Art exhibitions and policy documents rarely share a room, but this project will systematically study how contemporary art shapes—and is shaped by—public policy. The problem is straightforward: research on how policies are made has focused almost entirely on scientific evidence and quantitative data, ignoring the role of the arts. Yet policymakers have long used art to interpret and govern societies. POLART fills this gap by examining, for the first time, the dynamic two-way relationship between art and policy-making. If successful, the project could change how governments approach complex social problems. Rather than relying solely on metrics and expert reports, policymakers might draw on artistic works to question established paths and imagine alternative solutions. The research will decode the "hybrid knowing spaces" where art and policy intersect—major international exhibitions, local arts initiatives, and national policy debates—to understand how art can mobilise policy change and shape political values toward more equitable governance. This is fundamental social science. There is no immediate practical application, but the work aims to establish an entirely new academic field—"Art and Public Policy"—whose insights could eventually influence how governments tackle 21st-century challenges.
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POLART will examine the relationship between art and policy through a double focus: an investigation of how art may produce policy knowledge 'that might be otherwise' (Law 2017) and how, conversely, policy issues have altered the contemporary artistic canon and forms of engagement. Our point of de-parture is that research has so far focused almost exclusively on the role of science and measurement in the production of policy, at the expense of an examination of how art can problematize the status-quo, question well-trodden paths, and offer alternative and imaginative ways of dealing with social problems. Although the relationship between art and policy-making is vastly under-explored, the arts have always been an essential element of how policy makers make sense of, interpret and hence gov-ern societies. POLART's daring promise is to develop interdisciplinary analysis that for the first time investigates the dynamic interrelationship of art and policy systematically. Through innovative methods, and at the crossroads of public policy, science and technology studies and the sociology of art, POLART will set the intellectual foundations of the novel 'Art and Public Policy' field. A major task of the study -and the field - will be the decoding of the material and performative 'hybrid knowing spaces' (Law 2017), as they emerge at the intersections of the art and the policy worlds. How do these aims translate in empirical terms? POLART will initially examine major international art exhibitions, in order to explore the relationship between art and policy problematization post-1989. Second, we will examine how, why and with what effects, the arts can mobilise policy change both at the global and local levels. Finally, we will explore how the arts may shape national/local policy mak-ers' political values towards the production of equitable and participatory governance, fit for the chal-lenges of the 21st century.
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