee of IFACCA( 2024-25) and on the Board of Public Arts Trust of India, Jaipur.

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