- Collectivity
#WithForAbout
A different kind of conference. Each year we invite colleagues and comrades from the UK and beyond to the town of St Helens to discuss, the role of art in the modern world.
With For About is an annual gathering Heart of Glass have been experimenting with since our inception. Through this model, we aim to create a space to discuss and reflect on the fierce and urgent questions facing collaborative and social art today, and more broadly reflect on the role of art and artists in civil society.
With For About is not a Heart of Glass showcase, but a moment of public critical reflection for colleagues, comrades and communities of interest. Different from a traditional conference, it invites speakers, practitioners and attendees to provoke and reflect critically with us. We call this process ‘researching in public’.
2024: When words fail us
Tickets are now on sale for our 2024 event, where we'll be joined by practitioners of socially engaged arts, youth work, feminist organizing, and climate justice including Susanne Bosch, Taey Iohe, Sophie Mak-Schram and Dannielle Mc Kenna, to explore how we can come together when words are not enough.
2023: Care and the Commons
In 2023, we reflected on the interconnectedness between humans, nature, place and land within the context of conflicting crises, with contributors including: Sean Roy Parker, Frances Disley, Grace Collins, Taey Iohe, Liz Posthlethwaite, Lucy Powell and Fiona Whelan.
With For About 2020
Our fifth annual conference was curated by Cecilia Wee and the vacuum cleaner, responding to the additional challenges that Covid-19 created for many marginalised people and communities.
Visit the dedicated website to watch a series of discussions from the event.
2019: Art and Democracy
The fourth annual conference asked "is art, and the making of art, the last frontier in the fight for democracy and the realisation of civil society?" and closed with the launch of Praxis 2: The Town As Arts Centre.
2018: Making a Meal of it
In April 2018, over 120 participants were invited to collectively produce a dinner, facilitated by artists Joshua Sofaer, idle women, Claire Weetman, Chrissie Tiller, Mark Storor, Eggs Collective, Cathy Cross and Heather Morison.
This event was the fifth Staging Post of the Collaborative Arts Partnership Programme (CAPP) - an ambitious transnational cultural programme focusing on the dynamic area of collaborative arts across Europe.
2017: Art, Activism and Community
In May 2017 we partnered with Axisweb, idle women and Chrissie Tiller to host the second iteration of the conference With For About.
With for About 2015
For our first With For About, 73 artists, producers, caretakers, educators, participants and commissioners gathered to talk and share ideas in St Helens Town Hall.
The event aimed to create a space to explore validation, working in context, public art and publics and approaches to professional development.
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