Art and Society

Photo: crowd scene
The gaze of the crowd.

This section looks at the changing relationships between art as a concept and artists as practioners within popular society. Fairground art and design draws from, and exemplifies, these relationships - from aspirational 'craft-centred' Victorian practices, through to a 1950s monopolisation of 'advertising as art', to the decentralised modern practices such as graffiti art and digital manipulation.