Manchester University Press, 2026, softcover, 288 pages, 12.7 x 12.8 cm
Drawing on fascinating examples from around the world, Byrne shows how networks of artist-led activism and community-based direct action are providing a collaborative playbook of impactful and inclusive alternatives. From Turner Prize-winning urban regeneration projects to bakeries, vegetable gardens and multi-use arts spaces, Useful Art has enormous potential for bringing people together, recovering and preserving local skills and knowledge and reclaiming artistic endeavour for real-world good.
This important new work challenges traditional ways of seeing the world symbolically through art. Reaching beyond the financial logic of the art world, Byrne shows how Useful Art can offer an artistic toolkit for radical change.
