Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

Many strategies of community-based practices and civic engagement are often missing this explicit social justice mission, and merely invite public participation without keeping this as the focus. Thus, the purpose of this presentation is to consider how to strategically frame the conversation surrounding social practice and participatory pedagogy through a more nuanced and critical understanding of context, social relations, and power. This framework considers art’s function as social action that focuses on our emerging understanding of the intertwining aesthetic, social, economic, cultural, environmental, and educational implications of social practice. From a pedagogical perspective, such works emphasize social practices that are participatory, collaborative, and relational, constituting new forms of performance, interaction, exchange, or even confrontation that lie beyond conventional materiality.