Instructions for an Ordinary Utopia
- Submitting institution
-
University of the West of England, Bristol
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 2612536
- Type
- M - Exhibition
- Venue(s)
- Frome, Somerset
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first exhibition
- March
- Year of first exhibition
- 2014
- URL
-
http://foregroundprojects.org.uk/projects/instructions-for-an-ordinary-utopia/
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Research Process
Morrissey’s curatorial direction of Foreground’s 2014 project Instructions for an Ordinary Utopia was informed by a research imperative responding to the idea of place as both the generator of curatorial narratives and conceptual frameworks through which exhibitions are generated and artists commissioned to create new work.
Research Insights
Instructions for an Ordinary Utopia explores how incremental personal action can change communities and commonly held ideas. The curatorial framework that led to commissions within the project was inspired both by the town and the artists working directly with students from Frome Community College. Engaging with local communities, the curated works ranged in scale and form, including physical interventions in the urban fabric of the town and proposals and propositions for new ways of thinking about community spread through books, badges and banners.
Morrissey and Tom Bloor created two new temporary public sculptures which formed new social spaces in underused parts of the town. Ruth Proctor created a new motto for Frome; Something Wonderful Will Happen; a message of hope and aspiration manifesting like a political campaign in the town. Peter Liversidge’s book of Proposals for Frome contained ideas for social events, architectural alterations, artworks and performances created especially for the town, realised over the course of the project.
Research Dissemination
In addition to the exhibition of the project in Frome (2014), the project received strong regional coverage securing 16 articles and features in local and regional non-specialist media (Frome Life, The Frome Standard, The List Frome, Frome Times, The Fine Times Recorder) and two interviews on local radio (BBC Bristol, Frome FM).
Two substantial articles in specialist national and international art magazines (Art Papers Vol. 38, No. 4, July-August 2014, USA, and Art Monthly, UK) explored the project.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
