Emotional labour of social practice artists: moving towards sustainable collective care

This article explores the emotional labour of social practice artists. It does so in order to consider creative approaches to care and well-being that will enable artists to practise more safely and sustainably. It reflects on various forms of labour involved in artmaking – from craft and artisanal labour to intellectual, immaterial, affective and relational labour – before reporting on the perspectives of social practice artists concerning the emotional labour involved in their work. Their views were collected first using a questionnaire and then a online forum. This work was carried out during an exploratory interdisciplinary project in 2022, conducted by an art historian and clinical research psychologist, funded by University College London, and in partnership with the Social Art Network (SAN). The reporting of this project and critical reflections on labour is timely given the ongoing governmental and council cuts to funding for primary care services in the United Kingdom, which will increase the need and workload of artists through such initiatives as social prescribing. Concurrently, arts and culture funding is being slashed. This article lays the groundwork for exploring emotional labour to inform future developments of infrastructures of collective care for social practice artists and, indeed, communities at large.