Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1756-4678
Abstract
A shortage of pro-social opportunities during the pandemic brought to the fore a longer, deeper trend toward disconnection. With the broader emphasis on individualized academic achievement compounding pandemic-induced social disenfranchisement, schools and communities are struggling to revive a sense of connectivity and belonging. The arts, on the other hand, have long been associated with social outcomes, historically generating group cohesion and inherently offering participants a sense of unity and synchronicity through collaborative artmaking. Applied to educational settings, pinpointing the concrete aspects of art education that beget social capital and connectedness is a more difficult task. This investigation examines the potential to rebuild our collapsed social ecologies through collective artmaking. Specifically, participatory models such as Community-Based Art Education that cultivate a sense of collective care offer a possible antidote to the effects of diminishing social networks by engaging students in large-scale collaborative work that shifts the focus from objects to relationships in authentic contexts.
Included in
Art Education Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Educational Psychology Commons
