Community arts is a growing, worldwide movement of artists and organisations who work with diverse communities in different contexts, driven by different (political or social) reasons, and from different (cultural) traditions. Reciprocal and equal relationships between all those involved are central to this. This said, community arts consists of two highly contested words: ‘community’ and ‘art’. Therefore to understand the potential of community arts, we must first look at our understandings of ‘art’, ‘community’, and the role of the artist in this.
Community arts differs from autonomous art because of the reciprocal and intensive relationship between the artist and the community with which and within which the artist works. An (often) professionally trained artist works with people who normally do not practice art. This work often starts from the needs and personal stories of the community, who, through co-creation, arrive at an artistic form together, along with the artist. The participants involved often come from marginalised communities and/or consist of people who have opposing ideologies or opinions.
Community arts practitioners, or community artists, believe that this work has the potential to deconstruct and reconstruct communities. This challenges our fixed identities and perceptions of difference, and embraces the idea that everyone is a complex, multi-layered human-being in constant transition, and that we can connect with each other despite our differences. Community is therefore understood as something that is continuously constructed – a process where community arts can play an important role. Though we must always critically question who is, or is not, part of ‘the community’, and why.
Given the diversity of community arts practices and traditions, it is necessary – when talking about community arts or wanting to analyse it – to clarify the perspective from which one starts by identifying and sharing its context. Community arts is about building bridges. About the search for the human in ourselves and each other. About meeting each other at eye level.
However, community arts and the inclusive and participatory art practice are complex practices with many critical issues. For example, around participation as a political tool, role divisions, responsibilities, artistic development, autonomy, and representation. A central question that creates a division in perspectives within this discourse is the question of the role of the artist within this relationship between art and society. Is the artist the individual ‘genius’ and producer of art and is the society merely a consumer of it? Or is the artist the facilitator of an aesthetic process, creating a context in which others can explore, create, imagine and discover? In community arts the role of the artist is the latter, and their genius is not in producing an art object but in creating an aesthetic space, asking an aesthetic question, building trust and relationships with and amongst communities.
We find that in the Netherlands (as well as further afield) there is a great need for an ongoing conversation between makers, art teachers, policy makers, and funds when it comes to art and major social issues or working with people in vulnerable situations. This said, through the international and academic network of ICAF we have the privilege of accessing current and relevant academic knowledge about participation, art, inclusion, and community arts that can be directly fed back into these very conversations to bring more awareness and attention to the unique, impactful work happening within and across this specific field.
Jasmina Ibrahimovic, ICAF Artistic Director