Some of the most innovative art over the years has been created far outside conventional galleries and museums. This title discusses a disparate network of artists and collectives united by a desire to create new forms of understanding through creative dialogue that crosses boundaries of race, religion, and culture.

Grant Kester discusses a disparate network of artists and collectives - including The Art of Change, Helen and Newton Harrison, Littoral, Suzanne Lacy, Stephen Willats, and WochenKlausur - united by a desire to create new forms of understanding through creative dialogue that crosses boundaries of race, religion, and culture. Kester traces the origins of these works in the conceptual art and feminist performance art of the 1960s and 1970s and draws from the writings of Mikhail Bakhtin, Jürgen Habermas, and others as he explores the ways in which these artists corroborate and challenge many of the key principles of avant-garde art and art theory.