In 2004, the British Council Scotland hosted a seminar in Edinburgh to which artists from all over the world were invited. It was an event which focused on reaching communities through the arts. Over the past fifty years, Scotland has established arts policies and practices for working in this area, however; in many countries of the world, this is an emerging area of arts practice.
At this event a number of artists identified the need to collaborate to create a document which narrates their experience of this field of work in their own countries. A number of artists spoke of their struggles and frustration at the lack of understanding and support offered by their governments and municipalities for this work. Some artists told of their work in dangerous zones – be that time, geographic, political, psychological and artistic zones.As discussion progressed, it was decided that a way to profile the work internationally and support artists who had little encouragement in their own countries, was to create something which could be given to the Minister for Culture of every country of the world. This collection of essays marks the first stage of that aspiration.