When Co-Creation meets Art for Social Change: the Street Beats Band

Abstract

This chapter explores the interface between the concept of Co-Creation and the ‘Art for Social Change’ movement, taking the case of the Street Beats Band, a community-based percussion band in Vancouver, Canada. Local community members in the band collaborated with professional musicians, to perform a commissioned work at an International Contemporary Music Festival, on ‘found object’ percussion instruments that had been curated by members of Vancouver’s ‘binner’ community. The chapter illustrates that a Co-Creative process such as the Street Beats Band can empower and build community, as well as confront conventional thinking and trouble received narratives and expectations. However, while the methodology of Co-Creation holds critical potential as a tool to challenge stereotypes and marginalisation, it nevertheless operates with the structural constraints of deeply embedded power hierarchies that dominate discourse around urban disadvantage. The chapter also highlights the potential tensions and dilemmas that are embedded within a Co-Creation process, due to different visions, interests and inevitable power hierarchies. These issues should be acknowledged, addressed and negotiated by those involved, for Co-Creation to achieve its potential.