Social Justice in Art Education: An Example from Africa's Last Colony

Abstract

This chapter is an invitation to reflect on the potential of art and design education for social justice. It introduces the expanding focus on social issues in art and design classrooms and community learning environments. As an example, it narrates the work of a project in Africa's last colony called the International Art and Human Rights Meeting in Western Sahara (better known as ARTifariti). This project started in 2007 with the objective of using art practices to break the wall of silence that hovers over the forgotten conflict of Western Sahara. Through peaceful means of collaborative and participative artistic projects, foreign artists and refugees develop artworks and interventions to raise awareness about close to half a century of ongoing struggle in order to create social pressure to help bring this conflict to an end.