Join us on Thursday 22nd October, 6:30–8:30pm for Practising Civic Learning, a discussion and workshop facilitated by curators Agnese Politi and Giulia Menegale, with researcher Andy Belfield (public works).

Bringing together questions of access to space, funding, and long-term resources across the arts sector, this session considers how cultural workers might develop alternative infrastructures that are shared, collectively governed, and responsive to their specific contexts. Combining conversation and workshop, the session draws on the organising practices and experience of R-Urban Poplar, an eco-civic hub on the Teviot Estate in Tower Hamlets.

The first part invites participants to exchange tactics for confronting the increasingly precarious conditions of artistic and cultural practice in the UK and internationally.

Drawing on R-Urban’s experience, the second focuses on collectively developing methodologies and tools for sharing resources, fostering solidarity-based exchange, and building the alliances and organisational structures needed to sustain cultural work over time.

This free event will take place at Auto Italia. To book, follow the link here or email info@artworkassociation.org

The event is part of Giulia Menegale’s research project Beyond Institutional Critique: Southern Epistemologies and the Reconfiguration of Institutional Debates granted by Creativita Contemporanea of the Italian Ministry of Culture  under the Italian Council programme (2026).