Art as Pedagogy: A Multiple Case Study of Participatory Socially Engaged Art

Abstract

Abstract In recent decades, contemporary art practices have expanded into social processes as art, and even to educational experiments. Artists create participatory projects combining art with educational activities and goals. Despite the prevalence of these art works, contemporary art literature continues to focus primarily on the artist, thereby displacing the experiences of participants. Hence, from the stance of an art educator, I carried out qualitative multiple case studies to examine the learning experiences of the participants as well as the pedagogical frameworks of the artists. On-site observations and individual interviews were carried out with the artists, core group members who directly collaborated with the artists, and public audience members of three participatory, socially engaged art works. Through a cross-case thematic analysis, the findings demonstrate the value of intrinsically motivated learning enabled by a learning approach grounded in (art)making. In these works, a critical social consciousness was promoted among the participants by means of an enhanced social imagination provoked by the interplay between political content and artistic means. Essentially, the art works examined in this study serve as models of transdisciplinary art for learning and teaching social justice issues and civic engagement. Moreover, the results of this study encourage collaboration between artists and educators, as artists’ approaches diversify pedagogy and, conversely, educators play a critical role in enhancing the learning experience of participants.