Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

Artists, educators, and practitioners across artistic disciplines are working to dismantle harmful social and artistic value systems, stigmas, and hierarchies ingrained within our practices and creative outputs to form more sustainable inclusive communities. A vital step in accomplishing this requires that we recognize how our artistry works in tandem with the many intersections of our identity. Who we are as artists, educators, and practitioners is representative of social and political power relations as well as symbolic of the knowledge we have accrued from past and present experiences. Art cannot, and is not, created nor exists in a sociological vacuum. Drawing upon the contributions of thinkers such as Stuart Hall, Simon Frith and Audre Lorde, among others, the first part of this paper dissects the concepts of privilege, identity—its formation and continuous transformation—and intersectionality. Secondly, we explore how we may use these concepts to form stronger, more equitable artistic communities. While the focus of this study is to illuminate the role that the concepts of privilege, identity and intersectionality play in our practices, pedagogy, and artistry, the aim, however, is focused on agency. This agency will manifest itself in various ways such as political, social, aesthetic, and artistic. An agency where all people are affirmed, supported, and heard. Ultimately, our understanding of the intersections of identity aids in our ability to create agency within our communities. This agency will lead to the transformation of power structures and hierarchies and therefore, to the formation of sustainable inclusive communities.