Engaging Public Space: Art Education Pedagogies for Social Justice

Abstract

Considering social justice to be founded on human rights, which, in turn, are grounded in freedom of thought, expression, and assembly, this essay reviews efforts by art educators to engage with public space as a form of social justice pedagogy. Public space, whether actual or virtual, is understood to be inherently devoted to contestation in the pursuit and protection of human rights. However, today we face a serious contraction of public space. Due to the relentless logic of consumer markets and the visceral fear of physical attack, some have asserted that public space is now dead. In this article, the author points to pedagogies employed to take back physical public space, identified on a continuum that include learning about, learning from, acting within, and acting upon public space. These pedagogies involve: critiquing private, corporate space; engaging in public community and environmental art; and engaging in activist and protest art, including a critique of the public space itself. Additionally, different positions are identified, including descriptive, prescriptive, and proscriptive positions, as well as alternative and oppositional positions. The author then explores the possibilities for taking hold of virtual space and concludes by conceptualizing each of these strategies in terms of residual, dominant, and emergent culture, as well as providing consideration of challenges and possibilities for further activity.

Notes

1. Some art educators have adopted this model of public space for their classrooms (e.g., Carpenter, 2003; Waxman, 2003). They have sought to develop a democratically orientated pedagogy based on dialogue between students and students, and students and teacher. Theirs is a celebration of plurality in which many voices are encouraged. Carpenter uses his local barbershop as a model of the classroom and Waxman uses a locally owned coffee shop as her classroom model. Each describes its site as a place of discussion, where the issues of the day are thrashed out from any number of perspectives.