Arts and the in inclusive imagination: Socially engaged arts practices and <i>Sistema Scotland</i>

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.