Situations was initiated in October 2003 by Claire Doherty, Senior Research Fellow in Fine Art at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Its guiding principles were to combine the commissioning of innovative artists' projects with the rigour of an academic research programme. Furthermore, its primary concern has been to consider place as an impetus, hindrance, inspiration and research subject for the process of commissioning and producing art.

Over the past five years, the Situations programme has expanded from a single strand of international lectures, a single scattered-site commissioning project and publication, to a programme of parallel strands of activity (encompassing single one-off projects, seasons of projects, fieldwork, seminars and screenings, long-term research projects and a widespread dissemination programme including publishing and lectures). Situations addresses a broad range of publics through its projects, with a particular emphasis on knowledge transfer and widening participation, working with external organisations to develop new audiences for contemporary art. One of the primary aims of the programme, however, is also to capture, develop and publish a significant body of knowledge on visual arts commissioning, situation and place-specific practices which we publish through our online resource of edited transcripts, bibliographic and biographical material.

Situations forms part of the Place Research Centre at the University of the West of England in Bristol and also supports students studying on both the BA and MA Fine Art and Art and Visual Culture degrees at the University of the West of England by offering a number of project-specific internships and entrance to all Situations events is free to UWE students and staff. Situations staff are also involved with supervising a number of doctoral students and have acted as visiting lecturers and external examiners at the following institutions: MA Curating Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art, London; Konstfack, Stockholm; Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, NY; Elam School of Arts, Auckland, New Zealand; School of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand; University of Falmouth; Goldsmiths College, London.

Whilst the programme is embedded and fed by the dynamic research culture of our University, our objective has always been to work collaboratively with partners beyond the academic sector. Situations is a member of the Bristol Visual Arts Consortium and an active member of the visual arts ecology of the city of Bristol. To date our partners and associates nationally and internationally have included: Arnolfini, Bristol; Arts and Ecology programme, RSA, London; Black Dog Publishing; Bookworks; Bristol Alliance; Bristol City Council; Dartington College of Art, University of Falmouth; De Appel, Amsterdam; Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol; Ginkgo Projects; Hayward Gallery, London; Litmus Research Initiative, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand; Picture This, Bristol; Projectbase, Cornwall; Royal College of Art, London; Serpentine Gallery, London; Spike Island, Bristol; University of Bristol.