Getting to know the island: Artistic experiments in rural community development

AbstractThis paper makes an original contribution to our understandings of the relational role of artistic practice as part of rural community development. Art-led initiatives are now commonplace in rural development strategies. However, the effects of art in rural community, particularly beyond economic development, have received little attention. In this paper we seek to address this omission by exploring artistic experiments as part of community development processes. Theoretically, we draw on relational understandings of art from art studies. Empirically, the paper utilises data collected through a one-year experimental study involving ethnography and artistic interventions in the community of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in the north east of England. By directing our consideration of art via Liepins' framework (2000a) for ‘reading’ the community, we reveal artistic practice itself as a way to ‘read relationships’. Rather than a tool for solving community problems, we conceptualise artistic practice as a ‘diagnostic’