Abstract
This paper considers the role of the arts in engaging children and young people and connecting with their imaginations. It reports on children and young people’s responses to an event that introduced them to a range of arts activities. It then discusses the recent establishment of Sistema Scotland, a program of social change through classical musical training which has its origins in the Venezuelen El Sistema. The paper reports on a knowledge exchange project undertaken within the program which highlighted a number of competing obligations or, in Derrida’s (1993) terms, aporias. The paper ends with a consideration of the challenge of producing evidence of the impact of socially engaged arts practices on individuals and communities. Keywords: Socially engaged arts practices; Sistema; Knowledge Exchange; Aporias
Highlights
This paper considers the role of the arts in engaging children and young people and connecting with their imaginations
The arts have increasingly been seen by governments as a vehicle for promoting social inclusion and have been adopted as a strand of social policy in many countries (British Council, n.d.; Hunt, 2010), the current economic crisis has led to cuts in many areas including cultural spending
The paper provides an account of the early stages of Sistema Scotland, a new program for overcoming social exclusion through classical music tuition, based on a model developed in Venezuela
Summary
Several writers have argued that art work undertaken by children and young people can be highly educative as work of experimentation (Greene, 2004; Deleuze, 1998; Gardner, 1982; Matassaro, 1997), providing dynamic play and allowing them to create what Braidotti calls “fabulations”. To encourage the children and young people to express themselves and to explore their understandings of teaching and learning, the development officer had asked them to draw their ideal teacher and ideal pupil during the Art Lab day, and in the focus groups they were invited to make a piece of art which captured their sense of the day and its impact on them. She handed the youngsters the camera and encouraged them to “interview” each other on the subject of good teaching and learning. The paper turns to a more formal program of music teaching aimed at a far more radical form of engagement and at a more significant impact
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