Public Practice

 Serpentine’s Public Practice integrates our work across education and civic spheres to redefine the role of the arts during periods of social change.

Redefining the role of the arts during periods of social change, the programme addresses themes such as migrant rights, care, schooling, and labour with individuals and groups excluded from the decision-making processes that shape the places where they live and work. Serpentine’s Public Practice is grounded in collaborative research and learning and builds on the Serpentine’s long history of artistic commissions in social and political contexts. It includes long term and ongoing commissions and the production of toolkits and resources for change.

A group of young people all facing in the same direction, with the light behind them

Radio Ballads

Serpentine North Gallery 31 Mar — 29 May 2022 Free

Artists Sonia Boyce, Helen Cammock, Rory Pilgrim and Ilona Sagar present four bodies of work, exploring stories of labour, and who cares for who and in what way.

Read more +

Support Structures for Support Structures

Support Structures for Support Structures

Ongoing Free

A new fellowship programme supporting artists working at the intersection of art, spatial politics and community practice.

Read more +

Radio Ballads

Radio Ballads

Serpentine North Gallery Offsite Feb 2019 – Ongoing Free

A three year project which sees four artists embedded in social care services and community settings in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

Read more +

Helen Cammock, Bass Notes and SiteLines: The Voice as a Site of Resistance and The Body as a Site of Resilience.

Helen Cammock, Bass Notes and SiteLines: The Voice as a Site of Resistance and The Body as a Site of Resilience.

Serpentine North Gallery Offsite 2019 - 2021 Free

Helen Cammock's Radio Ballads project looks at individual and collective power, asking where we sit within the social and political spaces we inhabit.

Read more +

Ilona Sagar, The Body Blow

Ilona Sagar, The Body Blow

Serpentine North Gallery Offsite 2019 - 2022 Free

Ilona Sagar's Radio Ballads project asks to what extent are we a product of our 'body capital', labour and efficiency?

Read more +

Rory Pilgrim, RAFTS

Rory Pilgrim, RAFTS

Serpentine North Gallery Offsite 2019 - 2021 Free

Rory Pilgrim's Radio Ballads project explores what keeps us afloat in moments of change and transition.

Read more +

Sonia Boyce, Yes, I Hear You

Sonia Boyce, Yes, I Hear You

Serpentine North Gallery Offsite 2019 - 2021 Free

Sonia Boyce's Radio Ballads project asks how conversations can help us to conjure something concrete out of the immaterial.

Read more +

Who Cares?

Who Cares?

Sep 2017 – Sep 2019 Free

Together with early years workers, care takers and parents, Adelita Husni Bey asks how we can care for each other when systems of care are being dismantled around us.

Read more +

Which Way Now?

Which Way Now?

Jun 2018 – ongoing Free

Sam Curtis invites children to lead a series of walks through their neighbourhood, exploring the ways in which we can learn to re-think the city by listening to children.

Read more +

Jasleen Kaur Everyday Resistance 4

Everyday Resistance

Jan 2018 – ongoing Free

How can cooking and eating together be a site of resistance? A project with Jasleen Kaur in collaboration with mothers and children from the Portman Early Childhood Centre.

Read more +

Imperial Health Charity Residences

Imperial Health Charity Residences

Dec 2019 – ongoing Free

Across two London hospitals Jasleen Kaur and Katie Schwab explore questions of frailty, ageing, care, health, and the NHS today.

Read more +

Rehana Zaman

Rehana Zaman

Feb 2018 – ongoing Free

Rehana Zaman’s residency examines the intersections of race, gender and class within the UK criminal justice system.

Read more +

Ain Bailey

Ain Bailey

Offsite August 2018 - Ongoing Free

In collaboration with Micro Rainbow Ain Bailey’s residency explores the role that sound plays in identity formation.

Read more +

ACT ESOL: Language, Resistance, Theatre Resource

ACT ESOL: Language, Resistance, Theatre Resource

30 Jan 2019

A resource sharing how to implement Theatre of the Oppressed in the ESOL classroom and migrant organising contexts.

Read more +