Does art have to be beautiful? What if it can be useful instead?
Join Professor John Byrne as he presents Useful Art: How Activist Artists Can Change the World, a smart, provocative exploration of how the concept of "Useful Art" is helping artists and communities fight back against the neoliberal takeover of our spaces, services, and lives.
Professor of Useful Art at Liverpool John Moores University's School of Art and Design, John has spent over a decade at the forefront of research into art and use value, working with world-renowned artists and curators to explore how art can resist, engage with, or offer alternatives to global neoliberalism.
Interviewed by artist, theorist and educator Bill Balaskas, join us for an evening exploring how contemporary art can produce not only sharp questions but workable answers, how communities are using artistic practice to create tangible change, and what happens when we reconsider that enduring, urgent question: what is art for?
“Culture, resistance, community: Byrne has written an essential wayfinder that shows us how Useful Art can challenge the neoliberal occupation of our lives, drawing on global ideas to ‘dig where you stand’ for change.” Owen Griffiths, artist

The ‘stream and book’ package includes a unique ticket for the stream, and a copy of Useful Art (RRP £13.99) deliverable to any UK address.
The event will initially be broadcast on 22 January at 6.30pm UK time. It will be available to view up to two weeks after the event has ended and can be accessed Worldwide. If you live in a time zone that does not suit the initial broadcast time you can watch it at any point after the initial showing for two weeks.
If you have any questions, please email [email protected].