The series of post-graduate exhibitions at the Deakin University Art Gallery have highlighted specific aspects of contemporary arts research and the role of art practice in communities and culture. This exhibition in particular focuses on the increasing move towards social practice which is participatory and looks to engage community concerns. Increasingly over the last decades, the arts have recognized and embraced the fact that the sites and processes in which knowledge is acquired and produced impacts upon collective values. The Art and Performance group at Deakin, both staff and students, understand the challenges faced by practitioners, to collectively shape the environment and interrogate the way value is assigned. All contributors to collective knowledge are tasked with these challenges however the creative arts offer a particular approach to practice-led research and to the co-creation of meaning.
