The Art of Engagement ─ Culture, Collaboration, Innovation

Through nine essays, Lally (Centre for Cultural Research at the U. of Western Sydney) and other arts and communication scholars from Europe and Australia examine arts-business-community collaborations that move beyond conventional models of engagement to align business strategies with arts practices and involve communities. They explore the C3West experiment, a collaboration between Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art and three cultural institutions there, which commissioned Australian and international artists Craig Walsh, Sylvie Blocher and Campement Urbain, Ash Keating, and Jeanne can Heeswijk to produce art in partnership with businesses in Western Sydney, including a rugby league club and two environmental and waste management companies. They focus on the engagement process, its complexities, and different ways it occurs and is experienced, discussing how the artists used various approaches and ideas to produce different aesthetic and social effects. Essays in the last section discuss international efforts of collaborative and process-based contemporary art. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)