Socially Engaged Art
Revitalizing the Public Spirit through Socially Engaged Art: Courting a Fearless Pedagogy in a Public School Setting
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lynn Sanders-Bustle
The recent appointment of Betsy Devos to the position of US Secretary of Education has reinvigorated arguments for and against the privatization of schools, prompting many proponents of public schools to loudly voice their support of public education as a right (Menashy, 2014). Proponents recognize that privatization further removes schooling from the influence of the public, and instead makes schooling a commodity to be owned by the private sector; greatly reducing the freedoms in which citizens can participate. This qualitative research study explores the efforts of four university art education preservice teachers to create socially engaged artworks in a public middle school. A kind of public pedagogy, I suggest that by creating socially engaged art potential exists for preservice teachers to be in schools in different ways, opening up new ways of thinking about the "publicness" of art, schooling, and their evolving pedagogies. Data included written reflections, transcribed interviews and researcher field notes. Findings suggest that through socially engaged artmaking preservice teachers critique regimes of schooling, reexamine art as a relational point of departure for better understanding the "publicness" of spaces, students and teachers, and rethink possibilities for evolving public pedagogies.
Teaching Others How to Make a Difference in Today’s World: Practical Methods of Instruction in Activist Art and Works in the Community
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jennifer G. Longshore
Designed and implemented eight years ago, “Activist Artists and Works in the Community” is a course where art students explore and define activism and the roles artists play in instigating change and igniting community involvement. By examining the history and evolution of activism through cross-disciplinary sources, students recognize that creative engagement comes with its successes and failures. Based on their own passions, these students then move out of the classroom and partner with agencies to develop and implement creative projects. An overview and discussion of the outcomes of these projects will demonstrate how they have changed lives, initiated new career paths, and helped students realize how their creative spirit can make a difference in today’s world. Some projects featured for this presentation include: building self-esteem through mask and puppet making, bringing healing and hope to domestic violence survivors through art and dialogue, encouraging creativity in our homeless community, sparking dialogue about climate change through art making, and supporting immigrant youth by making banners of pride.
Collaborative Art as Social Activism: Bringing Awareness of Human Trafficking to the University Community through the Red Sand Project
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ellen Avitts
The Red Sand Project was begun by artist Molly Gochman in 2014; its goal was to raise awareness of human trafficking. Red sand is handed out to participants who then place it in sidewalk cracks. It is a deceptively simple, collaborative art experience that makes visible a complex metaphorical concept. An estimated 30 million people are currently enslaved. They have literally fallen through the cracks of society; we walk past them daily but do not see them. The Red Sand Project forces us to look, to acknowledge slavery as a startling reality that must be addressed. In fall of 2016, art students under my direction at Central Washington University participated in the Red Sand Project, but not as a one-time event. Theirs was a year-long project that grew to be an interdisciplinary, community-wide endeavor. This paper documents this act of student-led art activism, considering its planning and implementation, its success and failures, and its strengths and weaknesses, in order to begin a discussion of ways to help students create connections between their field of study and positive social engagement.
