Fourteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss how cultural memory as a pedagogical place in art making and art education in global contexts occurs through community art making. Discussed are the theory and importance of (re)collecting and (re)telling memories through story and object making through cultural immersion. This paper addresses: Immersion in cultural events, i.e. explored through the making of alfombras during Semana Santa in Antigua, Guatemala; how immersion in the art making practice of other cultures informs community identity through cultural competency, revealing a new understanding of artmaking as perpetuating cultural continuity; how immersion contributes to memory pedagogy and broader notion of global communities in arts education, and historical memory and the circularity of knowledge. This reflective investigation of memory and object making funded by cultural immersion, art making, and art education. It is important to acknowledge that the (re)collecting is grounded in cultural nuances and ripe with personal values and emotions as well as cultural knowledge. The role memory pedagogy (Powell, 2017) plays in the narratives of success, failure, change, and hope as an artist and art educator in our field is an invisible force that we often overlook in understanding the very notions of art making as cultural memory. The intangible of memory is what exists in our work as artists and art educators, finding voice in the tangible object of experience on the human journey as we immerse ourselves in cultures and their art making practices.