Within these pages you will find digital content related to The Art + Social Practice Archive, which was founded and organized by Shoshana Gugenheim Kedem, Roshani Thakore, Lo Moran and Harrell Fletcher, with the help of Cristine Paschild, the Head of Special Collections & University Archives, and Marti Clemmons, Archives Technician, in honor of the PSU Art and Social Practice MFA program’s 10 year anniversary. The archive has grown with the assistance of many students and interns.

PSU’s Art and Social Practice MFA is a 3-year, flexible residency program that combines individual research, group work, and experiential learning. The program’s blend of critical and professional practice, progressive pedagogy, collaborative social engagement, and transdisciplinary exploration produces an immersive educational environment.

This is the first public archive of ephemera related to art and social practice, “an artistic approach that emphasizes collaboration, shared authorship, public participation, site-specificity, and interdisciplinarity, is often presented in non-art locations, and has no media or formal boundaries” (Harrell Fletcher).

The original accession of the archive focuses on work related to artists who have graduated or who are a part of the PSU Art and Social Practice MFA program, but as artwork comes in, the archives content will expand to include socially engaged artists and projects from all over the world. As we know, it is the only official public archive for social practice ephemera.

If you are interested in submitting materials to the archive, contact artandsocialpracticearchive@gmail.com.

In addition to the digital content found here, the Art +Social Practice Archive has a collection of physical materials not yet represented here. It can be accessed by contacting Special Collections at the Portland State University Library (specialcollections@pdx.edu). View the most recent finding aid created by Marti Clemmons with a list of artists and projects in the physical archive here.

Follow the project @artandsocialpracticearchive.