Article relating to an individual, 2014
Published by: International Journal of Art & Design Education
Year published: 2014
Number of pages: 12
ISBN: ISSN 1476-8062 (print)

A substantial and important text by Edge, “Off Limits: Cultural Participation and Art Education” appeared in the International Journal of Art & Design Education, Volume 33 Number 3, 2014. The text was based on a conference address, given by Edge, at the International Journal of Art & Design Education’s 2013 Conference, which took as its theme Art for Life: Race, Gender, Disability and Class - Critical Discourses around Participation in Arts Education.

A cropped portrait of Edge, Bonus Ball, commissioned ICA Live Art, London 1995, photography by Robert Taylor, appeared on the cover of the issue. This was a substantial, wide-ranging text that extensively reflected on Edge’s experiencesin the art world and art eduction.

Abstract: Written from the direct experience of a practitioner, this is an autobiographical paper by a contemporary artist that recounds and explores creative and political activism through contemporary art. This article examines the tensions around status: the status of objects, materials and production methods, and the staus of people and their drive to self-definition. The text addresses how a hierarchy of values can struggle to catch up with creative practices in education.

The text was introduced in Jeff Adams’ Editorial as follows:

“Nina Edge, the Liverpool-based artist and activist, provided the second keynote address of our conference. She is well-known locally for her creation and performance of art on the streets of Liverpool, as well as having an international reputation for her work on the tensions produced in artwork that is rooted in the politics of race. The paper reproduced here recounts and explores her history as a political activist and as an artist who vigorously challenges institutional orthodoxies and inherent racism. In doing so she provides alternative voices and perspectives on the traditionally accepted notions of what it means to be an artist and producer.” Jeff Adams, “Editorial, Art for Life: Race, Gender, Disability and Class - Critical Discourses around Participation in Arts Education: !JADE 2013 Conference Issue

The piece featured a number of images, in colour, with the exception of Bonus Ball, reproduced in the text in full. The text included the following biographical outline:

“Nina Edge is an artist, designer and writer. She has made work in ceramics, textiles, glss, steel, banknotes, garments, plastics and New Media. Her output includes gallery exhibitions, private commissions, games, gardens, performances and street rituals. Her work as a housing activist in Liverpool’s Welsh Streets has seen a decade of targeted activism, promoting community planning and culminating a pilot project called Design Diplomacy. Known as an essayist and lecturer in a range of subjects including Planning, Architecture and Fine Art, she has written select committee evidence, blogs and tweets. Her polemic text about the doomed HRH regenerations scheme and the power of patronage was recently published in B. Parry [Ed.] Cultural Hijack: Rethinking Intervention (Liverpool University Press, 2011). She is a frequent participant in public and media debates around a number of issues from urban planning to food and sustainable systems, recently appearing with food journalist Joanna Blythman, writer Gary Younge and anti-fracking campaigner Laurence Rankin. She is currently making short films and small drawings.”