Social Assembly — ARRC: Art Residency Research Collective

The Social Assembly takes the form of a shared meal —a communal lunch or dinner or tea and biscuits—designed as a time-based space for encounter within each residency in its broader context. Here, we imagine all parties will come to the table: residency runners, staff, artists in residence at the time, others dwelling or working in the community. Gathering around food creates an atmosphere of hospitality and equality, where institutional roles soften and conversation can unfold with greater openness.

This Assembly is carefully facilitated around several questions that intersect the concerns of the host organisation, the invited artist’s research, and the lived realities of the local community. The meal becomes more than a social gesture; it becomes a setting for collective inquiry.

The intention is not to produce agreement or resolution. Instead, the Social Assembly values the articulation of diverse perspectives, the emergence of frictions, and the recognition of shared uncertainties. Through conversation, listening and conviviality, the gathering strengthens relational bonds and situates the residency within its broader social fabric. In doing so, it affirms that artistic research does not unfold in isolation, but in continuous exchange with the communities and environments that host it.

The presence of ARRC at this gathering, as objective parties, will help us all to assess more closely how each residency “lives” and imagines with and for its specific partners in conjoint context.