Social Practice Queens (SPQ) is a unique pedagogical experiment and educational platform that supports the integration of studio art with interdisciplinary research, community collaboration, environmental justice and critical urbanism. Founded in 2010, SPQ links together the resources of an academic institution, Queens College and the City University of New York (CUNY), and the long-standing community-based activism of the Queens Museum and other partnering institutions. SPQ’s goal is to initiate real-world change through practices of care, social intervention and aesthetic experimentation.

Selected SPQ projects include the book: Art As Social Action: An Introduction to the Principles and Practices of Teaching Social Practice Art, a collection of lesson plans and essays by leading figures within the field; SPQ Green Lab, a daylong series of environmental workshops on Governors Island in the summer or 2019; an Advanced Certificate in Critical Social Practice; and several related undergraduate courses including: Introduction to Socially Engaged Art (ARTS 333), Imaging Resistance: Photographic Media and Socially Engaged Art  (PHOTO 200), and Performance Studio (ARTS 394).

Every semester one or more seminars introduce students to the contemporary theory and methodologies emerging around social practice, as well as the development of critical theory and how it relates to their future role as cultural producers. SPQ supported seminars are often team-taught, partnering QC Art Department faculty experienced in social practice, with professors in adjacent disciplines, including the QC Urban Studies department, the Graduate Center and Hunter College, as well as with professionals outside the university system.

SPQ is deeply appreciative of the generous from the SHELLEY & DONALD RUBIN FOUNDATION