Creating community from the inside out: A concentric perspective on collective artmaking

ABSTRACT

As the original antidote to social alienation (and its tragic repercussions), community art through its large-scale, public, and collaborative nature has the potential to rebuild a sense of community from the inside out. This concentric notion of community art is addressed at both the individual and classroom level, exploring the origins of community in the social and emotional roots of cognition as well as the potential for initiating a sense of community within the classrooms before extending into schools, districts, and counties. Using an interdisciplinary lens, the author establishes this concentric perspective on community and its contemporary relevance through support from neuroscience, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and educational research, concluding with guidelines for practical application.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognition
• collaborative art
• community-based art education
• socially situated learning