Dr Paul Clements BA MA PhD

Staff details

Dr Paul Clements BA MA PhD

Position

Lecturer

Department

Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship

Email

p.clements (@gold.ac.uk)

Paul is a lecturer in arts and cultural policy, spending many years working with marginalised communities.

Paul Clements is a lecturer in arts and cultural policy. He has spent many years working with excluded communities and formerly taught in Adult Education. More recently he has lectured in Higher Education for the Open University, Birkbeck College and Londonmet University covering cultural theory and policy as well as popular culture and community arts. His career has been varied and has included a range of roles and experiences: youth worker, teacher of disturbed prisoners, government interviewer, prison librarian, community musician, visual artist, astrologer and moderator/evaluator for arts programmes. He still works as a visual artist specialising in commissions for healthcare environments and private consumption.

Teaching and supervision

Research interests

These relate to cultural policy and theory, particularly the relationship between social and cultural inclusion/exclusion, the instrumental use of the arts and how cultural value is determined, also the relationship between individual artists and society more generally. Besides writing about public and community arts and 'other' cultural spaces, his interests also cover popular culture and its articulation with ‘high’ culture (art, literature and music). There is a continuum regarding interest in leisure space and resistance as well as how culture contributes towards anxiety and dissonance.

Publications and research outputs

Book

Clements, Paul. 2024. Art, Elitism, Authenticity and Liberty: Navigating Paradox. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781032324906

Clements, Paul. 2020. The Outsider, Art and Humour. New York/Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9780367468224

Clements, Paul. 2016. The Creative Underground: Art, Politics and Everyday Life. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9781315714530

Book Section

Clements, Paul. 2017. The construction of post-communist ideologies and re-branding of Budapest: the case study of Statue Park Museum. In: Martin Zebracki and Joni M. Palmer, eds. Public Art Encounters: Art, Space and Identity. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 51-69. ISBN 9781472468796

Clements, Paul. 2011. ‘The rehabilitative role of arts education in prison: accommodation or enlightenment?’. In: Felicity Allen, ed. Education. Documents of Contemporary Art. London: Whitechapel Gallery. ISBN 978-0854881925

Article

Clements, Paul. 2024. Review: Howard Feather, ‘Social Theory of Displacement: Adventures in the Everyday’. Theory, Culture & Society: Global Public Life,

Clements, Paul. 2022. Book review: Rowden, Claire (2020). Opera and Parody in Paris 1860-1900. Turnhout: Brepols. The European Journal of Humour Research, 10(2), pp. 155-158. ISSN 2307-700X

Clements, Paul. 2020. Astrology, modernity and the project of self-identity. Culture and Religion, 21(3), pp. 259-279. ISSN 1475-5610