Socially Engaged Public Art with Meiqin Wang, Hong Kal, and Minna Valjakka

Today's podcast features a conversation about art, politics, and public space with Dr. Meiqin Wang, Dr. Hong Kal, and Dr. Minna Valjakka. We came together to discuss the new book Socially Engaged Public Art in East Asia: Space, Place, and Community in Action, published this year by Vernon Press. Meiqin served as the editor of the volume, and all three of this episode's guests contributed chapters to the project. The book includes case studies from across East Asia. As Grant Kester writes in his Foreword to the volume, the book “offers the first comprehensive survey of new forms of socially engaged art in the region.” The following conversation explores the importance of public art as a mode of political engagement, urban contestation, and community action.

Dr. Wang is a Professor of Art History at California State University, Northridge; Dr. Hong Kal is Associate Professor in the department of Visual Art and Art History at York University; and Dr. Minna Valjakka is Professor in contemporary art history and theory from a global perspective at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.