Week 2 post

In "Aesthetic Evangelists: Conversion and Empowerment in Contemporary Art" it let me enjoy collaborating with other artists and if it is engaging with a community then it makes it even more special.  I thought the meaning between "public" and "community implied two different meanings. One interacting with urban planners, architects, and city agencies. While the community based public artist more commonly interacts with social service agencies and social workers.

"I'd been doing do many exhibitions [of her own art work] and wanted to get more involved in the community. [Homelessness] was an issue I saw every time I walked out the door. . . . I wanted to understand, but I never knew what they thought. I thought that art, which was what I had to offer, could be a means for them to speak for themselves. (italics mine)"

This quote from Hope Sandrow, founder of the Artist and Homeless Collaborative really spoke to me because it got me to be involved in more art with my culture. I watched Spanish Artists engage with an audience from their own community and it heartwarming and messages are clear.  I know political art is making a big impact especially in today's society. It's a way to reach out to others to not use violence, but art to spread something internationally.

The confusion that exists between political representation and symbolic representation is evident in community art projects that fail to distinguish between the artist's ability to "exhibit" a given community in a project, performance, or image (an ability which is typically made possible by the artists' privileged relationship to the various institutions charged with public management of "communities" such as the homeless, the incarcerated, etc.), and the authority to take up an enunciative position that is sanctioned by that group's social experience.

Art is or should be an agent of social change, and that everyone is an artist. There is no doubt in the minds of community artists that social change takes place- for artists and community members alike... the production of art by people who don't define themselves as artists-is a radical, transformative act.  Community art involves individuals from a particular group or neighborhood. For it to be effective, there must be a core number of participants, including some type of community leadership committed to participating for the duration of the project.  The experience of coming together should have emphasis on the processes of building a community of relationships and being creative. These processes combine to provide a structure for social interaction.