131 43 4MB
English Pages 244 [245] Year 2021
Engagement in the City
Engagement in the City How Arts and Culture Impact Development in Urban Areas
Edited by Leigh N. Hersey and Bryna Bobick
LEXINGTON BOOKS
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Lexington Books An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com 6 Tinworth Street, London SE11 5AL, United Kingdom Copyright © 2021 The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Library of Congress Control Number: 2020952329 ISBN: 9781793633903 (cloth) ISBN: 9781793633910 (electronic) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Contents
List of Figures and Tables
vii
Introduction 1 Bryna Bobick and Leigh Nanney Hersey 1 Does Arts Engagement Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior? A Review of the Literature Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida 2 Public Outreach Innovation and Sustainability of Arts Organizations in the Detroit Metropolitan Area Alisa V. Moldavanova
7
39
3 Art Controversy and Asset-Based Community Development: Cultural Capital Flowing from Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc 63 Gordon E. Shockley and Anne Kotleba 4 The Unique Value of the Arts for Civic Engagement: End-of-Life Dialogue in Singapore from the Hospital to the “Heartlands” Justin Lee, Hana Alhadad, Lim Tze Ming Jae Andrew, and Ngiam Su-Lin
87
5 Herons on the Bayou: Bridging Communities through Public Art 105 Leigh Nanney Hersey and Brooke Foy 6 Cultural Districts on the Horizon: The Intersection of Policy and Practice Outside of Metropolitan Centers B. Kathleen Gallagher 7 Designing and Creating Programs of Promise Kathy Marzilli Miraglia v
123 139
vi
Contents
8 Teaching Resiliency: Preparing Pre-service Teachers to Work (and Stay) in Urban Art Classrooms Justin Makemson 9 Creating a Welcoming Urban Learning Environment: Highlights from a Higher Education Partnership Involving Art Education and a Community Partner Bryna Bobick
163
191
10 Conclusion 201 Leigh Nanney Hersey and Bryna Bobick Appendix A: Lesson Plan
211
Appendix B: Theorizing Cultural Capital and Macro-Micro Alternatives 217 Index 225 About the Editors and Contributors
233
List of Figures and Tables
FIGURES Figure 1.1 The General Arts Engagement Model (GAEM) 10 Figure 2.1 Conceptual Mapping of Public Outreach Innovations in the Arts (Moldavanova) 51 Figure 2.2 Comparing Reasons for Innovation among Organizations of Different Sizes (Moldavanova) 55 Figure 2.3 Comparing Reasons for Innovation among Organizations in Different Location Types (Moldavanova) 57 Figure 3.1 Art Controversies, Throsbian-Bourdieuan Cultural Capital, and Asset-Based Community Development 69 Figure 6.1 State-Designated Cultural Districts in the United States by Community Geography 132 Figure 7.1 Three Types of Community-Based Arts Partnerships 143 Figure 7.2 Activity Sheets Drawn and Designed by Addi Catarina and Jennifer Grota 153 Figure 7.3 Seventh-Grade Photography Students and Member of the Council on Aging 155 Figure 7.4 Students Work on Oil Pastel of Town Mural for the Nursing Facility 158 Figure A.1 C. Lamm, 2019, Found Objects on Canvas, 8 × 10″ 214 Figure A.2 L. Schaffler, 2019, Found Objects on Canvas, 8 × 10″ 215
vii
viii
List of Figures and Tables
TABLES Table 1.1 Summary of Research on Visual Art and Prosocial Traits and Behaviors 15 Table 1.2 Summary of Research on Theater and Prosocial Traits and Behaviors 17 Table 1.3 Summary of Research on Dance and Prosocial Traits and Behaviors 19 Table 1.4 Summary of Research on Music and Prosocial Traits and Behaviors 21 Table 1.5 Summary of Research on Literature and Prosocial Traits and Behaviors 24 Table 6.1 Summary of States with State-Designated Cultural Districts 130 Table 6.2 Most Frequently Used Words in Mission or Purpose Statements 131 Table 6.3 Summary of Requirements for State Certification of a Cultural District 133 Table 7.1 Schedule of Activities 148 Table 8.1 Emerging Pattern in Early-Career Teacher Attrition Research 167 Table 8.2 Emerging Pattern in Retention/Attrition Research for Arts-Related Careers 170 Table 10.1 The Contributions of Art to Five Pillars of Community Development 202
Introduction Bryna Bobick and Leigh Nanney Hersey
The arts can be a powerful tool to help strengthen communities by giving them the capacity to build structures, systems, people, and skills to achieve greater performance and impact. Nonprofit arts organizations realize they “must interact with and understand (their) communit(ies) in order to know at which community development table it should sit” (National Endowment for the Arts 2015, p. 7). This book aims to take a deeper look at the intersection of arts and community development. For the purposes of this book, community development considers a broad range of attributes, including economic, cultural, and social. This book explores the interaction of arts and community development in urban areas. It is an interdisciplinary volume that brings together scholars from the arts, arts education, arts management, nonprofit management, public administration, and sociology. In a presentation on the Arizona Commission on the Arts, former director Bob Booker (2010) called arts education, economic development, and civic engagement and cultural understanding “the trinity of the arts” (slide 11). The following section outlines the research provided in the chapters of this book. The reader may notice that each of Booker’s trinity elements plays a large role in the discussion of community development. The book opens with the exploration of the role the arts play in creating prosocial behaviors and traits. These behaviors include the acts of giving, sharing, and empathy and can be developed through a variety of activities. In Chapter 1, Konrath and Kisida explore the role arts play on developing these behaviors and traits. They provide an overview of dozens of articles that explore the various types of arts and their contributions to prosocial behaviors and traits. They also develop a model showing how a person’s art experience interacts with their situation and internal status to lead to prosocial outcomes. 1
2
Bryna Bobick and Leigh Nanney Hersey
In exploring the literature, they identify gaps where future research could help build out the model. An important aspect of community development is having a strong presence of art institutions. The next step is ensuring that these institutions connect with their publics. In Chapter 2, Moldavanova explores this topic through her analysis of arts institutions in Detroit. The City of Detroit suffered severe financial hurdles in the early 2010s, ultimately causing the city to file for bankruptcy. It gained world recognition for all the wrong reasons when it looked like the Detroit Art Institute would have to sell its collection to pay off the city’s debt. The collection was saved by “the grand bargain” which raised $800 million from numerous sources to pay off city employee pensions—the driving force for the potential sale. The plan also required the museum to be overseen by an independent charitable trust, rather than a city entity (Kennedy 2014). While this situation may be on the extreme side, arts participation is declining across the country and arts organizations are competing for an ever-decreasing dollar. Moldavanova explores how arts organizations are counteracting this trend through innovative public outreach initiatives. Not only does she explain how these organizations are reaching the public but also what motivates them to pursue these strategies. This chapter contributes to the literature by further developing theories of innovation in the arts. It also provides arts leaders with considerations for improving their own outreach programming. Although the Detroit Institute of Art became a city entity in 1919, another form of public art exists, featuring art outside the walls of museums and galleries. City leaders see public art as a way to tell the city’s history, bring people together, and build on community assets. Public art projects are intended to build community pride and sometimes raise funds for the community. This form of public art takes many forms—sculptures, museums, open-air performances, and even landscape architecture. Literature often focuses on how well-received public art is. In fact, calls for public art designs often include language that frames the art to have a general appeal to people. For example, a recent call by the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville (FL) “seeks the transformation of a major downtown space into a dynamic and dignified work of public art” (Cultural Council 2020). Another call suggests that the public artwork should be “suitable for viewing by all ages” (City of Rancho Cordova 2020). Sometimes, however, public art stirs up a lot of controversy. In Chapter 3, one of two chapters focusing on public art sculpture, Shockley and Kotleba explore Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc. This famed public art installation located in Manhattan had a short-lived, but eventful life. Despite its controversy, Shockley and Kotleba argue that the work still increased cultural capital in the area because of its foundation in asset-based community development. In their work, they apply several models to better
Introduction
3
understand how these connections have the potential to bring about positive consequences, rather than the expected negative ones. Chapter 4 gives an international perspective to the book, bringing insight into the history and policies relating to socially engaged art in Singapore. These artists are in a unique position, working with community development and social services. While many of the arts-based community development strategies in the book reflect a variety of government, nonprofit, and business organizations, as well as individuals, coming together to move the city forward, community development in Singapore has been led by governmentsponsored organizations. Lee et al. spotlight the value of arts in civic engagement, focusing on how it addresses the issue of death and end-of-life matters, a taboo topic in the country. “Civic engagement encompasses the many ways that people may get involved in their communities to consider and address civic issues. . . . In arts-based civic engagement, the creative process and resulting art work/experience can provide a key focus, catalyst, or space for civic participation, whether it is becoming better informed or actively contributing to the improvement of one’s neighborhood, community, and nation” (Americans for the Arts 2020). The authors examine how participatory theatric arts bring a creative approach to problem-solving and expand ways to discuss and make plans for these concerns. The authors stress the need for good communication, a reliable network of partners, and positive relations with the community for projects like this one to have success. In Chapter 5, the second chapter on public art sculptures, Hersey and Foy document the public art project Herons on the Bayou from ideation to installation. The Herons on the Bayou project brought fifty-one iconic heron statues to the neighboring cities of Monroe and West Monroe in Northeast Louisiana. A recent trend in iconic sculptures has brought much joy and interest to some communities, while raising concerns from some who find the projects boring and unimaginative. This chapter outlines how other communities can adopt similar public art projects to spark community development. The chapter details how the project came to be, the different steps to implementing it—from the calls to artists, to securing sponsors, to the big reveal—and the early outcomes of the project. The authors demonstrate how the project strengthened the artist community as well as the general community. Suggestions for community leaders and artists to consider for the future include strategic use of social media and incorporating education materials into the public art resources. In Chapter 6, Gallagher presents research on cultural districts. More states are initiating cultural districts to support arts and cultural development. These cultural assets not only identify the residents of the state but also contribute financially through their link to tourism. The establishment of cultural districts is a relatively new form of arts-based community development, but an
4
Bryna Bobick and Leigh Nanney Hersey
initiative that has becoming more popular with states. Gallagher provides indepth analysis on the sixteen states that have legislated cultural districts. She further develops the research by comparing and contrasting cultural districts located in rural and urban communities. This chapter provides a solid base on which to continue exploring the role of cultural districts in community development. It can be a resource for scholars and legislators alike who want to better understand this economic tool for cultural development. Arts education creates a pipeline for the arts. It inspires children to be artists, trains art educators on how to incorporate arts into the classroom and beyond, and it often connects with communities for service-learning projects. As previous chapters have demonstrated how the arts can impact community development, it is important to remember this foundation on which art is built. This book presents three chapters on art education and how it can contribute to community development. The chapters focus on university-community partnerships and how these activities can better prepare art education students while simultaneously enriching the lives of the residents. In Chapter 7, Miraglia provides a framework for collaborations between universities, schools, and community organizations to provide arts-based activities led by arts education students as service-learning projects. Service learning is an experiential learning opportunity that allows students to interact with the community to better understand concepts explored in the classroom. The National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993 describes service learning as a “method under which students or participants learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service that . . . is conducted in and meets the needs of a community” (p. 59). When incorporated into university curricula, it can enhance not only the student’s learning experience but also the lives of those the student is working with. Service learning has the ability to embrace both diversity and multiculturalism into the experiences. Miraglia provides in-depth examples of service-learning in arts education. She provides guidelines which help design successful partnerships and uses examples of how university students designed partnerships with professionals in public and nonprofit agencies. She concludes with outcomes of the partnerships and ways to advance these authentic arts-based education experiences. This chapter is an excellent starting guide for anyone interested in incorporating service-learning into their curriculum. It can also be a good resource for public and nonprofit organizations interested in working with universities to provide meaningful service-learning opportunities. It is important to provide art education students with curriculum that focuses on materials, theory, and techniques of a wide variety art. However, in Chapter 8, Makemson brings to light the importance of promoting teacher resiliency in educator preparation programs. Resilient teachers have the ability to recover quickly and find success after encountering difficult situations,
Introduction
5
hardships, and negative outcomes in their teaching experiences (Di Fabio and Saklofske 2018). Makemson describes how his program is addressing this issue in New Mexico, where the year-to-year teacher attrition rate is 24 percent, higher than the national average. Makemson details ways teacher education preparation programs can encourage resiliency with teacher education candidates, thereby lowering future teacher attrition in urban art education classrooms. This chapter points out the need for teacher education programs to recruit and support underrepresented populations in art education. The techniques Makemson outlines can be incorporated into a variety of teacher preparation programs, particularly those which are placing a large number of graduates in urban schools. As seen with Miraglia’s work, more universities are partnering with community organizations to provide learning opportunities which benefit both the student and the community. In Chapter 9, Bobick offers insight into a university partnership between an urban public library and an art education faculty member and university students. The graduate and undergraduate art education students taught weekly art activities to youth at the library. As part of the course requirement, the university students developed and taught art education lesson plans, wrote reflections, and completed a survey about their experiences. The survey results, included in the chapter, offer insight into the opinions and views of the partnership from the university student participants. The chapter further expands on the strengths and challenges of the partnership. Challenges include workload distribution and time constraints. On the other hand, the opportunity to teach a diverse group of students in a community setting was a strength to the partnership. The chapter concludes with suggestions for those who wish to develop community partnerships involving university faculty and students. In the concluding chapter, book editors Hersey and Bobick outline the different ways that the arts can support different aspects of community development, including cultural, economic, health, education, and social. They continue by identifying recurring themes throughout the book. Despite the diversity of the authors and the projects studied, several themes became clear. The two most prominent include an emphasis on asset-based community development and the presence of cross-sector collaborations. The editors conclude with the book’s contributions to the field and considerations for future research.
REFERENCES Americans for the Arts “Social Change.” September 112020. https://www.american sforthearts.org/by-topic/social-change.
6
Bryna Bobick and Leigh Nanney Hersey
Booker, Bob. Arizona Commission on the Arts. National Conference on State Legislatures, 2010. https://www.ncsl.org/Portals/1/Documents/employ/LED-Arts -Booker.pdf?ver=2010-12-20-131616-383. City of Rancho Cordova (CA). Call for Artists: Utility Box Art Wraps. 2020. https:// www.cityofranchocordova.org/home/showdocument?id=16837. Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville (FL), Call to Artists: Duval County Courthouse Plaza. 2020. https://www.culturalcouncil.org/uploads/9/3/6/9/9369300 2/artistcallduvalcountycourthouse8-16-2020.pdf. Di Fabio, Annamaria, and Donald H. Saklofske. “The contributions of personality and emotional intelligence to resiliency.” Personality and Individual Differences 123 (2018): 140–144. Kennedy, Randy. “‘Grand Bargain’ Saves the Detroit Institute of Arts.” The New York Times, November 7, 2014. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/08/arts/design/ grand-bargain-saves-the-detroit-institute-of-arts.html. National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993. Public Law 103-82 [H.R. 2010]. September 21, 1993. National Endowment for the Arts. “Beyond the Building: Performing Arts and Transforming Place.” 2015.
Chapter 1
Does Arts Engagement Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior? A Review of the Literature Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida
Many have claimed that the arts have the power to expand people’s empathy and, in turn, promote more generous behavior. For example, Leo Tolstoy said in his essay, What is art?, that the whole purpose of art was to do so: “The task for art to accomplish is to make that feeling of brotherhood and love of one’s neighbor, now attained only by the best members of society, the customary feeling and the instinct of all men” (Tolstoy 1960/1897). Writer Susan Vreeland points out how the arts can open up our imaginations to others’ experiences: “Paintings allow us to live beyond our own time and place. Each time we enter imaginatively into the life of another, it's a small step upwards in the elevation of the human race. When there is no imagination of others' lives, there is no human connection, and therefore no compassion . . . Art—and literature—are antidotes to that” (Vreeland 2006). Some politicians have expressed similar sentiments, such as former Texas congressperson Barbara Jordan: “The arts are not a frill. The arts . . . help to shape our identity. [The arts] can transcend deep difference and stubborn divisions. . . . Art has the potential to unify. It can speak in many languages without a translator. Art does not discriminate” (Jordan 1993). These beautiful perspectives are frequently expressed, but is there evidence that the arts (including literature) are a gateway to compassion? In this chapter, we will carefully review the evidence that art can increase empathy and prosocial behavior. Empathy involves both emotional and cognitive aspects. Emotionally, it can range from feeling others’ feelings (emotion contagion) to feelings of care, concern, and compassion for others (empathic concern). Cognitively, it encompasses a number of processes ranging from imagining others’ perspectives (perspective taking), to identifying their emotions (emotion recognition), 7
8
Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida
to understanding their intentions and desires (theory of mind). Empathy was originally translated from the German word einfühlung, which in the early 1900s described viewers having (inter)active emotional responses to artworks (Nowak 2011). But over time, its meaning and usage have evolved to more social processes. Much scientific research supports the idea that empathy is a primary motivator and predictor of prosocial behaviors (Batson 2011; Fengqin and Zhaohui 2016; Imuta et al. 2016), which are defined as voluntary actions intended for others’ good, and which include helping, sharing, giving, and volunteering (Batson and Powell 2003). This chapter will be organized around different types of art, and within each type, we will review different kinds of studies, ranging from correlational, to longitudinal, to experimental. Before describing these methodologies, we should note that conducting research on the effects of the arts is difficult. Specific exposure to the arts is particularly hard to isolate because the arts are all around us, all of the time. They provide the medium through which so many of our experiences are categorized, interpreted, and explored. The arts are so pervasive in our lives that it would be difficult to say when we are engaging with them and when we are not. Because of this, there is a need for careful research of the kind that we review here, but even so, there are still a number of challenges in truly understanding the causal role of the arts. The most commonly used type of study in this topic area simply gives people surveys asking them about their engagement with the arts and also assesses their empathy or prosocial behavior. Such correlational studies can show whether two variables (e.g., engagement with the arts and empathy) tend to be overlapped with one another. For example, a study might find that people who engage with the arts also score higher in empathy than those who do not. These studies are important, but we cannot make causal conclusions from them. It is possible that higher empathy causes people to be curious about the arts and therefore engage more deeply with them. It is also possible that engaging with the arts helps to grow individuals’ empathy. Or, maybe having more resources encourages both arts engagement and empathy. Highquality correlational studies statistically control for such demographic variables, but even so, causal conclusions are not possible. The next level of evidence is longitudinal (sometimes called panel), where individuals are followed over time. For example, a study might find that people who engage with the arts at one time point score higher in empathy a few years later compared to those who do not. Although these studies can help to determine whether the arts could potentially lead to later prosocial traits or behaviors, they also leave open other potential explanations. Again, the highest quality longitudinal studies include a number of control variables, but causal conclusions are still not possible.
Does Arts Engagement Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior?
9
With well-designed experiments (sometimes called randomized control trials) it is possible to make claims that engagement with the arts leads to a change in empathy or prosocial behavior. An example would be a study in which half of children are randomly assigned to engage with an artwork for thirty minutes, while the other half are assigned to a thirty-minute control activity (e.g., do a puzzle). If this study found that children who engaged with the artwork were more likely to help clean up a box of pens that the experimenter dropped, we could reasonably conclude that engaging with the artwork caused this behavior. However, at times experiments can have limited applicability in the real world, especially if they take place in lab rooms or if the situations participants are exposed to are not similar to real-life arts engagements. The strongest studies therefore are those that randomly assign individuals to different real-world experiences (field experiments); however, these are difficult and expensive, and therefore, rare. As will be seen from our review, we identified a number of correlational, longitudinal, and experimental studies for each genre of art that we examined. Although our review is not exhaustive, this demonstrates that a number of scholars are interested in the question of how engagement with the arts is related to prosocial traits and behavior. WHY SHOULD ARTS ENGAGEMENT INCREASE PROSOCIAL TRAITS AND BEHAVIOR? Even if research finds that arts engagement causes increases in empathy and prosocial behavior, this still leaves open the question of why this should be. The arts are diverse, and proposing a single specific explanation probably will not be sufficient. Yet, some scholars have proposed broad explanations for how and why various types of arts may influence people. For example, one recent paper presented a conceptual model to help explain how and why the arts can contribute to a variety of human flourishing outcomes, including positive normative outcomes such as the prosocial traits and behaviors discussed in this chapter (Tay et al. 2018). The authors proposed four different explanations for why the arts might affect human flourishing. These include an increase in the level of immersion or “flow” that arts can inspire, an increase in social cognitive processes of embeddedness (e.g., feelings of mastery and self-efficacy that come with learning new skills), the promotion of socialization processes of new roles and relationships, and reflectiveness, the degree of self-reflection and awareness that the arts can encourage. They also posited that the effects of arts engagement likely depend on the modes of engagement and the activities of involvement (i.e., how users are engaging).
10
Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida
We appreciate this conceptual model, and also contribute our own, since much of the current arts literature is more focused on finding effects, but not necessarily explaining them. Besides the important issue of why the arts may influence prosocial outcomes, the issue of when, or under which circumstances they may do so, is also important. As can be seen in Figure 1.1, there are a number of potential factors that might be at play. Our General Arts Engagement Model (GAEM) was adapted from the General Learning Model (GLM; Barlett and Anderson 2012), which helps to explain how and why people are affected by other media (e.g., TV, videogames). Given that the arts have some unique properties, we adapted the GLM to better suit the arts by including a number of situational factors relevant to the arts (e.g., art genre, consumption versus creation). Some previous research has adapted the GLM to music specifically (Music Process Model), finding that the effects of listening to music depend upon the level of attention and familiarity with the music (Ruth 2019). We further adapted this model to encompass a broad variety of art forms. Overall, the GAEM posits that the effects of engaging with the arts will depend on features of the person who is engaging and the situation, including aspects of the art experience itself. This model could be used to examine any psychological outcome of arts experiences. Although we focus on prosocial traits and behaviors in this chapter, it could also be used to study the effect of the arts on well-being, critical thinking, content knowledge, or other intrinsic arts outcomes. Potential Explanations: Addressing the Why There are a number of potential explanations for why and how art experiences may affect prosocial outcomes in individuals. First is a more cognitive
Figure 1.1 The General Arts Engagement Model (GAEM). Source: Authors.
Does Arts Engagement Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior?
11
pathway, which includes thoughts and other cognitive responses to art. Art is a reflection or depiction of the human experience. It fundamentally offers encounters with other people’s perspectives, and more often than not, a challenging perspective. Exposure to different perspectives can increase our understanding, broaden our vision, and ultimately can lead to a greater understanding of others. The arts encourage multiple viewpoints and an exchange of ideas, forcing us to confront and potentially change our own ideas. Indeed, some evidence for art’s cognitive effects is that exposure to art can lead to more abstract thinking styles (Kim and Kim 2018). The arts can also have profound emotional effects on people, which is a more affective pathway. Sometimes important social issues or ideas cannot be communicated directly or effectively through logic and facts. Art forms often include more intuitive and visceral elements that can promote a change of heart, and not just mind. The cognitive pathway likely takes more effortful and deliberate engagement than the affective pathway, meaning that scholars and practitioners should consider the motivation and ability of individuals when designing and testing arts-related programs. In addition, we believe that the two pathways often work together to create changes in empathy and prosocial behaviors, but researchers may be interested in studying them separately. A third pathway involves the level of physiological arousal experienced during and after arts engagement. Some arts experiences may energize and activate, while other experiences may lead to deep relaxation, and still others may lead to a minimal physiological response. There is likely an optimal level of arousal to promote prosocial outcomes after arts experiences: too little, and people may not feel motivated to act or make a change; too much, and they may feel overwhelmed. These three processes are hypothesized to mutually influence each other, as they do in other media domains (Barlett and Anderson 2012). But researchers could choose to study one or more of them to better understand why arts experiences might lead to changes in empathy or prosocial behavior, and also, why they sometimes might not. For Whom, and Under Which Circumstances? The GAEM also posits that the effects of an art experience depend on the person and the situation. In terms of the person, a number of variables may be relevant. People likely interpret art experiences through the lenses they bring in. Because of this, studies should examine whether there are demographic differences in the effects of arts exposure, or at least statistically control for demographic variables. For example, young children may experience an artwork differently than adults, and thus, different outcomes may depend upon age. There may also be differences in the effects of arts engagement
12
Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida
depending upon gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and culture. For example, we have done research on the effects of attending a Holocaust museum. Our study found that attending a Holocaust museum led to an increase in prosocial behavior (donation to a humanitarian cause), but only for children with more educated parents (Bowen and Kisida 2020). This suggests that individuals require a sufficient level of context and experience in order to constructively assimilate challenging material into their worldview. Although this study is not included in our literature review on arts-related outcomes, it is a good example of how individuals’ backgrounds can color the way they respond to experiences. Personality traits may also influence how people respond to art works. For example, more overtly emotional art works may be more appealing to individuals who score high in trait empathy, and therefore, they may be more likely to respond prosocially to such art works. Similarly, people’s motivation to engage in the artwork likely influences the potential behavioral outcome. People who engage because they want to (i.e., intrinsic motivation) would probably have a larger behavior change compared to those engaging for some extrinsic reason (e.g., obligation or requirement). Being able to engage with the art is also important. Some people have more or less capacity to engage with art, especially challenging art. There are also a number of situational variables that would likely influence the extent to which arts engagement would affect behavior. The genre of art likely matters. There are many different kinds of art forms, and just because one type (e.g., music) influences prosocial behavior, does not imply that another type (e.g., visual art) will. Our review carefully examines the research evidence across a variety of genres, and finds that some are more consistently related to prosocial outcomes than others (tables 1.1– 1.5). This makes sense, since some forms of art include processes that are more empathy-relevant than others. Similarly, some forms of art tend to be more social than others, overall. But even within each art genre, it is possible to engage in the same activity (e.g., singing) alone or with others. The degree of social interaction likely plays a role in the extent to which the art experience will promote prosocial outcomes. All things being equal, we would expect arts experiences that require coordinated and cooperative social interactions to promote more prosociality than those that are done totally alone, or with minimal social engagement if others are present. Without a formal meta-analysis, we cannot say for certain, but based on our literature review, the current research appears to support this hypothesis. As with other types of media, the content likely also plays a role in determining whether there will be prosocial outcomes of arts experiences. Previous research on television and video games, for example, finds a “monkey see,
Does Arts Engagement Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior?
13
monkey do” effect: prosocial content promotes prosocial outcomes, while violent content promotes aggressive outcomes (Bushman and Huesmann 2006; Greitemeyer 2011; Greitemeyer and Mügge 2014). There is also likely a difference between creating art (e.g., painting, playing an instrument, dancing, acting, and writing) versus consuming it (e.g., attending an art museum, listening to a concert, watching a dance or theater performance, and reading). Indeed, our previous research examined links between arts engagement and prosocial traits and behavior in four large U.S. surveys. We found that, on average, consuming art was associated with more prosociality than creating art (Kou et al. 2019). In the current literature review, we also note gaps and patterns in the type of arts engagement. Finally, whether they are creating or consuming an art, people may respond differently to familiar art experiences, compared to those that are less familiar. Familiarity with an art experience could feel pleasant, but sometimes familiarity can lead to boredom or disengagement. We do not have strong hypotheses one way or the other, but just suggest that it is an important factor for future research to understand (Ruth 2019). Similarly, arts experiences can take up our full attention, or can be in the background—hence one of the reasons their implications are so difficult to pin down. Yet, researchers have found different prosocial effects of engaging with one art form (music), depending upon one’s level of attention (Ruth 2019). Attention would likely matter when experiencing other forms of art as well.
LITERATURE REVIEW General Arts Activities We identified twelve studies examining the relationship between general arts engagement and empathy and prosocial behavior.1 Ten of the twelve effects (83.3 percent) were positive. Of these twelve studies, four were correlational, five were longitudinal, and three were experimental. Most of the studies (8/12) focused on adult populations, with two longitudinal studies focusing on teens, and two experimental studies focusing on children. Thus, one clear gap for general arts engagement is that we need more experiments, and more research on younger populations. The studies covered a variety of types of arts engagement: five involved arts creation, five involved arts consumption, and two lumped both together. So there is no clear gap with respect to type of engagement. All eight studies that focused on prosocial behaviors found positive results, but none of these were experiments, and therefore there is no known direct causal evidence for the impact of general arts engagement on prosocial
14
Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida
behavior. As for prosocial traits, two of the four studies on empathy found positive results, however, both studies that found null results used experimental designs. This suggests that the causal effect of general arts engagement on empathy is not consistent. Visual Art We identified eighteen studies examining the relationship between visual arts engagement and empathy and prosocial behavior, with a total of twenty-two measures. As can be seen in table 1.1, only eleven (50 percent) of the twentytwo measures found positive results. This may be because of the nature of visual arts engagement, which can often be done without any social interaction. In addition, the visual arts often focus on technique, thinking in images, and close observation (Hetland et al. 2015), but not necessarily on empathic connection. Of the eighteen total studies, seven were correlational, one used a prepost-test design, four were longitudinal, and six were experimental. All of the correlational studies included adults, and most of these (7/8 measures) had positive results. About half of the longitudinal and experimental studies had children or teens, and the longitudinal studies were the least likely to find positive results (only 1/7 measures). This suggests that positive implications of visual arts may not last long or may be smaller at younger ages. In terms of the type of arts engagement, eight studies involved visual arts creation, nine involved arts consumption, and one lumped both together. So, again, there is no clear gap with respect to type of engagement. Measures of prosocial behaviors were more likely to have positive results (6/9 measures: 66.7 percent), compared to measures of prosocial traits (5/13 measures: 38.5 percent). Performing Arts Combined Only three studies (four measures) included different types of performing arts in a single measure, whereas several examined each type of performing art separately (see tables 1.2–1.4). Overall, three of the four measures were positive (75 percent). All of these studies were correlational, two of the three involved adults, and most of the measures (3/4; 75 percent) focused on prosocial behaviors. No studies examined combined performing arts consumption. Taken together, we are not concerned about gaps in this category, because the performing arts encompass many different art forms (theater, dance, and music), and it makes sense to evaluate them separately, if possible.
Adults
Adults
Adults (4 samples)
Adults (medical students) Children (7–10-yearolds)
Teens
Correlational
Correlational
Correlational
Pre–Post Test
Longitudinal
Longitudinal
(Yang and Yang)
(Goldstein and Winner “Enhancing Empathy”) (Goldstein and Winner “Enhancing Empathy”)
Adults Adults
Correlational Correlational
Participants
(Polzella and Forbis) (Polzella and Forbis) (Kou et al.)
Adults
Correlational
(LeRoux and Bernadska) (Jeannotte) (Jeannotte)
Adults
Correlational
Type of Study
(Drevdahl and Cattell)
Citation
Creation
Creation
Consumption
Both
Consumption
Consumption
Creation Consumption
Creation
Creation
Creation or Consumption
Table 1.1 Summary of Research on Visual Art and Prosocial Traits and Behaviors
Visual arts/music major vs. acting (high school)
After school visual arts classes vs. acting (elementary)
Average of making visual art and attending art museum Discuss paintings
Online visual art exhibit
Make visual art Attend visual art gallery or festival Attend visual art exhibit
Make art
Artists vs. writers vs. general population
Arts-Related Variable
(Continued)
= Prosocial behavior (no relationship) ↑ Prosocial traits ↑ Prosocial behaviors = Empathy (no change) = Empathy (no change) = Theory of mind (no change) = Empathy (no change) = Emotion recognition (no change) ↑ Empathic accuracy
↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Prosocial behavior ↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Emotional sensitivity (artists vs. general population) ↑ Prosocial behavior
Prosocial Variable
Does Arts Engagement Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior? 15
Adults (medical residents)
Adults (college students)
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
Source: Authors.
Experimental
Children (14–16-yearolds) Adults (health students)
Experimental
(Greene et al. “The Educational Value”) (You et al.)
(Zazulak et al. “The Impact of an Arts-Based Programme”) (Zazulak et al. “The Art of Medicine”) (Kim and Kim)
Children (7–8-yearolds) Children (9–17-yearolds)
Experimental
(Good and Russo)
Adults
Longitudinal
(Kou et al.)
Adults (graduate students)
Participants
Longitudinal
Type of Study
(Federman)
Citation
Consumption
Consumption
Consumption
Consumption
Consumption
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation or Consumption
Viewing art vs. nonart image
Art education vs. control group (quasi-experimental)
Empathy-based art class vs. traditional art class Art education vs. control group (quasi-experimental)
Group art vs. group singing vs. control Guided art museum visit vs. wait list control
Art therapy training vs. dance therapy training vs. social science students Make visual art
Arts-Related Variable
Table 1.1 Summary of Research on Visual Art and Prosocial Traits and Behaviors (Continued) Prosocial Variable
↑ Prosocial behavior
= Empathy (no difference)
= Empathy (no difference)
↑ Empathy
= Prosocial behaviors (no change) = Prosocial behavior (no difference) ↑ Historical empathy, tolerance
= Empathy (no change)
16 Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida
Children (7–10-yearolds)
Children (10–18-yearold athletes)
Teens
Children (6-year-olds)
Correlational Correlational
Correlational
Longitudinal
Longitudinal
Longitudinal
Experimental
(Jeannotte) (Polzella and Forbis)
(Polzella and Forbis)
(Goldstein and Winner “Enhancing Empathy”) (Rutten et al.)
(Goldstein and Winner “Enhancing Empathy”) (Schellenberg)
Adults
Correlational Correlational
(Nettle) (Jeannotte)
Adults Adults
Adults Adults
Teens & adults (college Creation students)
Correlational
After school acting classes vs. dance vs. summer camp Acting classes
Arts-Related Variable
↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Prosocial behavior ↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Theory of mind = Empathy (no relationship) ↑ Empathy ↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Theory of mind
Prosocial Variable
Creation
Drama lessons vs. control group (music)
(Continued)
↑ Adaptive social functioning
↑ Empathy over time = Theory of mind (no change) Consumption Watching theater production = Prosocial behaviors (no change) on sports-related moral dilemmas Creation Acting major vs. visual arts/ ↑ Empathy and theory of music (high school) mind over time
Professional acting Act or do other theater activity Consumption Attend theater performance Consumption Attend live theater performance Consumption Watch theater performance on media Creation After school acting classes vs. visual arts (elementary)
Creation Creation
Creation
Children (7–11-yearolds)
Correlational
(Goldstein and Winner “Engagement in Role Play”) (Goldstein et al.)
Creation or Consumption
Type of Study
Citation
Participants
Table 1.2 Summary of Research on Theater and Prosocial Traits and Behaviors
Does Arts Engagement Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior? 17
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
(Freeman et al.)
(Chandler)
(Chandler et al.)
(Greene et al. “The Play’s the Thing”) (Harvey and Miles)
(Zelenski et al.)
(Moore et al.)
Source: Authors.
Type of Study
Citation
Acting training vs. control group
Creation Creation
Arts-Related Variable Drama lessons vs. control group (music) Acting training vs. control groups
Creation
Creation or Consumption
Consumption Attending live theater vs. watching film vs. control Consumption Attending a play about Holocaust vs. control groups Adults (health students) Creation Improv course vs. control (quasi-experimental) Older adults Creation Drama class vs. control group
Children (8–9-yearolds) Children/Teens (delinquent boys age 11–13) Children/Teens (emotionally disturbed 9–14-yearolds) Children/Teens (9–17-year-olds) Children (12-year-olds)
Participants
Table 1.2 Summary of Research on Theater and Prosocial Traits and Behaviors (Continued) Prosocial Variable
↑ Self-report empathy = Emotion recognition = Empathy (no difference) = Prosocial behavior (no difference)
↑ Empathy
↑ Tolerance, empathy
↑ Theory of mind
= Social skills (no difference) ↑ Theory of mind
18 Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida
Correlational Correlational Correlational
Correlational
Longitudinal
Longitudinal
(Jeannotte) (Jeannotte) (Polzella and Forbis)
(Polzella and Forbis)
(Koshland)
(Goldstein and Winner “Engagement in Role Play”) (Federman)
(Cirelli et al. “Interpersonal Synchrony”) (Cirelli et al. “Fourteen-MonthOld Infants”)
Correlational Correlational
(Bonny et al.) (Kou et al.)
Experimental
Experimental
Longitudinal
Correlational
Type of Study
(Kalliopuska)
Citation
Children (7–11-yearolds) Adults (graduate students) Children (14-montholds) Children (14-montholds)
Children (6–9-yearolds)
Adults
Adults Adults Adults
Children (9–17-yearolds) Adults Adults (4 samples)
Participants
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Consumption
Creation Consumption Consumption
Creation Creation
Creation
Creation or Consumption
Table 1.3 Summary of Research on Dance and Prosocial Traits and Behaviors Arts-Related Variable
After school dance classes vs. acting vs. summer camp Dance therapy vs. art therapy vs. social science students Bouncing synchronously vs. asynchronously Bouncing synchronously vs. asynchronously
Watch dance performance on media Dance lessons vs. control group
Did choreography Attend dance performance Attend live dance performance
Hip-hop dance experience Dance or not
Ballet dancers vs. control
Prosocial Variable
(Continued)
↑ Prosocial behavior, but only toward synchronous partner (not stranger)
↑ Prosocial behavior
= Empathy (no change)
↓ Aggressive behavior over time = Prosocial behavior (no change) = Theory of mind (no change)
↑ Emotion recognition = Prosocial traits (no relationship) = Volunteering and helping (no relationship) ↑ Charitable giving ↑ Prosocial behavior ↑ Prosocial behavior = Prosocial behavior (no relationship) ↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Empathy
Does Arts Engagement Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior? 19
Adults Adults
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
(Reddish et al. “Let’s Dance Together”) (Reddish et al. “Collective Synchrony”) (Wiltermuth and Heath)
(Valdesolo and DeSteno)
(Tarr et al. “Silent Disco”)
Source: Authors.
Adults (college students) Adults
Experimental
(Lang et al.)
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
Adults
Adults
Adults (college students)
Experimental
(Tunçgenç and Cohen “Interpersonal Movement”) (Tunçgenç and Cohen “Movement Synchrony”) (Tarr et al. “Synchrony and Exertion”) (Good et al.)
Experimental
(9-year-
(4–6-year-
(4-year-
(14-month-
Children olds) Children olds) Children olds) Children olds) Teens
Experimental
(Cirelli et al. “Effects of Interpersonal”) (Rabinowitch and Meltzoff)
Children (14-montholds)
Participants
Experimental
Type of Study
(Cirelli et al. “Social Effects”)
Citation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation or Consumption
Bouncing synchronously vs. asynchronously Swinging synchronously vs. asynchronously Synchronous vs. asynchronous movement Synchronous vs. asynchronous movement Synchronous vs. asynchronous movement Tapping synchronously vs. asynchronously with group members Synchronous vs. asynchronous movement Synchronous vs. asynchronous movement Synchronous vs. asynchronous movement Synchronous singing and moving vs. synchronous singing only vs. asynchronous Tapping synchronously vs. asynchronously with partner Synchronous vs. asynchronous movement
Bouncing synchronously vs. asynchronously
Arts-Related Variable
Table 1.3 Summary of Research on Dance and Prosocial Traits and Behaviors (Continued)
↑ Empathy ↑ Prosocial behavior ↑ Social bonding
↑ Prosocial behavior, even toward outgroup members ↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Prosocial behavior toward outgroup members
↑ Social bonding, even toward outgroup ↑ Social bonding
↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Prosocial behavior, toward synchronous partner and her friend ↑ Prosocial behavior
Prosocial Variable
20 Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida
Correlational
Correlational
(Kawase)
Correlational
(Polzella and Forbis)
Correlational
(LeRoux and Bernadska) (Jeannotte)
Correlational Correlational
Adults
Correlational
(Kou et al.)
(Jeannotte) (Polzella and Forbis)
Adults
Correlational
(Kawase)
Adults (college students; music majors)
Adults
Adults Adults
Adults (college students; music majors) Adults (4 samples)
Correlational
(Miksza)
Participants
Children (3–4-yearolds) Teens
Correlational
Type of Study
(Ilari et al.)
Citation
Consumption
Consumption
Consumption Consumption
Creation
Creation
Sing or play musical instrument Attend music performance Attend live music performance (classical, jazz, opera) Watch music performance on media (classical, jazz, opera) Listening to music
Play music
Play instrument
Playing instrument for fun alone
Creation Creation
Participation in high school music ensembles
Time in music programs
Arts-Related Variable
Creation
Creation
Creation or Consumption
Table 1.4 Summary of Research on Music and Prosocial Traits and Behaviors
↑ Empathy
(Continued)
↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Prosocial behavior ↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Prosocial behaviors ↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Prosocial behaviors ↑ Importance of friendships, helping others, correcting inequality ↑ Empathy
Prosocial Variable
Does Arts Engagement Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior? 21
Children (4-year-olds)
Children (6-year-olds)
Longitudinal
Longitudinal
Longitudinal
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
(Rabinowitch et al.) (Pearce et al.)
(Kou et al.)
(Buren et al.)
(Kirschner and Tomasello) (Schellenberg)
Children (18-montholds)
Adults
Children (8–10-yearolds) Adults
Longitudinal
Longitudinal
(Schellenberg et al.)
Participants
Adults Adults (college students) Children (2–3-yearold) Children (8–9-yearolds)
Type of Study
Correlational Correlational
(Eerola et al.) (Garrido and Schubert) (Williams et al.)
Citation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Both
Consumption Consumption
Creation or Consumption
Create music (singing, rattle) vs. consume music (listen to song) vs. control Group music engagement vs. control group Music lessons vs. control group (drama)
Play instrument
Group music engagement vs. control group Group singing vs. nonsinging (craft, writing)
Group music training vs. control group
Family music activities
Listening to sad music Listening to sad music
Arts-Related Variable
Table 1.4 Summary of Research on Music and Prosocial Traits and Behaviors (Continued) Prosocial Variable
= Adaptive social functioning (no difference)
↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Social bonding over time (singers and writers) = Prosocial behaviors (no change) ↑ Prosocial behavior (create music)
↑Prosocial skills over time ↑ Empathy and prosocial skills over time, but only for low scorers ↑Empathy over time
↑ Empathy ↑ Empathy
22 Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida
Experimental
Source: Authors.
(Beer and Greitemeyer)
(Ruth and Schramm) (Ruth)
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
Experimental
Adults
Adults (college students) Adults (college students) Adults (college students) Adults (college students) Adults
Experimental
(Greitemeyer “Effects of Songs”) (Kniffin et al.)
Experimental
Adults (college students)
Experimental
(Wiltermuth and Heath)
(Saldamarco and Pettijohn II) (Yu et al.)
Children (7–8-yearolds) Adults
Experimental
(Good and Russo)
Consumption
Consumption
Consumption
Consumption
Consumption
Consumption
Consumption
Creation
Creation
Listen to happy vs. sad vs. neutral music in restaurant (quasi-experimental)
Listening to happy vs. other music Listen to prosocial vs. neutral music Listen to prosocial vs. neutral music Listen to prosocial vs. neutral music Listen to prosocial songs that are familiar (vs. not) and paying attention (vs. not)
Group singing vs. group art vs. control Synchronous singing & moving vs. synchronous singing only vs. asynchronous Listening to prosocial vs. neutral music
↑ Empathy = Prosocial behavior ↑ Prosocial behavior (depends on attention and familiarity) = Empathy (no difference) = Prosocial behavior (< age 65) ↑ Prosocial behavior (> age 65)
↑ Empathy
↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Empathy ↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Prosocial behavior
Does Arts Engagement Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior? 23
Adults
Adults (college students) Adults
Correlational
Correlational
Correlational
Correlational Correlational
Correlational
Correlational
Meta-analysis; Correlational
Longitudinal
Longitudinal
(Jeannotte)
(Jeannotte) (Johnson)
(Black and Barnes)
(Kou et al.)
(Mumper and Gerrig)
(Williams et al.)
(Pearce et al.)
Both
Consumption
Consumption Consumption
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation
Creation or Consumption
Consumption Meta-analysis of 36 correlational studies Children (2–3-year- Consumption olds) Adults Creation
Adults (2 samples of college students) Adults (4 samples)
Adults Adults
Adults
Correlational
(Drevdahl and Cattell) (Bischoff and Peskin) (Maslej et al.)
Adults
Participants
Correlational
Type of Study
(Taylor et al.)
Citation
Writing vs. craft vs. singing class
Parents reading to child
Average of writing and reading Reading more fiction and nonfiction
Writers vs. general population Writers vs. artists vs. general population Writers vs. general population Complexity of fictional character descriptions Write poetry, stories, nonfiction Read book for pleasure Being transported into story while reading Reading more fiction and nonfiction
Arts-Related Variable
Table 1.5 Summary of Research on Literature and Prosocial Traits and Behaviors
Prosocial behavior Empathy Prosocial behavior Empathy
↑ Social bonding over time (writers and singers)
↑Prosocial skills over time
↑ Prosocial traits ↑ Prosocial behaviors ↑ Empathy
↑ ↑ ↑ ↑
↑ Prosocial behavior
↑ Empathy
↑ Emotional sensitivity (writers vs. general population) = Empathy (no relationship)
↑ Empathy
Prosocial Variable
24 Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida
Longitudinal Experimental
(Kou et al.) (Misra-Hebert et al.)
Adults Adults (physicians)
Adults
Source: Authors.
Experimental (Koopman “Empathic Reactions”) (Koopman “How Experimental Texts About Suffering”) (Dodell-Feder and Experimental Tamir)
Consumption Consumption Consumption
Adults (college students)
Meta-analysis of 53 experimental studies
↑ Empathy
High imagery while reading ↑ Empathy vs. controls ↑ Prosocial behavior Fiction vs. nonfiction = Empathy (no difference) = Prosocial behavior (no difference) = Empathy (no difference) Genre (life narrative vs. ↑ Prosocial behavior for life literary narrative vs. narrative expository text) ↑ Empathy Reading fiction vs. nonfiction/ no reading controls
Creation
Consumption
↑Helping over time = Volunteering / donating (no change) =Prosocial behaviors (no change) ↑ Empathy
Read nonfiction Reflective writing vs. control (quasiexperimental) Reflective writing vs. control
Read fiction
Consumption Creation
Consumption
Adults (college students)
(Chen and Forbes) Pre-post or quasi- Systematic review experimental of 8 studies (medical students) (Johnson et al.) Experimental Adults
Longitudinal
(Kou et al.)
Does Arts Engagement Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior? 25
26
Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida
Theater We identified eighteen studies examining the relationship between engagement in theater and prosocial traits or behavior, with a total of twenty-two measures. As can be seen in table 1.2, fifteen (68.2 percent) of the twenty-two measures were positive. Of the eighteen total studies, seven were correlational, three were longitudinal, and eight were experimental. All of the longitudinal studies included children or teens, while most (6/8) of the experiments focused on this age group. Yet, most of the correlational studies (5/7) focused on adults. Thus, there are some gaps with respect to age and type of study design: more longitudinal and experimental designs are needed among adults. Correlational studies had the most positive results (7/8 measures; 87.5 percent), and longitudinal studies were the least likely to find positive results (2/4 measures; 50 percent), with experimental studies in between (6/10; 60 percent). This suggests that the causal effect of theater engagement on empathy is not consistent. It was also notable that there were double the amount of studies that examined theater creation (such as taking drama lessons or acting; twelve studies), compared to theater consumption (i.e., watching a theater performance; six studies). Future research should continue to examine the effects of watching live theater, especially with appropriate control groups to understand its unique effect (e.g., taped version of theater play, versus movie version of the story). In addition, the content would likely matter. For example, plays with violence might lead to increased aggressive thoughts and behaviors, as with other violent media (Bushman and Huesmann 2006). However, we are not aware of any research that asks this question. Dance There were more studies on dance, partly because this category included a number of studies that examined the effects of two or more people moving together in time (for a review, see Cross et al. 2019). This can be seen as dance-like, although it is not what many people have in mind when they think of either dancing or watching a dance performance. In addition, the dance category may overlap to some extent with theater (e.g., musical theater), so future researchers should be aware of this and determine whether this matters for potential prosocial influences. We found twenty-five studies that examined the relationship between dance and prosociality, with twenty-nine measures. As can be seen in table 1.3, twenty-three out of twenty-nine (79.3 percent) of the effects were positive. Of the twenty-five studies, seven were correlational, three were longitudinal, and
Does Arts Engagement Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior?
27
most (fifteen) were experimental. It is notable that all experimental studies found positive results, which suggest a consistent positive effect of dance (or joint movement) on prosocial behavior. It is also worth mentioning that currently this literature has a focus on prosocial behavior, with only six of the twenty-nine measures examining prosocial traits. Of those six, only half (three) found positive effects. Thus, more research is needed to examine how dance (or joint movement) affects prosocial traits. Another major gap in this research literature is that most of the current studies focus on creation (i.e., dancing or moving together), while only three focus on consumption (i.e., watching dance performances). Moreover, all of these consumption studies are correlational, meaning that we are currently lacking evidence on the causal effects of watching dance performances. As with theater, content likely matters. Several of the longitudinal and experimental studies focused on children— even some as young as fourteen months old—yet the effects seem consistent regardless of age. Music As with dance, music has some overlaps with theater (e.g., musical theater, opera) and also with dance, since most dance is in response to music. However, the studies we identified did not veer too closely in these blurry lanes, and instead, focused on more prototypical types of creating (e.g., music lessons, singing, playing an instrument) and consuming music (e.g., listening to music, attending a music performance). We found twenty-nine studies that examined the relationship between music and prosociality, with thirty-three measures. Of these measures, most were prosocial behaviors (twenty-two), but some included prosocial traits (eleven). As can be seen in table 1.4, twenty-eight of thirty-three (84.8 percent) of the effects were positive. Of the twenty-nine studies, twelve were correlational, six were longitudinal, and eleven were experimental. All measures from correlational studies had positive results, while five out of six (83 percent) of longitudinal measures and less (11/15; 73.3 percent) experimental measures were positive. Thus, as the quality of the evidence increases, the tendency to find positive results decreases. Nearly all (8/9; 88.9 percent) of the studies with children found positive results, while slightly less of the studies with adults did (19/24; 79.2 percent). We recommend more research on the effects of music on children’s prosocial traits and behaviors. In terms of level of engagement, there was almost an equal split between music creation (fifteen studies) and consumption (thirteen studies), with one study examining both combined.
28
Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida
It is notable that music is the only art genre that has several studies examining how content affects prosociality, with some studies finding that prosocial music increases empathy and prosocial behavior (see table 1.4). Literature The implications of literature (especially reading) for empathy are the most well-established finding in this research area, as evidenced by two recent meta-analyses (Dodell-Feder and Tamir 2018; Mumper and Gerrig). The first meta-analysis examined the relationship between reading and social cognitive outcomes, including empathy and theory of mind (Mumper and Gerrig 2017). Across thirty-six correlational studies, it found that people who read fiction (and, to a lesser extent, nonfiction) score higher on both outcomes. The second meta-analysis analyzed fifty-three measures from fourteen experimental studies, to examine the causal effect of reading fiction on empathy (DodellFeder and Tamir 2018). This paper found that overall, reading fiction caused an increase in empathy scores, compared to reading nonfiction or not reading. Both of these papers are included in table 1.5. But note that both of these focused on prosocial traits, rather than prosocial behaviors, so we have included some additional studies that examine the links between reading and prosocial behaviors. We have also included studies that were published after the meta-analyses. Overall, the correlational studies find consistent associations between reading and prosocial behaviors, but the longitudinal and experimental studies found less consistent results. This may be because research finds that reading is more likely to lead to prosocial behavior depending upon how much readers are transported into a story (Johnson 2012), how much imagery readers experience (Johnson et al. 2013), the type of prosocial behavior (Kou et al. 2019), and whether stories involve personal life narratives (Koopman 2015a; Koopman 2015). We recommend more systematic research on links between reading and prosocial behaviors. Reading involves consuming literature, and there is much less research on writing (creation) and prosociality. We have included any studies that we could find on prosocial implications of writing. First, several correlational studies compared writers to others, with most (3/4) finding that they scored higher in empathy or prosocial behavior (see table 1.5). An additional study finds that writers who write more complex characters score higher in empathy. Several studies have examined how taking writing classes is associated with empathy, including one systematic review that included eight studies that were either pre-post or had a control group (Chen and Forbes 2014). All of these studies, and two additional ones we include in table 1.5, find positive effects on empathy or social bonding. There is very little research that
Does Arts Engagement Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior?
29
extends beyond the effects on prosocial traits, into prosocial behavior. So we recommend that future research examine how writing may affect prosocial behaviors such as helping, sharing, and giving. It is notable that nearly all of the studies in this arts genre, including those in the meta-analyses, focus on implications for reading and writing in adult populations. However, one study found that parental reading to young children was associated with later prosocial skills (Williams et al. 2015). More research is needed to understand how reading and writing affect children’s prosociality. FUTURE DIRECTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Studying the effects of art experiences is not an easy task, but one could argue that the field is making progress. First and foremost, good research begins with asking the right questions. Two and a half decades ago, a landmark review of the literature, Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate About the Benefits of the Arts, exposed the lack of credible research on the intrinsic benefits of the arts, which the authors contended include outcomes like empathy and the creation of social bonds (McCarthy and Ondaatje 2005). Instead, the field had been focused on the instrumental benefits of the arts—items such as improved educational attainment and economic growth. The authors noted that in addition to a lack of research, even the basic language around the intrinsic benefits of the arts had yet to be developed. The fact that the vast majority of the research we’ve reviewed here is from the past decade is evidence of a recent and significant shift. It is promising to see social scientists responding to this challenge. Still, there is much to be done. While arts proponents have long held that the arts are a key method for instilling prosocial values, the social science community has only recently operationalized these theories into measurable outcomes and tested them with rigorous research designs. As we noted in our review, as the quality of the research increases, the tendency to identify positive results tends to decrease. We believe the following recommendations would be useful to help the field continue to push forward: • Although correlational studies are helpful in building theory and discovering relationships, only causal research can provide definitive evidence on the effects of the arts on prosocial outcomes. Despite the difficulty of conducting field experiments, it is imperative that researchers continue to contribute to the body of work that demonstrates causal relationships. Likewise, it is essential that program operators and funding agencies provide opportunities for quality research partnerships that can lead to quality research studies.
30
Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida
• Formal systematic literature review and/or meta-analysis is also recommended—we did not do either in this chapter, but there is now enough published research that these would be useful. The current review only included published studies, and a thorough meta-analysis could help to identify publication bias. • Finally, as we design future studies, it is essential to be guided by theory and try to understand not just whether arts engagement affects empathy or prosocial behavior, but how and why. In our General Arts Engagement Model, we have identified a number of other factors that may be relevant in terms of predicting under which circumstances arts engagement may affect empathy and prosocial behavior. Future work could build on this framework in efforts to disentangle the causal pathways through which different art genres, experienced in different scenarios, affect different populations. Specific areas of interest include the following: Examining content: As media research has documented, content matters. The art world is rich with examples of artistic creations and experiences that are deliberately embed prosocial messages and concepts. Exploring how such art, delivered through different mediums, produces impacts would shed important light on how much prosocial outcomes are dependent on intent. Examining motivation: An obvious question surrounding the effects of arts experiences relies on why the viewer seeks out the experience in the first place. Effects are likely different when engagement is voluntary or sought, compared to being required. It is also plausible that a certain level of ability and familiarity with the arts is a precondition for productive motivation. Examining the social context: Some arts experiences are communal by their very nature. Future research should make attempts to discover how much engaging with art socially versus alone moderates the effects of art on prosocial outcomes. Examining psychological processes: We still know very little about what happens to people’s thoughts and feelings while engaging with the arts. One potential mechanism is stress regulation—relaxing may help individuals be more open to others’ experiences. Other mechanisms include captivation, inspiration, pleasure, and mental stimulation (Brown, 2006). Understanding these thought processes would provide greater insight into how art works. {{
{{
{{
{{
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Overall, we find that most of the studies reviewed found a positive relationship between arts engagement and prosocial traits or behaviors. However, this
Does Arts Engagement Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior?
31
depended on the type of art, the population, the type of study, and the type of engagement. Thus, we recommend more systematic and theoretical attempts at understanding these patterns in future research. We hope that the General Arts Engagement Model will be useful to scholars who want to better understand implications of arts experiences. If arts engagement can indeed help to promote empathy and prosocial behavior, there are a number of implications. For individuals, this may have implications for health and well-being, since other research has documented the physical and mental health benefits of prosociality (Konrath 2014; Konrath and Brown 2012). Indeed, research has found that arts engagement is also associated with better mental and physical health (Davies et al. 2015; Fancourt and Steptoe 2019; Väänänen et al. 2009). More integrative models of implications of the arts would help to untangle intersecting processes between well-being and prosociality (Tay et al. 2018). Beyond individual benefits, communities may benefit from arts engagement in terms of stronger close relationships, increased social capital, less divisiveness and hostile attitudes toward “others,” and more prosocial activity directed toward nonprofit institutions in terms of donating money and volunteering time. Clearly, the effects of arts experiences are not simple, but the sentiments that were expressed at the beginning of this chapter have some empirical support. The arts can be a gateway for empathy and prosocial behavior, and future research should continue to unpack the complex implications of arts engagement. NOTE 1. If a paper included at least one activity that involved consuming an art (e.g., attending a museum or performance) and also included at least one activity that involved creating an art (e.g., drawing a picture or singing), we would consider these to be two separate studies, for the purpose of this review. We do so because we are separately commenting on consuming-versus-creating art. Several studies included different measures. If so, these are separately reported and discussed, since they did not always find consistent results.
REFERENCES Archbell, Kristen A. et al. “Participation in Structured Performing Arts Activities in Early to Middle Childhood: Psychological Engagement, Stress, and Links with Socioemotional Functioning.” Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, vol. 65, no. 3, 2019, pp. 329–355.
32
Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida
Barlett, Christopher P. and Craig A. Anderson. “Examining Media Effects: The General Aggression and General Learning Models.” The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, 2012. Batson, C.D. Altruism in Humans. Oxford University Press, 2011. Batson, C.D. and Adam Powell. “Altruism and Prosocial Behavior.” Handbook of Psychology. Personality and Social Psychology, edited by Theodore Millon and Melvin Lerner, vol. 5. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003. Beer, Annika and Tobias Greitemeyer. “The Effects of Background Music on Tipping Behavior in a Restaurant: A Field Study.” Psychology of Music, vol. 47, no. 3, 2019, pp. 444–450. Bischoff, Theanna and Joan Peskin. “Do Fiction Writers Have Superior Perspective Taking Ability?” Scientific Study of Literature, vol. 4, no. 2, 2014, pp. 125–149. Black, Jessica E. and Jennifer L. Barnes. “Fiction and Morality: Investigating the Associations between Reading Exposure, Empathy, Morality, and Moral Judgment.” Psychology of Popular Media, 2020. Bonny, Justin W. et al. “Hip Hop Dance Experience Linked to Sociocognitive Ability.” PLoS One, vol. 12, no. 2, 2017, p. e0169947. Bowen, Daniel H. and Brian Kisida. “Investigating Causal Effects of Arts Education Experiences: Experimental Evidence from Houston’s Arts Access Initiative.” Houston Education Research Consortium Research Report for the Houston Independent School District, vol. 7, no. 4, 2019, pp. 1–28. Bowen, Daniel H. and Brian Kisida. “Never Again: The Impact of Learning about the Holocaust on Civic Outcomes.” Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, vol. 13, no. 1, 2020, pp. 67–91. Buren, Verena et al. “Active Music Making Facilitates Prosocial Behaviour in 18-Month-Old Children.” Musicae Scientiae, 2019, p. 1029864919892308. Bushman, Brad J. and L. Rowell Huesmann. “Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of Violent Media on Aggression in Children and Adults.” Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, vol. 160, no. 4, 2006, pp. 348–352. Catterall, James S. “The Arts and Achievement in at-Risk Youth: Findings from Four Longitudinal Studies. Research Report# 55.” National Endowment for the Arts, 2012. Catterall, James S. “Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art.” Los Angeles, CA: Imagination Group, 2009. Chandler, Michael J. “Egocentrism and Antisocial Behavior: The Assessment and Training of Social Perspective-Taking Skills.” Developmental Psychology, vol. 9, no. 3, 1973, p. 326. Chandler, Michael J. et al. “Assessment and Training of Role-Taking and Referential Communication Skills in Institutionalized Emotionally Disturbed Children.” Developmental Psychology, vol. 10, no. 4, 1974, p. 546. Chen, Isabel and Connor Forbes. “Reflective Writing and Its Impact on Empathy in Medical Education: Systematic Review.” Journal of Educational Evaluation for Health Professions, vol. 11, 2014. Cirelli, Laura K. et al. “Interpersonal Synchrony Increases Prosocial Behavior in Infants.” Developmental Science, vol. 17, no. 6, 2014, pp. 1003–1011.
Does Arts Engagement Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior?
33
Cirelli, Laura K. et al. “Effects of Interpersonal Movement Synchrony on Infant Helping Behaviors: Is Music Necessary?” Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 34, no. 3, 2017, pp. 319–326. Cirelli, Laura K. et al. “Fourteen-Month-Old Infants Use Interpersonal Synchrony as a Cue to Direct Helpfulness.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 369, no. 1658, 2014, p. 20130400. Cirelli, Laura K. et al. “Social Effects of Movement Synchrony: Increased Infant Helpfulness Only Transfers to Affiliates of Synchronously Moving Partners.” Infancy, vol. 21, no. 6, 2016, pp. 807–821. Cross, Liam et al. “How Moving Together Binds Us Together: The Social Consequences of Interpersonal Entrainment and Group Processes.” Open Psychology, vol. 1, no. 1, 2019, pp. 273–302. Davies, Christina et al. “The Art of Being Mentally Healthy: A Study to Quantify the Relationship between Recreational Arts Engagement and Mental Well-Being in the General Population.” BMC public health, vol. 16, no. 1, 2015, p. 15. Dodell-Feder, D. and D. I. Tamir. “Fiction Reading Has a Small Positive Impact on Social Cognition: A Meta-Analysis.” Journal of Experimental PsychologyGeneral, vol. 147, no. 11, 2018, pp. 1713–1727, doi:10.1037/xge0000395. Drevdahl, John E and Raymond B Cattell. “Personality and Creativity in Artists and Writers.” Journal of Clinical Psychology, vol. 14, no. 2, 1958, pp. 107–111. Eerola, Tuomas et al. “Being Moved by Unfamiliar Sad Music Is Associated with High Empathy.” Frontiers in psychology, vol. 7, 2016. Fancourt, Daisy and Andrew Steptoe. “The Art of Life and Death: 14 Year Follow-up Analyses of Associations between Arts Engagement and Mortality in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.” BMJ, vol. 367, 2019. Federman, Dita Judith. “Kinesthetic Ability and the Development of Empathy in Dance Movement Therapy.” Journal of Applied Arts & Health, vol. 2, no. 2, 2011, pp. 137–154. Fengqin, Ding and Lu Zhaohui. “Association between Empathy and Prosocial Behavior: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Advances in Psychological Science, vol. 24, no. 8, 2016, pp. 1159–1174. Freeman, Gregory D. et al. “Effects of Creative Drama on Self-Concept, Social Skills, and Problem Behavior.” The Journal of Educational Research, vol. 96, no. 3, 2003, pp. 131–138. Garrido, Sandra and Emery Schubert. “Individual Differences in the Enjoyment of Negative Emotion in Music: A Literature Review and Experiment.” Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 28, no. 3, 2011, pp. 279–296. Goldstein, Thalia R and Ellen Winner. “Engagement in Role Play, Pretense, and Acting Classes Predict Advanced Theory of Mind Skill in Middle Childhood.” Imagination, Cognition and Personality, vol. 30, no. 3, 2011, pp. 249–258. Goldstein, Thalia R and Ellen Winner. “Enhancing Empathy and Theory of Mind.” Journal of Cognition and Development, vol. 13, no. 1, 2012, pp. 19–37. Goldstein, Thalia R et al. “Actors Are Skilled in Theory of Mind but Not Empathy.” Imagination, Cognition and Personality, vol. 29, no. 2, 2009, pp. 115–133.
34
Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida
Good, Arla et al. “Movement Synchrony Influences Intergroup Relations in a Minimal Groups Paradigm.” Basic and Applied Social Psychology, vol. 39, no. 4, 2017, pp. 231–238. Good, Arla and Frank A Russo. “Singing Promotes Cooperation in a Diverse Group of Children.” Social Psychology, 2016. Greene, Jay P. et al. “The Play’s the Thing: Experimentally Examining the Social and Cognitive Effects of School Field Trips to Live Theater Performances.” Educational Researcher, vol. 47, no. 4, 2018, pp. 246–254. Greene, Jay P. et al. “The Educational Value of Field Trips.” Education Next, vol. 14, no. 1, 2014, pp. 78–87. Greitemeyer, Tobias. “Effects of Prosocial Media on Social Behavior When and Why Does Media Exposure Affect Helping and Aggression?” Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol. 20, no. 4, 2011, pp. 251–255. Greitemeyer, Tobias. “Effects of Songs with Prosocial Lyrics on Prosocial Behavior: Further Evidence and a Mediating Mechanism.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol. 35, no. 11, 2009, pp. 1500–1511. Greitemeyer, Tobias and Dirk O Mügge. “Video Games Do Affect Social Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Effects of Violent and Prosocial Video Game Play.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol. 40, no. 5, 2014, pp. 578–589. Harvey, Mark L and Deborah Miles. “And Then They Came for Me: The Effectiveness of a Theatrical Performance and Study Guide on Middle-School Students' Holocaust Knowledge and Empathic Concern.” Youth Theatre Journal, vol. 23, no. 2, 2009, pp. 91–102. Hetland, Lois et al. Studio Thinking 2: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education. Teachers College Press, 2015. Ilari, Beatriz et al. “Associations between Musical Participation and Young Children’s Prosocial Behaviors.” Journal of Research in Music Education, vol. 67, no. 4, 2020, pp. 399–412. Imuta, Kana et al. “Theory of Mind and Prosocial Behavior in Childhood: A MetaAnalytic Review.” Developmental Psychology, vol. 52, no. 8, 2016, p. 1192. Jeannotte, M Sharon. “Singing Alone? The Contribution of Cultural Capital to Social Cohesion and Sustainable Communities.” The International Journal of Cultural Policy, vol. 9, no. 1, 2003, pp. 35–49. Johnson, Dan R. “Transportation into a Story Increases Empathy, Prosocial Behavior, and Perceptual Bias toward Fearful Expressions.” Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 52, no. 2, 2012, pp. 150–155. Johnson, Dan R. et al. “Potentiating Empathic Growth: Generating Imagery While Reading Fiction Increases Empathy and Prosocial Behavior.” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, vol. 7, no. 3, 2013, p. 306. Jordan, Barbara. “Op/Art.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/ 1993/03/21/opart/d762298d-f38e-4e7d-a14d-08327161b44d/, 1993. Kalliopuska, Mirja. “Empathy, Self-Esteem and Creativity among Junior Ballet Dancers.” Perceptual and Motor Skills, vol. 69, no. 3–2, 1989, pp. 1227–1234.
Does Arts Engagement Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior?
35
Kawase, Satoshi. “Associations among Music Majors’ Personality Traits, Empathy, and Aptitude for Ensemble Performance.” Psychology of Music, vol. 44, no. 2, 2016, pp. 293–302, doi:10.1177/0305735614568697. Kim, Dooiee and Sang-Hoon Kim. “Art Beyond Art’s Sake: The Influence of Artistic Cues on Prosocial Choice.” Empirical Studies of the Arts, vol. 36, no. 1, 2018, pp. 22–40. Kirschner, Sebastian and Michael Tomasello. “Joint Music Making Promotes Prosocial Behavior in 4-Year-Old Children.” Evolution and Human Behavior, vol. 31, no. 5, 2010, pp. 354–364. Kniffin, Kevin M. et al. “The Sound of Cooperation: Musical Influences on Cooperative Behavior.” Journal of Organizational Behavior, vol. 38, no. 3, 2017, pp. 372–390. Konrath, Sara. “The Power of Philanthropy and Volunteering.” Wellbeing: A Complete Reference Guide. Interventions and Policies to Enhance Wellbeing, edited by Felicia Huppert and Cary L. Cooper, vol. VI. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2014, pp. 387–426. Konrath, Sara and S.L. Brown. “The Effects of Giving on Givers.” Handbook of Health and Social Relationships, edited by N Roberts and M Newman. American Psychological Association, 2012. Koopman, E. M. “Empathic Reactions after Reading: The Role of Genre, Personal Factors and Affective Responses.” Poetics, vol. 50, 2015, pp. 62–79, doi:10.1016/j. poetic.2015.02.008. Koopman, E. M. “How Texts About Suffering Trigger Reflection: Genre, Personal Factors, and Affective Responses.” Psychology of Aesthetics Creativity and the Arts, vol. 9, no. 4, 2015, pp. 430–441, doi:10.1037/aca0000006. Koshland, Lynn. “Peace through Dance Movement Therapy.” Arts Therapies in Schools: Research and Practice, 2009, p. 43. Kou, Xiaonan et al. “Arts Engagement, Prosocial Traits, and Prosocial Behavior.” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, & the Arts, vol. Advance Online Publication, 2019, p. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000269. Lang, Martin et al. “Sync to Link: Endorphin-Mediated Synchrony Effects on Cooperation.” Biological Psychology, vol. 127, 2017, pp. 191–197. LeRoux, Kelly and Anna Bernadska. “Impact of the Arts on Individual Contributions to Us Civil Society.” Journal of Civil Society, vol. 10, no. 2, 2014, pp. 144–164. Mangione, Salvatore et al. “Medical Students’ Exposure to the Humanities Correlates with Positive Personal Qualities and Reduced Burnout: A Multi-Institutional Us Survey.” Journal of general internal medicine, vol. 33, no. 5, 2018, pp. 628–634. Maslej, M. M. et al. “Creating Fictional Characters: The Role of Experience, Personality, and Social Processes.” Psychology of Aesthetics Creativity and the Arts, vol. 11, no. 4, 2017, pp. 487–499, doi:10.1037/aca0000094. McCarthy, K.F. and E.H. Ondaatje. “L. Zakaras, and A. Brooks.” Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate about the Benefits of the Arts, 2005. Miksza, Peter. “Investigating Relationships between Participation in High School Music Ensembles and Extra-Musical Outcomes: An Analysis of the Education
36
Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida
Longitudinal Study of 2002 Using a Bioecological Development Model.” Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 2010, pp. 7–25. Misra-Hebert, Anita D. et al. “Improving Empathy of Physicians through Guided Reflective Writing.” 2012. Moore, Raeanne C. et al. “Development and Pilot Randomized Control Trial of a Drama Program to Enhance Well-Being among Older Adults.” The Arts in Psychotherapy, vol. 52, 2017, pp. 1–9. Mumper, Micah L. and Richard J. Gerrig. “Leisure Reading and Social Cognition: A Meta-Analysis.” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, vol. 11, no. 1, 2017, p. 109. Nettle, Daniel. "Psychological Profiles of Professional Actors." Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 40, no. 2, 2006, pp. 375–383. Nowak, Magdalena. “The Complicated History of Einfuhlung.” Argument: Biannual Philosophical Journal, vol. 1, no. 2, 2011, pp. 301–326. Pearce, Eiluned et al. “Tuning in to Others: Exploring Relational and Collective Bonding in Singing and Non-Singing Groups over Time.” Psychology of Music, vol. 45, no. 4, 2017, pp. 496–512. Polzella, Donald J. and Jeremy S. Forbis. “Relationships between Different Types and Modes of Arts-Related Experiences, Motivation, and Civic Engagement.” Washington. Retrieved January, vol. 27, 2016, p. 2020. Potash, Jordan S. et al. “Art-Making in a Family Medicine Clerkship: How Does It Affect Medical Student Empathy?” BMC Medical Education, vol. 14, no. 1, 2014, p. 247. Rabinowitch, T.C. et al. “Long-Term Musical Group Interaction Has a Positive Influence on Empathy in Children.” Psychology of Music, vol. 41, no. 4, 2013, pp. 484–498, doi:10.1177/0305735612440609. Rabinowitch, T.C. and Andrew N. Meltzoff. “Synchronized Movement Experience Enhances Peer Cooperation in Preschool Children.” Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, vol. 160, 2017, pp. 21–32. Reddish, Paul et al. “Let’s Dance Together: Synchrony, Shared Intentionality and Cooperation.” PLoS One, vol. 8, no. 8, 2013, p. e71182. Reddish, Paul et al. “Collective Synchrony Increases Prosociality Towards Non‐Performers and Outgroup Members.” British Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 55, no. 4, 2016, pp. 722–738. Ruth, Nicolas. “‘If You Wanna Make the World a Better Place’: Factors Influencing the Effect of Songs with Prosocial Lyrics.” Psychology of Music, vol. 47, no. 4, 2019, pp. 568–584. Ruth, Nicolas and Holger Schramm. “Effects of Prosocial Lyrics and Musical Production Elements on Emotions, Thoughts and Behavior.” Psychology of Music, 2020, p. 0305735620902534. Rutten, Esther A. et al. “Using Forum Theatre in Organised Youth Soccer to Positively Influence Antisocial and Prosocial Behaviour: A Pilot Study.” Journal of Moral Education, vol. 39, no. 1, 2010, pp. 65–78. Saldamarco, Chelsey N. and Terry F Pettijohn II. “Evaluating Time Delay and Exposure to Songs with Prosocial Lyrics and Their Effects on Prosocial Behavior.” North American Journal of Psychology, vol. 21, no. 4, 2019.
Does Arts Engagement Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior?
37
Schellenberg, E Glenn. “Music Lessons Enhance Iq.” Psychological Science, vol. 15, no. 8, 2004, pp. 511–514. Schellenberg, E. Glenn et al. “Group Music Training and Children's Prosocial Skills.” PLoS One, vol. 10, no. 10, 2015, p. e0141449. Tarr, Bronwyn et al. “Synchrony and Exertion During Dance Independently Raise Pain Threshold and Encourage Social Bonding.” Biology Letters, vol. 11, no. 10, 2015, p. 20150767. Tarr, Bronwyn et al. “Silent Disco: Dancing in Synchrony Leads to Elevated Pain Thresholds and Social Closeness.” Evolution and Human Behavior, vol. 37, no. 5, 2016, pp. 343–349. Tay, Louis et al. “The Role of the Arts and Humanities in Human Flourishing: A Conceptual Model.” The Journal of Positive Psychology, vol. 13, no. 3, 2018, pp. 215–225. Taylor, Marjorie et al. “The Illusion of Independent Agency: Do Adult Fiction Writers Experience Their Characters as Having Minds of Their Own?” Imagination, Cognition and Personality, vol. 22, no. 4, 2003, pp. 361–380. Tolstoy, Leo. What Is Art? Bobbs-Merrill Co., Liberal Arts Press, 1960/1897. Tunçgenç, Bahar and Emma Cohen. “Interpersonal Movement Synchrony Facilitates Pro‐Social Behavior in Children's Peer‐Play.” Developmental Science, vol. 21, no. 1, 2018, p. e12505. Tunçgenç, Bahar and Emma Cohen. “Movement Synchrony Forges Social Bonds across Group Divides.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 7, 2016, p. 782. Väänänen, Ari et al. “Engagement in Cultural Activities and Cause-Specific Mortality: Prospective Cohort Study.” Preventive Medicine, vol. 49, no. 2–3, 2009, pp. 142–147. Valdesolo, Piercarlo and David DeSteno. “Synchrony and the Social Tuning of Compassion.” Emotion, vol. 11, no. 2, 2011, p. 262. Van de Vyver, Julie and Dominic Abrams. “The Arts as a Catalyst for Human Prosociality and Cooperation.” Social Psychological and Personality Science, vol. 9, no. 6, 2018, pp. 664–674. Vreeland, Susan. “Interview for Prentice Hall E-Zine.” Interview by Philip Fried, http://www.svreeland.com/lbp-interview.html, 2006. Watson, Angela et al. “Altered Attitudes and Actions: Social-Emotional Effects of Multiple Arts Field Trips.” 2019. Williams, Kate E. et al. “Associations between Early Shared Music Activities in the Home and Later Child Outcomes: Findings from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.” Early Childhood Research Quarterly, vol. 31, 2015, pp. 113–124. Wiltermuth, Scott S. and Chip Heath. “Synchrony and Cooperation.” Psychological Science, vol. 20, no. 1, 2009, pp. 1–5. Yang, Kuang-Tao and Jen-Hung Yang. “A Study of the Effect of a Visual Arts-Based Program on the Scores of Jefferson Scale for Physician Empathy.” BMC Medical Education, vol. 13, no. 1, 2013, p. 142. You, Sukkyung et al. “The Effects of Middle School Art Class with an EmpathyBased Learning Model.” Current Psychology, 2018, pp. 1–11. Yu, Yue et al. “Lyrics Only or Lyrics with Music? The Effect of Different Lyric Conditions on Prosocial‐Related Outcomes.” PsyCh Journal, vol. 8, no. 4, 2019, pp. 503–512.
38
Sara Konrath and Brian Kisida
Zazulak, Joyce et al. “The Impact of an Arts-Based Programme on the Affective and Cognitive Components of Empathic Development.” Medical Humanities, 2015, pp. medhum-2014-010584. Zazulak, Joyce et al. “The Art of Medicine: Arts-Based Training in Observation and Mindfulness for Fostering the Empathic Response in Medical Residents.” Medical Humanities, 2017, pp. medhum-2016-011180. Zelenski, Amy B. et al. “Interprofessional Improv: Using Theater Techniques to Teach Health Professions Students Empathy in Teams.” Academic Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 2020.
Chapter 2
Public Outreach Innovation and Sustainability of Arts Organizations in the Detroit Metropolitan Area Alisa V. Moldavanova
INTRODUCTION Cultural organizations are important contributors to social ecology. They encourage creativity, stimulate cultural diversity, foster civic engagement and community-level social capital, participate in local policymaking, and contribute to local economic development (Florida 2002; LeRoux and Bernadska 2014; Markusen 2014; Moldavanova and Wright 2020; Rushton and Landesman 2013; Throsby 1995; Tubadji, Osoba, and Nijkamp 2015). Despite their importance to communities, cultural institutions face many sustainability pressures, such as the declining arts participation, an increasing competition with the entertainment industry, technological changes, economic recessions, and the decline of both public and private support for the arts (McCarthy, Ondaatje, and Novak 2007; Toepler and Wyszomirski, 2012). In response to such challenges, many arts organizations have been in search for innovative ways to expand, diversify, and broaden their public outreach function (Azmat, Yuka, and Rentschler 2015; Borwick, 2012; Grams and Farrell 2008; McCarthy et al. 2007; Moldavanova 2016). However, there is a dearth of studies that research how public outreach innovation is used by arts organizations to both contribute to their local communities and enhance their own prospects for organizational survival and sustainability. This chapter seeks to fill the gap in the literature by providing tentative answers to the following research questions: (1) What types of reasons and rationales foster public outreach innovation in the arts field? (2) In which ways do innovative outreach strategies support organizational survival and sustainability? 39
40
Alisa V. Moldavanova
The chapter relies on the premises of the resource dependency (Pfeffer and Salancik 1978) and stakeholder theories (Bryson, Crosby, and Stone 2015; Dowling and Pfeffer 1975; Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978; Suchman 1995; Thomas and Lamm, 2012), as well as literature on organizational innovation (Cnaan and Vinokur-Kaplan 2015; Hull and Lio 2006; McDonald 2007; Mulroy and Shay 1997; Osborne 1998; Osborne and Brown 2011; Salamon 2010; Van De Ven 1986), to develop and assess four theory-based propositions regarding the use of public outreach innovation in the arts and culture field. The basic argument underlying these propositions is that arts and culture organizations would prioritize their financial and resource needs, as well as relationships with their key stakeholders, while engaging in innovative outreach practices. The chapter reports result of the qualitative content analysis study of thirtyfour public outreach innovations developed by seventeen cultural organizations located in the Detroit metropolitan area (Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and Washtenaw counties). This geographic area was chosen based on the proximity and relatedness of the arts and culture ecosystem, as well as similar history and socioeconomic conditions that exist in this part of the metropolitan area (Moldavanova and Akbulut-Gok 2020). The study relied on the convenience sampling that resulted in twenty-two innovations produced by urban and twelve innovations produced by suburban organizations, and in which sixteen organizations were small, eleven were medium-sized, and seven were large. Textual descriptions of innovations were collected from organizational websites and other open source material, and were then coded and analyzed using Atlas.ti qualitative data analysis software. As a result of this analysis, the study identified three main themes associated with public outreach innovations by the arts sector organizations in the Detroit metropolitan area, as follows: 1) Innovative outreach projects pursue specific functional purposes aimed at enhancing the prospects for organizational survival and sustainability. 2) Innovative outreach strategies frequently involve partnering with other organizations outside of the arts sector. 3) Innovative outreach strategies are frequently driven by values to which organizational managers are committed. These themes not only provide partial support but also offer a more nuanced view of the theory-based research propositions advanced in the article. The chapter discusses the above three themes that emerged from the research and explains their significance for understanding public outreach innovation in the arts sector. It also provides the analysis of how reasons for innovation differ depending on the organizational size (small, medium, and
Public Outreach Innovation and Sustainability
41
large) and location (urban and suburban). The findings section wraps up by defining and discussing the various values that guide public outreach innovations alongside more pragmatic types of reasons and purposes. The concluding section discusses the practical implications of the research findings, and offers several directions and questions for future research. CONTEXT: ARTS AND CULTURE SECTOR IN METROPOLITAN DETROIT Detroit’s arts and culture sector is one of the most diverse and oldest in the nation. Several of the major cultural institutions still in existence today were created during the period of 1850–1900 following the growth of the diverse industries and overall wealth (CultureSource, 2020). Three of the oldest organizations are associated with the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and the oldest of the Detroit-based organizations include the Detroit Zoological Society (founded in 1893) as well as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1887) and the Detroit Institute of the Arts (1885). During the period of 1850–1900, Detroit has quickly established itself as “the Paris of the Midwest” due to its many arts and culture venues, tree-lined avenues, numerous churches, architecturally beautiful homes, and civic buildings (CultureSource, 2020). Since these early times, Detroit has also established itself as a center of private philanthropic activity, including the one supporting the arts. In 2013, immediately following the Great Recession, there were over 4,000 arts and culture organizations in the four-county area of Metropolitan Detroit (Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and Washtenaw counties) comprising the forprofit, nonprofit, and unincorporated entities (Sustain Arts, 2014). For every nonprofit organization, there were six for-profit organizations, all operating under six common subfields: dance, film and electronic media, humanities (including the libraries), literary arts, music, theater, visual arts, and multidisciplinary organizations. Visual arts and film and electronic media are especially dominated by the for-profit sector, and humanities are dominated by the nonprofits. The largest portion of nonprofit organizations is located in Wayne County—home of the city of Detroit. Regardless of the sectoral affiliation, small organizations are more numerous. For example, 51 percent of nonprofit arts and culture organizations have annual budgets of less than $50,000 and more than three quarters have annual budgets of less than $500,000 (Sustain Arts, 2014). Further, nearly two-thirds of for-profit organizations have annual budgets of less than $500,000 (Sustain Arts, 2014). Smallest among other nonprofits are the humanities and music organizations. Unsurprisingly, large organizations also have better survival rates as compared to small organizations (Sustain Arts, 2014).
42
Alisa V. Moldavanova
In terms of their funding profile, following the recession of early 1990 and the population migration out of the Detroit metropolitan area, cultural organizations have become increasingly self-reliant (Sustain Arts, 2014), which is an especially meaningful development for understanding the context behind their engagement in innovation. Most of the foundation giving in the area supports the oldest and largest organizations, and there are also inequities in supporting cultural organizations in the communities of color (Sustain Arts, 2014). Public funding for the arts, although not insignificant, is very small as compared to private support and earned income. Per the Sustain Arts’ report (2014), state funding has seen an especially sharp decline in the period of 1993–2012. These funding patters for the arts in Metropolitan Detroit also provide valuable context for understanding how arts and culture organizations choose their partners for the public outreach innovation projects. LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORY Research on organizational innovation is a growing body of literature that attracts attention of business, nonprofit, and even public sector scholars (Cnaan and Vinokur-Kaplan 2015; Hull and Lio 2006; McDonald, 2007; Mulroy and Shay 1997; Osborne 1998; Osborne and Brown 2011; Salamon, 2015; Van De Ven 1986). The prominence of innovation research in the public service context is associated with the growing demands placed upon both nonprofit and governmental organizations to continue delivering high-quality services while being responsive to the increasingly diverse clients, all under the fiscal austerity regime (Osborne, 1998; Osborne and Brown, 2011; Phills, Deiglmeier, and Miller 2008; Salamon 2015). In fact, innovation challenge has been considered as one of the most important tasks that all nonprofits, regardless of their subfield, face in the modern world, especially following the Great Recession of 2009 (Salamon 2015). These calls for more innovation are becoming even more urgent now, as the communities around the world are facing the need to deal with the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, including the stressed economy and growing resource scarcity. Nonprofit arts and culture organizations are not immune from those demands, particularly because they rely greatly on private support and earned income for their livelihood (Toepler and Wyszomirski 2012), and therefore, they use innovation as a way to connect to their existing and new markets. Public outreach innovation, specifically, has been growing in demand as a way of addressing a number of environmental problems that arts and culture organizations face (Azmat, Yuka, and Rentschler 2015; Borwick, 2012; Grams and Farrell 2008; McCarthy et al. 2007; Moldavanova 2016),
Public Outreach Innovation and Sustainability
43
especially the declining arts participation, increasing competition with the entertainment industry, and technological changes (McCarthy, Ondaatje, and Novak 2007; Moldavanova 2016; Toepler and Wyszomirski 2012). These challenges become especially urgent during and after economic recessions (Moldavanova and Akbulut-Gok 2020). Despite such growing scholarly interest in innovation, including in the arts and culture field, there is a dearth of studies that investigate how public outreach innovation is used by arts and culture organizations to the benefit of their local communities and organizations themselves. There is also a variety of definitions regarding what actually is considered as innovation, complicating the empirical research on the subject (Osborne 1998; Osborne, Chew and McLaughlin 2008; Phills et al. 2008). For example, one debatable question is the magnitude of a project, tool, or intervention that would allow classifying it as an innovation, as opposed to considering it a common way of running organizational business (Cnaan and Vinokur-Kaplan 2015). The definitions of innovation in the social sectors also tend to carry normative assumptions, which are uniquely attributable to the sector (Osborne 1998; Osborne et al. 2008; Phills et al. 2008). For example, Phills et al. (2008) suggest focusing on the sustainability of innovation as well as a wide set of public values associated with social innovation. They define social innovation as “a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals” (p. 36). To that extent, social innovation outcomes benefit the society as a whole, rather than specific groups of organizational clients. Examples of such macro-level social innovations include charter schools, microfinance, habitat conservation plans, socially responsible investing, and community-centered planning among other (Phills et al. 2008). These innovations are all designed to solve particular societal problems, and they foster overall sustainable community development. Commonly, however, at the meso- or organizational-level, innovation could be defined as the development and implementation of new ideas that have important social meaning and seek to advance organizational ability to achieve its goals (Van De Ven 1986). These ideas could be completely new, new regarding a target population, new in a certain region, or new within a given organization (Cnaan and Vinokur-Kaplan 2015). In this regard, innovation implies a change either for organizations or their clients, or both (Osborne 1998). Examples of such innovations include starting a new branch of an existing organization, repurposing the existing facilities for new clients, opening an existing program on different days of the week, adapting existing programs for people with learning disabilities, among others (Osborne 1998).
44
Alisa V. Moldavanova
This study adopts the above definition by focusing on public outreach innovations that are either new to a particular arts and culture organization, and that might have been implemented previously by others in the field, or new to the field or region itself (in this case, Metropolitan Detroit). In both cases, innovation implies some sort of change in organizational routines, whether directed internally or externally (Hull and Lio 2006; Osborne 1998). Such definition is more inclusive rather than focusing on a brand-new product or program for the entire field, but it also allows grasping organizational motivations and goals when it comes to innovation, which is the main research question here. Literature on organizational innovation in the nonprofit sector notes several distinct features uniquely attributable to the sector itself. The distinction of the nonprofit context for innovation is based upon the differences in the organizational structure, mission, and values, normative environment in which nonprofits function, as well as their organizational and human resource capacity (Hull and Lio 2006). These differences manifest themselves through specific processes and organizational logics related to the planning, execution, and evaluation of innovations. For example, risk-taking is essential for innovation (Van De Ven 1986). For a business firm, their risk tolerance is defined primarily by shareholder preferences as those preference reflect the financial bottom line considerations. Nonprofits, on the other hand, are driven more by the results of their work, rather than the financial bottom line, therefore, they are less likely to be tolerant of innovation-related failure that may come with the risk necessary for innovation (Hull and Lio 2006). Therefore, risk is more likely to be weighted more heavily in the nonprofit context prior to undertaking new projects or changing the existing routines. The first feature distinguishing nonprofit innovation is a process rather than a product orientation of organizational innovation that allows nonprofits to focus on their social missions and double or even triple bottom lines that they pursue (Hull and Lio 2006; Moldavanova and Goerdel 2018; Phills et al. 2008). In this case, the focus is on organizational processes that produce innovation, such as individual creativity, organizational structure, environmental context, and social and economic factors, rather than only on new services or new service features (Phills et al. 2008). Such focus allows viewing nonprofit innovation as an organizational management and improvement tool, rather than product delivery tool, which is beneficial for overall organizational capacity. This type of disposition toward innovation is also normatively preferred in light of the nonprofit distinctiveness, and it allows organizations to treat innovation as a learning process regardless of the outcomes (Argyris and Schön 1978; Hull and Lio 2006; Van De Ven 1986). It also implies that sources of innovation in the nonprofit environment could be external, such as additional resources provided by foundations or public donors that would
Public Outreach Innovation and Sustainability
45
enable organizational risk-taking, or best practices of innovation already tested in the business environment that nonprofits may want to adapt and replicate. The second important feature of nonprofit innovation is that successful innovative projects are fundamentally mission-driven (Cnaan and VinokurKaplan, 2015; Hull and Lio 2006; McDonald 2007; Phills et al. 2008). Nonprofit missions can facilitate innovation, in turn leading to improved organizational performance. Aside from this instrumental goal, however, nonprofit innovation could be framed as “social innovation” implying the unique social value creation that comes with it (Phills et al. 2008). This view allows connecting the macro-level of innovation that reflects larger societal issues that innovative projects seek to resolve with the meso-level innovation considerations that connect societal needs with organizational missions. Focusing on the mission may also alleviate some of the psychological limitations associated with innovations, such as managerial risk aversion that often becomes a part of the innovation process (Van De Ven 1986). Keeping the mission in mind also enhances the legitimacy of innovation by engaging a broader set of stakeholders in the process of innovation design and adoption, leading, in some cases, to organizational learning via goal modification and reconsideration of the exiting routines and practices (Van De Ven 1986). Finally, cooperation with other actors, both inside and outside of the nonprofit field, is important for starting and sustaining nonprofit innovation (Boyd and Munoz 2015; Guo and Acar 2005; Hull and Lio 2006; Mulroy and Shay 1997; Osborne and Brown 2011; Seitanidi and Crane 2009; Sowa 2008). However, the quality of collaboration can also determine whether an innovative project will be successful and sustainable in the long run (Mulroy and Shay 1997). The most common partners that nonprofits rely on in the context of public service delivery innovation are governmental organizations, typically at the state- or local-level. In these types of relationships, governments are typically seen as resource providers, while nonprofits are valued for their expert knowledge as well as access to clients (Alexander and Nank 2009; Gazley and Brudney 2007). Business organizations are also often considered as valuable partners by nonprofits in their innovative projects both because businesses can provide the resources needed to executive innovations initiated by nonprofits, and because they can also serve as the source of innovative ideas in the first place (Seitanidi and Crane 2009). Aside from these cross-sectoral partnerships, innovation in the nonprofit sector often involves partnerships with subfield specific types of organizations. For example, in the arts and culture field, common partners may include K–12 groups or universities as well as social service nonprofits (Moldavanova and Goerdel 2018; Moldavanova and Akbulut-Gok 2020). These types of partners provide
46
Alisa V. Moldavanova
resources, expertise, and connections needed for innovations to flourish and sustain. In the nonprofit sector, the pressures to innovate are fostered by both internal organizational logics, typically in resource-constrained environments, where innovation is seen as a way to acquire new or additional resources (Pfeffer and Salancik 1978; Varbanova 2013), or as part of organizational efforts to respond to their external stakeholders and gain greater overall organizational legitimacy (Dowling and Pfeffer 1975; Pfeffer and Salancik 1978; Thomas and Lamm 2012). According to the resource dependency perspective, the ability of organizations to effectively derive resources from their external environment is of key importance for organizational survival (Aldrich and Pfeffer 1976; Pfeffer and Salancik 2003). The resource dependency theory explains how organizations cope with resource deficiencies caused by fiscal recessions and other external pressures by making strategic choices that ultimately allow them to effectively manage their resource dependency and increase their autonomy. This perspective implies that organizations are capable of learning and adapting to changes in their environments (Van De Ven 1986; Argyris and Schön 1978). To that end, the development and adoption of public outreach innovations by nonprofit arts and culture organizations could be seen as a form of organizational adaptation to the pressures associated with the declining audiences, increasing competition with entertainment businesses, and the loss of private and public funds following the Great Recession, which are all quite salient in the organizational external environment. While innovations are often used to draw in resources, they also require substantial investment and the presence of organizational capacity as well as external funding (Osborne, Chew, and McLaughin 2008; Walker 2008). Therefore, it makes sense that nonprofit arts and culture organizations would likely rely on various partnerships with other resourceful actors, such as businesses and governments, to initiate, execute, and sustain their public outreach innovations. It may be expected that organizations of various sizes would engage in innovation differently because they possess varying degrees of organizational and management capacity. It may also be expected that organizations operating in urban environments would engage in innovation differently from those located in the suburbs, at least in part because they would have access to different partners as well as different resource streams (Faulk, Willems, Johnson, and Stewart 2016; Moldavanova and Akbulut-Gok 2020). Aside from resource-related considerations, innovation could also be seen as part of organizational efforts to respond to the preferences of their external stakeholders in order to gain greater overall organizational legitimacy
Public Outreach Innovation and Sustainability
47
(Dowling and Pfeffer 1975; Pfeffer and Salancik 1978; Thomas and Lamm 2012). Organizational legitimacy is defined as, “a condition or status which exists when an entity’s value system is congruent with the value system of the larger social system of which the entity is a part. When a disparity, actual or potential, exists between the two value systems, there is a threat to the entity’s legitimacy” (Dowling and Pfeffer 1975, 122). Aside from enhancing organizational prospects for immediate survival via better relations with key stakeholders, higher levels of legitimacy benefit organizations in the long run by contributing to their long-term sustainability (Thomas and Lamm 2012; Moldavanova 2016). The question of legitimacy is of paramount importance to all organizational types—business, government, and nonprofit (Suchman 1995). However, in the public and nonprofit sectors, organizational legitimacy is not limited to economic considerations; rather it is rooted in the congruence between the normative environment of organization and its behaviors, products, or image (Dowling and Pfeffer 1975; O'Donovan 2002; Suchman 1995). In this regard, engaging in public outreach innovation, especially with the goal of expanding and broadening the audience base, could be viewed as a normatively important commitment by arts and culture organizations. Such a commitment is likely to ensure their moral legitimacy (Suchman 1995) in the eyes of their donors, especially governments and foundations. It is, therefore, morally imperative from an organizational point of view. Overall, based on the theoretical perspectives discussed above as well as organizational innovation literature, it is possible to advance the following four propositions summarizing the reasons and rationales for which arts and culture organizations are likely to engage in public outreach innovations: Proposition 1. Innovative outreach strategies are resource-driven: organizations are motivated by the possibility of acquiring new financial, human, and other resources and capacities. Proposition 2. Innovative outreach is aimed at advancing and maximizing mission fulfillment, and expanding the stakeholder base. Proposition 3. Innovative outreach is a response to external pressures (economic recession, fiscal crisis) and donor mandates. Proposition 4. Organizations implementing innovative outreach projects rely on partnerships with other organizations.
This chapter now turns to discussing the research approach that was used to assess the validity of the above four propositions and gain deeper insights into the subject of public outreach innovations in the arts sector.
48
Alisa V. Moldavanova
RESEARCH FRAMEWORK In order to gain insights on how arts and culture organizations rely on innovation in their public outreach efforts, this study relied on qualitative content analysis (Cassell and Symon 2004; Hsieh and Shannon 2005) of innovation descriptions available via organizational websites and other open-source materials. This research framework could be described as the best-practices research (Bretschneider, Marc-Aurele, and Wu 2004) that, in this particular case, seeks to obtain insights about theoretically grounded research propositions regarding organizational innovation in the arts by reviewing what could be considered as best practices of public outreach innovation by arts organizations operating in the area. This type of design seeks to identify common patterns in organizational practices rather than test formal hypotheses or determine causal relationships. Therefore, while the study relies on a primarily inductive research approach, it is also theoretically grounded and adds valuable insights to the previous literature on the subject. Moreover, while the study focuses on public outreach innovations in the arts, its findings would be of interest to other public service organizations with outreach functions. Data for this study comprise textual descriptions of thirty-four public outreach innovations developed by seventeen cultural organizations operating in the Detroit metropolitan area (Wayne, Macomb, Oakland, and Washtenaw counties). This geographic area was chosen based on the proximity and relatedness of the arts and culture ecosystem, as well as similar history and socioeconomic conditions that exist in this part of the metropolitan area (Moldavanova and Akbulut-Gok 2020). The study relied on the convenience sampling strategy that resulted in twenty-two innovations produced by urban and twelve innovations produced by suburban organizations. The sample of organizations in this study reflects the trends established by Sustain Arts (2014) in their assessment of the overall arts and culture ecosystem in the Detroit metropolitan area, and which was discussed earlier in this chapter. Namely, more arts and culture organizations are located in urban areas, and the sector is also dominated by of small organizations. These data were collected over the period of seven months in 2015, and these innovations would have been developed over the course of five years preceding the data collection. Thus, the time period between 2010 and 2015 covers the post–Great Recession period, during which arts and culture organizations in Metropolitan Detroit were recovering from the recession-induced stress and rebuilding their organizations (Moldavanova and Akbulut-Gok 2020). The selection criteria for the specific innovations were grounded in the previous literature on organizational innovation, thus leading to the selection of projects that were either completely new to a given organization, or new
Public Outreach Innovation and Sustainability
49
to the whole field, or to organizations operating in this particular geographic area. While the projects chosen for this study do not represent an exhaustive sample of all innovations in the field, they are nevertheless reflective of the common types of public outreach innovation practiced by arts and culture organizations (Azmat, Yuka, and Rentschler 2015; Borwick 2012), especially those located in large metropolitan areas. An example of innovative projects included in the study is the InsideOut project by the Detroit Institute for the Arts that places reproductions of famous paintings into public spaces (such as parks, playgrounds, and the Riverwalk) all around the metropolitan area. Other examples include the Symphony in the D project initiated by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, where the symphony is created collaboratively by professional musicians and members of the public, and Instrument Petting Zoo organized by Ann Arbor Symphony at the Saturday Farmers Market in Ann Arbor. All innovative projects included in this study have aimed at reaching out to wider or broader audiences and/or making art and culture more accessible to the general public. The general expectation is that these types of adaptive strategies will lead to both higher prospects for organizational survival and sustainability, as well as greater overall engagement of arts and culture organizations in sustainable community development (Moldavanova 2016). Among the organizations that served as a source of innovative practices, sixteen are small (less than $1 million in revenues), eleven are medium-sized (between $1 and $10 million), and seven are large (over $10 million). These organizations represent the diversity of the cultural sector operating in the Detroit metropolitan area, which includes both traditional arts nonprofits, such as art museums and performing arts institutions, as well as cultural organizations, such as science centers and historical museums (Sustain Arts 2014). What these organizations all share in common is the similar socioeconomic and cultural context in which they operate, as well as similar audiences and revenue sources that they draw from (Moldavanova and Akbulut-Gok 2020). Furthermore, the Detroit metropolitan area, in many ways, presents both a unique cultural ecosystem that reflects various distinct historical developments (Rushton 2005), and a more generalizable example of how arts and culture organizations have responded to the many years of recession and urban decline by actively engaging in urban revitalization and renewal, which speaks to the broader urban development literature (Markusen 2014). Therefore, insights obtained from this study are both unique and informative to the broader field. Textual descriptions of innovations collected from organizational websites and other open-source material were coded and analyzed qualitatively using Atlas.ti data analysis software. Specifically, the study used an open coding method (Corbin and Strauss 2008), and prior to using the software (Atlas
50
Alisa V. Moldavanova
.ti), the data were read and categorized into preliminary codes. The codes were combined into categories (e.g., “reasons for innovation,” “values guiding innovation”) that emerged by creating a hierarchy of codes on the basis of their semantic and substantive co-occurrence. Relevant categories were subsequently combined into general themes discussed in the results section. Additionally, Atlas.ti enabled the production of a quantitative output in the form of code frequencies, which was used to calculate per document (per innovation) frequencies of the use of specific codes that could then be compared among different organizational types. Once the coding process was completed, the researcher referred back to the literature in order to reflexively compare the findings with existing frameworks, to validate conclusions drawn from the data, and to highlight the study’s contributions, which is common in that type of research (Dunne 2011; McGhee et al. 2007). This approach allowed maintaining a comprehensive system of data analysis while also maintaining flexibility and avoiding the use of a preconceived set of coding categories and assumptions. FINDINGS The study provides partial support of the four theory-based research propositions advanced earlier in the theoretical part. The research propositions, for example, argued that innovative outreach strategies will be primarily driven by resource-based considerations and will be motivated by organizational desire to respond to the various external environmental pressures (such as financial recessions and competition) as well as the mandates of arts donors (such as government and foundations). While the qualitative document analysis conducted here confirmed that external pressures and demands were indeed among the valid reasons behind organizational engagement in public outreach innovation, the study has also discovered a more nuanced set of motivators that include both resource-driven strategies and, equally important, normative organizational commitments. These findings are consistent with the assumptions of the resource dependency theory (Pfeffer and Salancik 1978), but they also affirm the value of legitimacy considerations (Dowling and Pfeffer 1975; Thomas and Lamm 2012; Suchman 1995) in guiding organizational behavior. Moreover, they also show that an externally fostered legitimacy (expectations of donors) and internally framed legitimacy (organizations’ own views regarding important values)—both appear among the reasons for engaging in public outreach innovations. Furthermore, as predicted, engaging in public outreach innovation was also motivated by long-term adaptive considerations, such as broadening the stakeholder base (especially among younger generations) and mission
Public Outreach Innovation and Sustainability
51
enhancement/effectiveness. However, mission broadening also came up as an important motivation for engaging in innovation, especially by some organizational types. This section of the chapter first provides a brief overview of the arts and culture sector in Metropolitan Detroit and then further discusses the main themes that came up in the process of content analysis, as well as a more nuanced understanding of organizational behavior that emerged by comparing organizations of different types. MAIN THEMES REGARDING PUBLIC OUTREACH INNOVATION IN THE ARTS The study identified three main themes associated with public outreach innovations by the arts sector organizations in Metropolitan Detroit (Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and Washtenaw counties), namely: 1) Innovative outreach projects pursue specific functional purposes aimed at enhancing the prospects of organizational survival and sustainability. 2) Innovative outreach strategies frequently involve partnering with other organizations outside of the arts sector. 3) Innovative outreach strategies are frequently driven by values to which organizational managers are committed. The conceptual map of the public outreach innovations is displayed in figure 2.1; it showcases the cumulative results of the coding for all documents included in the study. The map was created based on the substantive
Figure 2.1 Conceptual Mapping of Public Outreach Innovations in the Arts (Moldavanova). Source: Author Calculations.
52
Alisa V. Moldavanova
relatedness and co-occurrence of the codes in the text. The number attached to each code signifies the total number of times that the code was used in the sample; brighter colors indicate higher code frequencies. As can be seen from this figure, arts and culture innovations in public outreach are motivated by a mix of pragmatic instrumental reasons and value-driven normative considerations. Specifically, mission-oriented reasons for engaging in innovation, such as mission enhancement (seventy-seven) and mission broadening (twentyseven), standout among other types of motivations, and the stakeholderoriented strategies, such as strategies aimed at reaching younger generations (fifty-eight), expanding membership base (forty-seven), and responding to donors (thirteen), came up as the second most prominent type of motivation. On the other hand, resource-oriented strategies, such as capacity building (twenty-nine), seeking financial (twenty-one) or resource (five) benefits, as well as reactive types of strategies, such as response to external pressures (six), appear to be less common. What this finding potentially means is that public outreach innovation is deeply grounded in internal institutional logics and routines, and it combines the resource-driven strategies that support immediate organizational survival with the mission and stakeholder-based strategies that support long-term organizational sustainability. This finding also signifies that innovation is used both proactively, as a way to frame organizational future, and reactively, as a way to fend off immediate threats in the organizational environment. It is, of course, not impossible that these manifested motivations at least in part reflect external messaging strategy rather than underlying reasons for engaging in innovation. However, there is a fair amount of substantive consistency among these strategies as well as across all documents, which reinforces the overall validity of the findings and observations. As expected, innovative public outreach strategies in the arts frequently involve partnering with other organizations, especially other arts and culture organizations (twenty-three), other nonprofits (twenty-five), and businesses (twenty-four). It is, of course, not surprising to find these types of connections in the arts and culture field that has been previously described as the field with strong bonding-types of connections (Moldavanova and Goerdel 2018; Moldavanova and Akbulut-Gok 2020). Other important innovation partners include foundations (thirteen), K–12 education groups (twelve), and universities (seventeen). These types of connections could be described as bridging ties. It is somewhat surprising to see the high reliance of arts and culture organizations on university as compared to public school partnerships. On the other hand, it is also understandable, as partnering with K–12 organizations involves delivering “regular” public education services to public school students, while partnering with universities includes more diverse, experimental
Public Outreach Innovation and Sustainability
53
types of projects, that would fit the definition of innovation. The overall diversity of the partnership networks that arts and culture organizations rely on to engage in public outreach innovation signifies the importance of external connections for organizations that are looking to build a comprehensive outreach function. One example of an innovation that involved an arts organization partnering with a university is the Science Saturday Program that was started by the Belle Isle Aquarium (a small urban organization). The Belle Isle Aquarium is one of Detroit’s oldest historical symbols and the first public aquarium in the United States (Moldavanova and Goerdel 2018). Originally established in 1904 in Detroit, however, the institution fell prey to the recession and closed its doors to the public right before the recession in 2005 as a consequence of the city’s financial deficit (Boardman 2010). In 2012, a dedicated group of volunteers helped to resurrect the Aquarium. The Science Saturday Program was developed and administered in collaboration with the School of Medicine at Wayne State University, and it ended up involving faculty and students from other universities in the state of Michigan as well. Faculty and students have been serving as volunteer teachers for this new outreach program, providing high-quality educational content while also working with the Aquarium staff and volunteers to tailor the content to its visitors. Overtime, this pilot program had led to raising substantial external finding that enabled expanding the Belle Isle Aquarium’s outreach programs to the K–12 public schools and establishing an outreach coordinator position. Connections with governmental agencies at all levels (local—five, state— two, and federal—two) appear to be less frequent when it comes to public outreach innovation, perhaps, because governmental agencies are primarily seen as the source of financial support or the source of access to public assets for the arts rather than program partners. An example of a partnership that relied on connections with governmental institutions (in this case, alongside with other types of organizations) is the project Inside|Out launched by the Detroit Institute of the Arts (DIA)—the sixth largest art museum in the United States and a large organization located in the city proper. Part of the DIA’s budget is supported via a public tax millage, which actually saved the institution from closure in 2012 (right before Detroit’s declared bankruptcy), when voters of three metropolitan counties approved a 0.2 property tax to fund it. After receiving financial support from the millage, the DIA established free unlimited general admission for residents of these counties and “gave back” to its community in other ways. The goal of the Inside|Out outreach innovation has been to get art out of the museum building and into the community by placing reproductions of museum paintings into public spaces in various urban and suburban communities. The DIA worked with local governments and their parks and recreation departments to choose a proper positioning
54
Alisa V. Moldavanova
for their public exhibitions, as well as obtain all the necessary permits. This project also involved partnering with other arts organizations, social service nonprofits, and educational institutions, which all have also benefitted from working with a nationally recognized art museum. Finally, an important finding regarding the role of value-based considerations that emerged in the process of coding, and that was not part of the original propositions, speaks to the significance of internal (rather than externally fostered) normative considerations that guide innovation in the arts and culture sector and that help organizations to address expectations of their key stakeholders. It appears that there is a set of normative considerations that serve as driving forces for public outreach innovation. These considerations include such values as public service (fifty-eight), access/accessibility (fifty), transparency (thirty-three), diversity (eighteen), and accountability (ten). These values are important for connecting arts and culture organizations with their local communities and ensuring their overall social and community relevance, which serves as the precondition for their long-term sustainability (Moldavanova 2016). The presence of these values is also important from a policymaking point of view, as it shows that arts organizations, which are sometimes framed as the elitist sector, are, in fact, committed to a broad set of public values as well as delivering overall public good. An example of an innovative outreach program that was primarily valuedriven, in this case by the considerations of assess/accessibility, is the shadow interpretation program designed by the Wild Swan Theater (a small organization located in a suburb) to aid deaf theater-goers at shows. What made this program particularly innovative is that the shadow interpreters functioned as extensions of the characters while maintaining a physical presence on stage by blending into the action that took place between the characters on stage. The program involved partnerships with another arts organization TerpTheatre! for the deaf in Detroit, as well as Madonna University, Oakland University, and Livingston Community College which provided interpreters as well as deaf theater-goers. In addition to improving its organizational capacity, the program has allowed the theater to reach new stakeholder groups, raise funds, and broaden the scope of its mission. This practice of shadow interpretation that started in 2012 became a cornerstone of the Wild Swan Theater’s accessibility program. The value of public service reflects overall organizational commitment to doing good for intrinsic reasons. The values of access/accessibility and diversity are related to organizational commitments to their stakeholders, especially audiences, and while access/accessibility is about making public outreach activities and programs more accessible to regular audiences, whether this involves physical accessibility or the appropriateness of the repertoire, the value of diversity is about intentional organizational actions aimed
Public Outreach Innovation and Sustainability
55
at including previously underserved groups into public outreach efforts. The latter commitment is particularly important in the context of Detroit metropolitan area that is known for its historically persistent segregation problems, even when accounting for similar socioeconomic status (Rushton 2005). The value of transparency is about the organizational commitment of introducing arts and culture into public domain, making them known and recognizable, inviting and approachable. Finally, the value of accountability pertains primarily to the sense of broader organizational responsiveness to their various stakeholders, but especially donors. It is, however, more proactive than merely responding to donors’ demands and calls for proposals, as it anticipates how particular proactive organizational practices may be perceived by current and future donors and stakeholders. DIFFERENCES AMONG ORGANIZATIONAL TYPES The themes discussed above reflect overall trends observed in the sample of organizational innovations used in this study, per document frequencies of the use of specific codes allow comparing the differences among organizational types when it comes to organizational size and location (urban/suburban). Figure 2.2 compares reasons for the engagement in innovation among
Figure 2.2 Comparing Reasons for Innovation among Organizations of Different Sizes (Moldavanova). Source: Author Calculations.
56
Alisa V. Moldavanova
organizations of different sizes. It displays percentage of documents for each of these organizational types that mentioned a specific reason. When it comes to mission-related reasons, mission enhancement, defined as the intention of organizations to increase their overall mission effectiveness, impact, and quality of services, appears to be more important for large organizations, while mission-broadening, defined as broadening the mission scope and exploring new horizons, is more important for medium-sized organizations. This observation may signify that while larger organizations are more comfortable with their current missions, medium-sized organizations may be using mission-broadening as a strategy to support their overall growth path, or as a way of framing their unique market niches. It is also curious that obtaining financial benefits is more important for large and small organizations, while capacity-building (knowledge, staff, managerial skills, among others) is more important for medium-sized organizations. Perhaps, for large organizations innovation is seen as a source of additional revenue needed to support their already substantial operations, and for small organizations, innovations may produce financial benefits that serve as a supplemental income. On the other hand, medium-sized organizations may need the additional capacity that comes with innovation to support their overall growth trajectories. Expanding their membership and donor base is most important for large organizations, while reaching younger stakeholders is more important for medium and large organizations, as compared to small organizations. Small organizations also prioritize their members among all the other stakeholders when it comes to motivations for engaging in innovative outreach. Figure 2.3 compares reasons for the engagement in innovation among urban and suburban organizations. It displays the percentage of documents for each of these organizational types that mentioned a specific reason. This comparison is particularly meaningful for the Detroit metropolitan area that is characterized by substantial urban-suburban divide and which has substantial implications for the arts and culture sector (Moldavanova and Akbulut-Gok 2020). One clear difference that stands out is that the reasons for engaging in innovation are quite different for urban and suburban organizations. Urban organizations are more frequently driven toward innovation for financial reasons, such as the desire to obtain financial benefits and expand their donor base. They are also motivated by capacity building, perhaps, due to the loss of capacity that they have experienced as a result of external stress (the Great Recession in this case). Suburban organizations, on the other hand, appear to be not interested in expanding their donor base via innovative projects, and their motivation to expand the membership base and recruit younger members is not as strong as that of the urban organizations.
Public Outreach Innovation and Sustainability
57
Figure 2.3 Comparing Reasons for Innovation among Organizations in Different Location Types (Moldavanova). Source: Author Calculations.
Urban organizations also tend to rely on public outreach innovation as a form of direct response to pressures in their external environment, while innovation in suburban organizations is not at all driven by response to pressures. By comparison, suburban organizations were more so than urban organizations motivated by nonfinancial resource acquisition reasons via their innovative projects, as well as both mission enhancement and broadening. Nonfinancial resources that suburban organizations were able to gain because of their engagement in innovative projects include access to new facilities, equipment, and human resources. These observations about the prominence of resource-driven reasons for engaging in public outreach innovation among urban organizations make sense, especially considering the time period during which these innovations were developed. These data were collected in 2015 about innovations that were developed during the five-year post–Great Recession period. Detroit metropolitan area was among the hardest hit U.S. urban areas during that recession, and arts organizations in Detroit lost much of their public and private support due to the decline of auto industry and the bankruptcy filing by the city of Detroit itself (Moldavanova and Goerdel 2018; Moldavanova and Akbulut-Gok 2020). Therefore, it is understandable that urban organizations that suffered from the recession the most had sought to engage in innovation for reasons that would allow replenishing their lost financial resources.
58
Alisa V. Moldavanova
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION This chapter discussed the results of a qualitative empirical study that had sought to investigate the engagement in public outreach innovations by a variety of arts and culture organizations operating in Metropolitan Detroit. While understanding innovation in the art and culture sector is a very important task in and of itself, understating underlying reasons and motivations directing organizations toward engaging in such innovations is important as well, as it allows us to dissect the valuable context for such an engagement as well as the differences among organizational types. In this particular study, the most striking differences were among urban and suburban organizations as well as organizations of different sizes, and these differences have exposed certain vulnerabilities of urban and small organizations. Insights obtained from this study partially support the theory-grounded research propositions while also uncovering a more nuanced view of innovative outreach in the arts and culture field and its role for organizational survival and sustainability. Specifically, organizations pursue public outreach innovations not only for pragmatic reasons resulting in specific organizational benefits, such as funding, resources, and new stakeholders, but also as a matter of their normative commitment to a broader set of public values. The study also makes it clear that arts and culture organizations’ engagement in public outreach innovation is a product of the various ties and partnerships that they establish within and outside their own sector. Among those ties, bondingtypes of connections with other arts and culture organizations as well as with other nonprofits tend to dominate, perhaps, due to similar institutional assumptions and organizational culture that such organizations share. While this study provided valuable insights regarding organizational motivations, its reliance on the secondary data does not allow to fully unpack the organizational logics that support engagement in public outreach innovations. Moreover, since the study relied on a relatively small sample size, its observations about the role of organizational characteristics, such as age and location, in framing the reasons for the engagement of arts organizations in innovation would benefit from further testing via larger N research designs, to be able to determine the role of these characteristics as well as obtain more generalizable findings. Nevertheless, placing this study in the context of a specific metropolitan area is helpful for understanding how organizational environment may influence organizational behavior and strategizing when it comes to innovation. These findings are, therefore, informative of the similar organizational and geographical contexts. In terms of future research directions, besides further testing of how organizational characteristics influence the engagement in public outreach innovation, it would also be beneficial to
Public Outreach Innovation and Sustainability
59
research the predictors of innovation success as well as how the choice of specific partners impacts such success. Acknowledgements: The author would like to thank Bachelor of Public Affairs student at Wayne State University Chelsea Gibson for her research assistance on this project. Funding: This project was funded by the 2015 SURE Grant Program, Office of the Vice President for Research, Wayne State University.
REFERENCES Aldrich, Howard E, and Jeffrey Pfeffer. 1976. “Environments of Organizations.” Annual Review of Sociology 2(1), 79–105. Alexander, Jennifer, and Renee Nank. 2009. “Public—Nonprofit Partnership: Realizing the New Public Service.” Administration & Society 41(3), 364–386. Argyris, Chris, and Schön Donald. 1978. On Organizational Learning: A Theory of Action. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Azmat, Fara, Yuka Fujimoto, and Ruth Rentschler. 2015. “Exploring Cultural Inclusion: Perspectives From a Community Arts Organisation.” Australian Journal of Management, 40(2), 375–396. Boardman, Jennifer. 2010. A Case Study Into the Closing of Belle Isle Aquarium in Detroit, Michigan. Mount Pleasant: Central Michigan University. Borwick, Doug. 2012. Building Communities, Not Audiences: The Future of The Arts in the United States. Winston-Salem, NY: ArtsEngaged. Bretschneider, Stuart, Frederick J. Marc-Aurele, and Jiannan Wu. 2004. ““Best Practices” Research: A Methodological Guide for the Perplexed.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 15(2), 307–323. Bryson, J. M., Crosby, B. C. and Stone, M. M. 2015. “Designing and Implementing Cross‐sector Collaborations: Needed and Challenging.” Public Administration Review, 75(5), 647–663. Cassell, Catherine, and Gillian Symon, eds. 2004. Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Cnaan, Ram A., and David Vinokur-Kaplan, D. 2015. Social Innovation: Definitions, Clarifications, and a New Model. Cases in Innovative Nonprofits: Organizations that Make a Difference. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Corbin, Juliet M., and Anselm L. Strauss. 2008. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Cohen, Boyd, and Pablo Muñoz. 2015. “Toward a Theory of Purpose-Driven Urban Entrepreneurship.” Organization & Environment, 28(3), 264–285.
60
Alisa V. Moldavanova
CultureSource. “Southeast Michigan's Cultural Alliance.” CultureSource, September 22, 2020. https://culturesource.org/. Dowling, John, and Jeffrey Pfeffer. 1975. “Organizational Legitimacy: Social Values and Organizational Behavior.” Pacific Sociological Review, 18(1), 122–136. Dunne, Ciarán. 2011. “The Place of the Literature Review in Grounded Theory Research.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 14(2), 111–124. Faulk, Lewis, Jurgen Willems, Jasmine McGinnis Johnson, and Amanda J. Stewart. 2016. “Network Connections and Competitively Awarded Funding: The Impacts of Board Network Structures and Status Interlocks on Nonprofit Organizations’ Foundation Grant Acquisition.” Public Management Review, 18(10), 1425–1455. Gazley, Beth, and Brudney, Jeff L. 2007. “The Purpose (and Perils) of GovernmentNonprofit Partnership.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 36(3), 389–415. Grams, Dianne, and Farrell, Betty. 2008. Entering Cultural Communities: Diversity and Change in the Nonprofit Arts. New York, NY: Rutgers University Press. Guo, Chao, and Acar. Muhittin. 2005. “Understanding Collaboration Among Nonprofit Organizations: Combining Resource Dependency, Institutional, and Network Perspectives.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 34(3), 340–361. Hsieh, Hsiu-Fang, and Sarah E. Shannon. 2005. “Three Approaches to Qualitative Content Analysis.” Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277–1288. Hull, Clyde Eiríkur, and Brian H. Lio. 2006. “Innovation in Non-profit and For-profit Organizations: Visionary, Strategic, and Financial Considerations.” Journal of Change Management, 6(1), 53–65. Florida, Richard L. 2002. The Rise of the Creative Class and How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life. New York, NY: Basic Books. LeRoux, Kelly and Anna Bernadska. 2014. “Impact of the Arts on Individual Contributions to US Civil Society.” Journal of Civil Society, 10(2), 144–164. MacIndoe, Heather, and Felicia Sullivan. 2014. “Nonprofit Responses to Financial Uncertainty: How Does Financial Vulnerability Shape Nonprofit Collaboration?” Journal of Management and Sustainability, 4(3), 1–19. Markusen, Ann. 2014. “Creative Cities: a 10-Year Research Agenda.” Journal of Urban Affairs, 36(s2), 567–589. McCarthy, Kevin F., Elizabeth Heneghan Ondaatje, and Jennifer L. Novak. 2007. Arts and Culture in the Metropolis: Strategies for Sustainability. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation. McDonald, Robert E. 2007. “An Investigation of Innovation in Nonprofit Organizations: The Role of Organizational Mission.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 36(2), 256–281. McCarthy, Kevin F., Elizabeth Heneghan Ondaatje, and Jennifer L. Novak. 2007. “Grounded Theory Research: Literature Reviewing and Reflexivity.” Journal of Advanced Nursing, 60(3), 334–342. Moldavanova, Alisa. 2016. “Two Narratives of Intergenerational Sustainability: A Framework for Sustainable Thinking.” The American Review of Public Administration, 46(5), 526–545. Moldavanova, Alisa, and Holly T. Goerdel. 2018. “Understanding the Puzzle of Organizational Sustainability: Toward a Conceptual Framework of Organizational
Public Outreach Innovation and Sustainability
61
Social Connectedness and Sustainability.” Public Management Review, 20(1), 55–81. Moldavanova, Alisa V., and Isil Akbulut-Gok. 2020. “Inter-Organizational Networking and the Great Recession: Lessons from Detroit Arts and Culture Organizations.” International Journal of Public Administration, OnlineFirst doi:1 0.1080/01900692.2020.1768115. Moldavanova, Alisa V., and Nathaniel S. Wright. 2020. “How Nonprofit Arts Organizations Sustain Communities: Examining the Relationship Between Organizational Strategy and Engagement in Community Sustainability.” The American Review of Public Administration 50(3), 244–259. Mulroy, Elizabeth A., and Sharon Shay. 1997. “Nonprofit Organizations and Innovation: A Model of Neighborhood-Based Collaboration to Prevent Child Maltreatment.” Social Work, 42(5), 515–524. Osborne, Stephen P. 1998. “Naming the Beast: Defining and Classifying Service Innovations in Social Policy.” Human Relations 51(9), 1133–1154. Osborne, Stephen P., and Louise Brown. 2011. “Innovation, Public Policy and Public Services Delivery in the UK. The Word that Would be King?.” Public Administration 89(4), 1335–1350. Osborne, Stephen P., Celine Chew, and Kate McLaughlin. 2008. “The Once and Future Pioneers? The Innovative Capacity of Voluntary Organizations and the Provision of Public Services: A Longitudinal Approach.” Public Management Review 10(1), 51–70. Phills, James A., Kriss Deiglmeier, and Dale T. Miller. 2008. “Rediscovering Social Innovation.” Stanford Social Innovation Review, 6(4), 34–43. Pfeffer, Jeffrey, and Gerald R. Salancik. 1978. The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective. New York, NY: Harper and Row. Rushton, Michael. 2005. “Support for Earmarked Public Ppending on Culture: Evidence from a Referendum in Metropolitan Detroit.” Public Budgeting & Finance, 25(4), 72–85. Rushton, Michael and Rocco Landesman. 2013. Creative Communities: Art Works in Economic Development. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. Salamon, Lester M. 2015. The Resilient Sector Revisited: The New Challenge to Nonprofit America. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. Seitanidi, Maria May, and Andrew Crane. 2009. “Implementing CSR Through Partnerships: Understanding the Selection, Design and Institutionalisation of Nonprofit-Business Partnerships.” Journal of Business Ethics, 85(2), 413–429. Sowa, Jessica E. 2008. “The Collaboration Decision in Nonprofit Organizations: Views from the Front Line.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 38(6), 1003–1025. Suchman, Mark C. 1995. “Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches.” Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 571–610. Sustain Arts. 2014. A Portrait of the Cultural Ecosystem. Washignton, DC: Foundation Center. Thomas, Tom E., and Lamm, Eric. 2012. “Legitimacy and Organizational Sustainability.” Journal of Business Ethics, 110(2), 191–203.
62
Alisa V. Moldavanova
Throsby, David. 1995. “Culture, Economics and Sustainability.” Journal of Cultural Economics, 19(3), 199–206. Toepler, Stefan, and Margaret J. Wyszomirski. 2012. “Arts and Culture.” In Lester M. Salamon (Ed.), The State of Nonprofit America (pp. 229–266). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. Tubadji, Annie, Brian J. Osoba, and Peter Nijkamp. 2015. “Culture-based Development in the USA: Culture as a Factor for Economic Welfare and Social Well-being at a County Level.” Journal of Cultural Economics, 39(3), 277–303. Van de Ven, Andrew H. 1986. “Central Problems in the Management of Innovation.” Management Science, 32(5), 590–607. Varbanova, Lidia. 2013. Strategic Management in the Arts. New York, NY: Routledge. Walker, Richard M. 2008. “An Empirical Evaluation of Innovation Types and Organizational and Environmental Characteristics: Towards a Configuration Framework.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 18(4), 591–615.
Chapter 3
Art Controversy and Asset-Based Community Development Cultural Capital Flowing from Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc Gordon E. Shockley and Anne Kotleba
INTRODUCTION In 1981, Richard Serra erected an enormous steel structure wall in front of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in Manhattan. Entitled Tilted Arc, Serra’s government-supported public work of art was controversial from its inception. For example, Hilton Kramer identifies Serra’s intent to provoke with his sculpture: “What proved to be so bitterly offensive to the community [was] its stated goal of provoking the most negative and disruptive response to the site” (Kramer 1989, 51). Douglas Crimp saw the “blast wall” of Tilted Arc as a site of political struggle as its “radical aesthetics of site-specific sculpture is reinterpreted as the site of political action” (Crimp 1986, 55). Serra intended that his sculpture be controversial. Legal action ensued; Tilted Arc was finally removed in 1989. The decade-long controversy over Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc (1981) had it all: minimalist art, public protests for and against it, court cases, questions over government support for the arts as well as censorship of the arts, not to mention it all occurring in a plaza in the urban setting of New York City. The Tilted Arc controversy was so famous that the modernist American fiction writer William Gaddis (1994) featured it prominently in his novel, A Frolic of One’s Own. In the novel, the artist R. Szyrk stands in for Richard Serra and Cyclone 7 for Tilted Arc. The father of the novel’s main character, Oscar Crease, is a federal judge presiding over Cyclone 7’s
63
64
Gordon E. Shockley and Anne Kotleba
removal. The case has taken a strange turn as some community members protest and suddenly want the public sculpture to remain: —Yes, as its creator the sculptor R Szyrk seeks its removal over the vigorous protests of the community where it has become a substantial source of tourist income reflected in the new fully booked motel and expanded Kandy Kitchen and the Cyclone Seven pin replicas worn by the townsfolk in their petition for according to Landmark status, to be joined by a theme park featuring strolls among artifacts of modern American history recently opened by James B’s father, who . . .. (Gaddis 1994, 305)
In short, these local community members were protesting to keep Cyclone 7 installed in their community for the financial capital—tourist income, souvenirs, and local businesses—that the controversy produced. In this chapter, we posit an additional form of capital flowed to the community from the controversy over Serra’s Tilted Arc: cultural capital. We argue that the controversies surrounding Serra’s Tilted Arc produced cultural capital that, in turn, facilitated arts-based community development. Specifically, we develop and apply an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) model based on socioeconomic conceptions of cultural capital (Phillips and Shockley 2010). “A notable feature [of this community-development model] is that cultural capital is considered critical to the ABCD process through its nature and influence as a force of creativity and innovation. This in turn is the major foundation on which arts-based development approaches are built and implemented” (Phillips and Shockley 2010, 108; emphasis added). We maintain that art controversy, such as that over Serra’s Tilted Arc, is a super-charged “force of creativity and innovation.” Reflecting on the Tilted Arc controversy, art critic Harriet Senie writes: “Art embodies values, an intangible content that represents a tangible reality which may or may not have been part of the artist’s’ intent” (Senie 1992, 243). Her reflection on individual encounters with public art encapsulates a premise of this paper: controversies awaken communities to art and encourage the community’s cultural capital. It is often assumed that the beneficial effects of art flow only from a community’s positive reaction to a work of art. Here we argue that beneficial effects of art can also flow from negative reactions to a work of art—in other words, from art controversies. At a minimum, art controversies make the public interact and pay attention to a work of art. But they often do stimulate reactions in an observer: Do I like it or hate it? Do I find a work offensive or innocuous? Is it provocative or trite? Why do I react as I do? These interactions and reactions, we argue, contribute to cultural-capital formation.
Art Controversy and Asset-Based Community Development
65
The chapter proceeds in three parts in addition to an introduction and conclusion. In part 1, utilizing socioeconomic conceptions of cultural capital, we develop a trapezoidal model of cultural-capital formation that is linked to arts controversies and asset-based community development (ABCD). Two conceptions of cultural capital are developed in this part: a macro conception based on the work of the economist David Throsby and the micro conception by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. In the second part, we apply trapezoidal model of art controversies, cultural-capital formation, and ABCD from part 1 to the case of Serra’s Tilted Art. Art at the center of controversies both flow from the macro-level and generate micro-level cultural capital. By considering criticism from Serra, art historians, and the public, we show that art controversies like Tilted Arc generate cultural capital. In part 3, we finish the application of the model linking cultural capital to arts-based community development. Premised on the ABCD notion that cultural capital is a super-charged “force of creativity and innovation,” we explore how cultural capital from public art contributes to arts-based community development. Exemplified not only by Serra’s Tilted Arc but also Judy Baca’s murals and the street art of JR, we show that art can be deployed as a tool for community organizing and a as language for public engagement. PART 1. CULTURAL-CAPITAL FORMATION AND ASSET-BASED COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT We employ a cultural-capital approach to examining art controversies and asset-based community development (ABCD) that blends two conceptions of cultural capital—an economic one and a sociological one—that are connected by macro-micro linkages in a trapezoidal model. David Throsby (1995, 1999, 2001) conceptualizes an economic theory of cultural capital. A repository of cultural and economic value at the community or societal level. We thus interpret Throsbian economic conception of cultural capital to be operationalized at the macro-level of cultural phenomena. More well-known is Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological conception of cultural capital (Bourdieu 1984, 1986, 1993, 2005; Bourdieu, Darbel, and Schnapper 1991; Bourdieu and Passeron 1977; Grenfell and Hardy 2007). To Bourdieu in Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (1984), cultural capital derives from an “aesthetic disposition” operationalized at the level of the individual. We thus interpret Bourdieuan cultural capital to be operationalized at the micro-level of the individual. Throsbian and Bourdieuan conceptions of cultural capital are then integrated with a trapezoidal, macro-micro model that also connects art controversies and ABCD. Adapted from James Coleman’s
66
Gordon E. Shockley and Anne Kotleba
trapezoidal, macro- and micro-level model of the effects of religious doctrine on economic organization (1990, 7–9), the lines linking the four angles by transactions/reactions of the trapezoidal model. In short, this framework operationalizes cultural capital at both the macro-level (Throsbian) and micro-level (Bourdieuan) by incorporating the effects of art controversies on ABCD. Below we distill the essence of conceptualizing macro- and microlevels of cultural capital; we present a full account of the theorizing in the appendix B associated with this chapter. The Macro-Level: Throsby’s Economic Conception of Cultural Capital Throsby’s conception of cultural capital is explicitly an economic theory. “Cultural capital in an economic sense,” Throsby writes, “can provide a means of representing culture which enables both tangible and intangible manifestations of culture to be articulated as long-lasting stores of value and providers of benefits for individuals and groups” (Throsby 2001, 44). Serving as a repository or stock of value, and facilitating the flow of cultural services are the two primary functions of Throsbian cultural capital. “[Stock] refers to the quantity of such capital in existence at a given time. . . . This capital stock gives rise over time to a flow of services which may be consumed or may be used to produce further goods and services” (Throsby 2001, 46; emphasis in the original). Throsbian cultural capital thus serves as the means of cultural production at a large scale. (See also Throsby 1995, 202–203, 1999, 3–7, 2001, 43–47.) Throsby elaborates on his conception of cultural capital by distinguishing between two types of cultural capital. First, there is tangible cultural capital, such as “buildings, structures, sites and locations endowed with cultural significance, and artworks and artifacts existing as private goods, such as paintings, sculptures, and other objects.” Second, there is intangible cultural capital, which is the “set of ideas, practices, beliefs, traditions and values which serve to identify and bind together a given group of people . . . together with the stock of artworks existing in the public domain as public goods.” Each form of cultural capital Throsby identifies exists in an objectified or embodied form. Even intangible cultural capital is reified to a certain extent in the stock of artworks. Perhaps a rough index of Throsbian cultural capital is the artwork, that is, for example, covered within the Oxford History of Art (e.g., Hopkins 2000) or the Thames and Hudson World of Art (e.g., Archer 1997). In shorthand, Throsbian cultural capital embodies a macro conception. Much like the intangible and tangible aspects of nature (an analogy Throsby himself repeatedly makes), Throsbian cultural capital is a stock of objects and embodied ideas at the macro-level and the services that flow from them.
Art Controversy and Asset-Based Community Development
67
The Micro-Level: Bourdieu’s Sociological Conception of Cultural Capital Bourdieu offers a well-known sociological conception of cultural capital as an individual’s “aesthetic disposition,” which also includes social dimension in addition to the aesthetic. Bourdieu writes in Distinction: The aesthetic disposition is one dimension of a distant, self-assured relation to the world and to others which presupposes objective assurance and distance. . . . But it is also a distinctive expression of a privileged position in social space whose distinctive value is objectively established in its relationship to expressions generated from different conditions. (1984, 56)
While Bourdieu (1984) develops and applies his sociological conception of cultural capital most thoroughly in Distinction, he elaborates on—and sometimes alters—his concept in many other writings. For example, Bourdieu (1986) in “The Forms of Capital” specifies three types of cultural capital: (1) embodied cultural capital, which “in the form of what is called culture, cultivation, Bildung, presupposes a process of embodiment incorporation” (1986, 244); (2) objectified cultural capital, which is “defined only in relation with cultural capital in its embodied form”; and (3) institutionalized cultural capital, which is academic qualifications (1986, 246). Bourdieu intends that his conception of cultural capital be operationalized at the level of the individual, or micro-level. At the micro-level, individuals acquire, convert, and reproduce Bourdieuan cultural capital. A major theme of Distinction might be summarized as demonstrating that the social interactions in the form of individual acquisition, conversion, and reproduction of cultural capital enable individuals to adjust their position-taking in the social space. Bourdieu’s conception of cultural capital is therefore a micro-level theory of social interaction. First, there are acquisitions of cultural capital. Individuals are not naturally endowed with cultural capital; rather, they socially acquire the cultural capital of its habitus as “the product of upbringing and education” (Bourdieu 1984, 1) or “domestic transmission and scholarly culture” (Fowler 1997, 47). Cultural capital is also instrumentally involved in specific social interactions that Bourdieu calls conversions and reproduction strategies in the social space. On the one hand, conversions change capital “held in one form to another, more accessible, more profitable or more legitimate form” and “tends to induce a transformation of asset structure” for an individual’s social trajectory (Bourdieu 1984, 131). On the other hand, reproduction strategies are “the set of outwardly very different practices whereby individuals or families tend, unconsciously or consciously, to maintain or improve their
68
Gordon E. Shockley and Anne Kotleba
position in the class structure” (Bourdieu 1984, 125). Individually acquired cultural capital thus begins to materialize in social life through conversions and reproduction strategies at the micro-level. Bourdieu strongly implies that is through individual’s personal experience with art and the art world that provides the basis for cultural-capital formation. Encounters with art controversies would certainly seem to qualify as a formative cultural-capital experience. Macro-Micro Linkages: Art Controversies, Cultural Capital, and ABCD The models of macro-micro linkages of cultural capital provide an analytic framework for understanding the relationship between art controversies, cultural capital, and ABCD. Theoretical work in sociology has developed macro-micro linkages to bidirectionally connect micro-level phenomena to macro-level phenomena. (The appendix associated with this chapter gives a fuller account of the alternative macro-micro models considered.) Here we discuss only the one we selected and adapted to the cultural capital—art controversies—ABCD complex: Coleman’s macro-micro interpretation of Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in Foundations of Social Theory (1990). Coleman describes his model as useful for “examining processes internal to the system, involving component parts, or units at a level below that of the system” (2). The kind of behavior Coleman’s model is appropriate for is emergent behavior (i.e., Weberian methodological individualism), not aggregated behavior: “The interaction among individuals is seen to result in emergent phenomena at the system level, that is, phenomena that were neither intended nor predicted by the individuals” (5). Coleman’s model seems particularly promising by framing the Throsbian macro-level cultural capital as the “emergent phenomena” from the Bourdieuan microlevel cultural capital, thus connecting the two conceptions. Coleman’s macro- and micro-level model of the effects of religious doctrine on economic organization (7–9) is particularly instructive in providing a descriptive cultural-capital framework for understanding the operation of the cultural capital—art controversies—ABCD complex. In Coleman’s trapezoidal model, “the interaction among individuals is seen to result in emergent phenomena at the system level,” rather than simply aggregated (5). The numbers inside the trapezoid correspond to those individual causal interactions facilitating emergent phenomena (8). 1. Protestant religious doctrine generates certain values in its adherents. 2. Individuals with certain values (referred to in proposition 1) adopt certain kinds of orientations to economic behavior. (The central orientations to
Art Controversy and Asset-Based Community Development
69
economic behavior are characterized by Weber as anti-traditionalism and duty to one’s calling.) 3. Certain orientations to economic behavior (referred to in proposition 2) on the part of individuals help bring about capitalist organization. The Coleman-Weber model is thus transactional. That is to say, the relationships connecting the trapezoid’s angles—that is, Protestant doctrine, individual values, economic behavior, and capitalism—drive the model, producing the emergent phenomena at the system—or macro—level. As Coleman summarizes, the model essentially is an “internal analysis of system behavior” (2). The transactional nature of the Coleman-Weber model renders it not only the most promising macro-micro linkage between Throsbian and Bourdieuan cultural capital but also the most helpful framework for relating cultural capital to art controversies and ABCD (see figure 3.1). The notion of the visual arts as the “expression of national cultures and traditions” approximates Throsby’s economic conception of cultural capital. This is the stock of cultural capital that, on the one hand, flows at the macro-level into art controversies because this is the stock from which controversial art—indeed, all works of art—are drawn. On the other hand, this stock and flow of cultural capital also fits into the most common types of individual encounters of controversial art. In turn, Bourdieu’s sociological conception of cultural capital, then, fits into the framework at the micro-level. An individual’s encounter with controversial art—be it in a museum, a reproduction, or in a public space—they acquire, convert, and reproduce Bourdieuan cultural capital, feeding into the aims of community development. “The public is diverse, variable, volatile, controversial and it has its origins in the private lives of all citizens,” Phillips writes. “The encounter of public art is ultimately a private experience . . .”
Figure 3.1 Art Controversies, Throsbian-Bourdieuan Cultural Capital, and Asset-Based Community Development. Source: Authors adaptation of Coleman 1990, 8.
70
Gordon E. Shockley and Anne Kotleba
(1989, 335). Each person experiences controversial art in her own way. At a minimum, art controversies make the public pay attention to the world of art. But they can and often do stimulate reactions in an individual: Do I like it or hate it? Do I find a work offensive or innocuous? Is it provocative or trite? Why do I react as I do? Does it recognize my presence or underscore my absence in my community? Does it enable my voice or abet its suppression? These are the kind of interactions/reactions that contribute to individual cultural-capital formation at the micro-level. The model also incorporates ABCD with cultural capital and art controversies. “ABCD, with its holistic framework of considering a range of assets beyond economic, is readily compatible with macro-level and micro-level conceptions of cultural capital” (Phillips and Shockley 2010, 109). Cultural capital—both its macro- and micro-level formations—can spur community development (Phillips and Shockley 2010, 92). As with art controversies, “Throsbian cultural capital can represent cultural resources that are drawn upon for societal accumulation (Phillips and Shockley 2010, 108). “Art controversies are more frequent now, in part,” Michael Kammen observes, because of the “ongoing democratization of American culture during the course of several generations” that results in “augmented public access to art” (Kammen 2006, xi). More people interact with art; more people react to art. There is a “methodological individualism” in these interactions/reactions: “In other words, the individual’s actions influence a larger arena, or system, at some point” (Phillips and Shockley 2010, 98). Again, each person experiences controversial art in her own way. As members of the community interact/react with the controversial art, cultural capital is forming within the community and contributing to the community’s development. “A notable feature is that cultural capital is considered critical to the ABCD process through its nature and influence as a force of creativity and innovation. This in turn is the major foundation on which arts-based development approaches are built and implemented” (Phillips and Shockley 2010, 108; emphasis added). In the end, cultural capital becomes a force of creativity and innovation in community development. Finally, like the Coleman-Weber trapezoidal model, the model depicted in figure 3.1 is transactional. The relationships and transactions represented by the lines between the trapezoidal angles that drive the cultural capital—art controversies—ABCD complex. Diane Grams’ “Building Arts Participation through Transactions, Relationships, or Both” (Grams 2008) distinguishes two ways that nonprofit organizations relate to their audiences and patrons. The nonprofits arts can relate to them either through what she calls “transaction practices”—that is, using technology to attract customers, documenting and managing transactions, and steering consumers in their purchasing—to earn income. Or they can do so through “relational practices” based on exchanges of trust, reciprocity, and shared interests to create relevant human
Art Controversy and Asset-Based Community Development
71
interaction with their patrons and audiences. If we substitute a work of art for a nonprofit arts organization, then we can use both transactions and relationships to understand how individual encounters with controversial art form cultural capital. Transaction practices are analogous to interactions in art controversies while relational practices are analogous to reactions to controversial art. Both practices, Grams writes, “suggest the importance of knowing and sharing resources with a community as a prerequisite to the community valuing the work of art the organization,” or, in this chapter, a controversial work of art (2008, 25). Moreover, just individuals can participate in the arts now in many new ways other than attending the symphony or ballet or visiting a museum (Tepper and Gao 2008, 27–28), community members have an expanded set of options for engaging a controversial work of art. And most types of arts participation enable the formation of micro, Bourdieuan cultural capital. Even iconoclasm is a “misuse”—and thus a relationship—between an individual and a work of art (Gamboni 1997, 25). In this way, we propose the following relationships in the art controversies-cultural capital-ABCD complex: 1. The stock of cultural capital supplies controversial art. 2. Individuals interact/react with art controversies. 3. Micro-level cultural capital formation supplies “a force of creativity and innovation” to ABCD. The first and second relationships are developed in part 2, and the third in part 3. PART 2. RICHARD SERRA’S TILTED ARC Richard Serra’s (b. 1939) Tilted Arc was in many ways a typical Serra sculpture: it was physically imposing, even threatening. Commissioned in 1979 and erected in 1981 under the auspices of the General Services Administration’s (GSA) percentage-for-art, Art-in-Architecture program, Tilted Arc was an enormous steel structure (120 feet in length, 12 feet in height, 78 tons, 3 inches thick) in front of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York City. In his Yale Lecture (January 1990) after it was finally removed in 1989, Serra asserted that his work was not influenced by the tradition of twentiethcentury welded sculpture. Rather, he treated his steel as a material in the tradition of “architecture, technology, and industry building.” To work with steel not as picture making element, but as a building material; in terms of mass, weight, counterbalance, loadbearing capacity, point load,
72
Gordon E. Shockley and Anne Kotleba
compression, friction and statics has been totally divorced from the history of sculpture, however, it has found direct application within the histories of architecture, technology, and industry building. (Serra 1097)
In a very real sense, Serra’s Tilted Arc like most of his steel sculptures was in the first instance plainly physical capital in addition to cultural capital. Furthermore, Serra sought to elicit emotional reaction from people’s encounters with his works. Art critic Hilton Kramer articulates this as “an element of dread, or what might even be called fear, which I do not recall ever before encountering in a sculptural work in quite the same way” (Kramer 2006, 140). Kramer also adds precariousness in experiencing Serra’s work: “the delicate balances sustained by the huge steel plates give the impression of a precariousness that reinforces this sense of an implied threat and thus surrounds it with an atmosphere of dread” (Kramer 2006, 141). We can immediately detect Serra’s intention of dread and precariousness in the title Tilted Arc: this massive steel wall was indeed “tilted,” leaning toward passersby. Serra’s sculptural art flows from and constitutes a space in the macrocosm of Throsbian cultural capital (Relationship 1 in figure 3.1). Art historians and critics most commonly characterize Serra’s sculptures as prominent examples of minimalism. From the 1960s onward, pop art, minimalist sculpture, conceptualism, and seemingly all styles of succeeding the cool, distanced abstraction of modernism had moved toward “a particularly intense experience of reality while not belonging to that reality in a straightforward manner” (Steiner 1995, 76). Art critic Michael Fried in his highly influential essay “Art and Objecthood” argues that minimalist artists inject “theatricality” into its art that is “a function not just of obtrusiveness and, often, even aggressiveness of literalist [i.e., Fried’s term for minimalist] work, but of the special complicity that the work extorts from the beholder” (Fried 1998, 155). Minimalist work forces individual reaction, Fried continues, as “there is an important sense in which the work in question exists for him alone, even if he is not actually alone with the work at the time” (Fried 1998, 163). Art historian Rosalind Krauss compares the sculptures of the Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti (1902–1966) with those of Krauss. She finds that each inhabits one of “two domains of culture”: “one figurative, expressive, richly connotative [Giacometti], the other abstract, uninflected, associatively raw [Serra]” (Krauss 1985, 262). What Krauss calls Serra’s “rawness” indicates the anti-institutionalism of Serra’s sculptures. Art historian Douglas Crimp remarks that Serra was determined to “build his work outside the confines of art institutions” (Crimp 1986, 44). There is somewhat of a paradox to Serra’s work in that he rejects the institutions of art yet still resists making his art welcoming. In Kramer’s words again, “What proved to be so bitterly offensive to
Art Controversy and Asset-Based Community Development
73
the community that Tilted Arc was commissioned to serve was its total lack of amenity” (Kramer 1989, 51). “Site specificity” and controversy are distinguishing features of Serra’s sculpture, including Tilted Arc. Serra discusses site specificity at length in interviews and lectures (see also Senie 1989). For example, once again in his 1990 Yale lecture (Serra 1998, 1098), he asserts: “Site-specific works deal with the environmental components of given places” and their “topography.” His site-specific sculptures are “dependent on and inseparable from their location.” Serra intends for site-specific sculpture “to alter their context” and to establish a constraining, triangulating relationship between the sculpture, its site, and spectators. Site-specificity forces reaction, interaction, and dialogue, or “a new behavioral and perceptual orientation to a site demands a new critical adjustment to one’s experience of the place. Site-specific works primarily engender a dialogue with their surroundings.” In fact, Tilted Arc’s site-specificity represented Serra’s principal defense in the almost decadelong court struggle, arguing that removing it or even transplanting the sculpture “would in effect represent a destruction of the work” (Gamboni 1997, 161). The reaction, interaction, and dialogue in the public and in the courts provoked by Serra’s site-specific sculpture facilitate the formation of Bourdieuan micro-level cultural capital. Serra sought controversy for Tilted Arc from its commission in 1979 to its removal in 1989—and beyond. Some argue that would have been controversial to the general public regardless of Serra’s intentions. For example, Bruce Cole, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (2001–2009), believes that the government-supported art, exemplified by the Tilted Arc, would never appeal to or be accepted by the “average” man or woman (Cole 2018, 48). He or she would always reject contemporary public art as wasteful or offensive. Indeed, it was highly probable that its installation in a federal plaza in the quintessentially urban (see Wirth 1938) Manhattan would be controversial. Yet, Serra was more calculating and deliberate. “Site specificity is not a value in itself,” Serra declares. “Works which are built within the contextual frame of government, corporate, educational and religious institutions run the risk of being read as tokens of those institutions” (Serra 1098). He eschewed corporate sponsorship and government support (though the federal agency GSA had commissioned Tilted Arc). “Artists who willingly accept corporate support likewise submit to corporate control,” he said (Serra 1099). Similarly: “Tolerance exists only for officially sanctioned ideas. . . . But how much of our autonomy do we cede to a government for example that pursues policies which we find contradictory to our basic beliefs” (Serra 1099). What were his basic beliefs that government patronage compromised? Serra enumerates those beliefs in 8 Drawings: Weights and
74
Gordon E. Shockley and Anne Kotleba
Measures at the Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, 1989 (shown in figure 4.2 in Gamboni 1997, 162). Only the text is reproduced below: 1. The American Flag is not an object of worship. 2. The New York Times manufacturers censorship. 3. The United States Senate dictates censorship. 4. The United States courts are partial to Government. 5. The United States Government destroys art. 6. The United States Government deprives artists of moral rights. 7. Support indecent and uncivil art! 8. No mandatory patriotism. Serra, therefore, was not innocent of the perennial tension between art and politics. In fact, Serra sparked controversy with another government commission for Federal Plaza in Washington, DC, only a few years before Tilted Arc in 1977. This project was cancelled because of an irreconcilable conflict between Serra and the project’s architect, Robert Venturi. Serra complained: “You wouldn’t ask Brancusi or Rodin to do that [put a national flag on top of a sculpture]. . . . It’s not the nature of my work to reassert ideological values of government. The value of my art isn’t other values—it’s contained within the structure of the work” (quoted in Senie 2001, 12). Tilted Arc was finally dismantled into three pieces and moved to storage on March 15, 1989 (see Singer and Brookman 1992, 336–37, 40 for a full chronology). We argue in this chapter that the controversy specifically over Serra’s Tilted Arc—and perhaps generally over other controversial installations of public art—stimulated the formation of cultural capital at the Bourdieuan, micro-level (Relationship 2 in figure 3.1). Our argument is simple: art controversies, intentional or not, force interaction/reaction between the work of art and members of the community. Controversial public art demands individuals engage it, take positions on it. Site-specificity maintains that “there is no neutral site” (Serra 1098). Serra’s Tilted Arc was designed to be encountered and argued about (Gamboni 1997, 163). Public art should be challenging “as a forum for investigation, articulation, and constructive reappraisal” (Phillips 1989, 331). “Contrary to nearly all published commentary,” Senie points out, “there is no accurate measure of public response to Tilted Arc” (2001, 37). Some people supported Tilted Arc, while others sought its removal. No one knows the count. But each individual that saw it, read about it, or heard about it interacted/reacted with it. Do I like it or hate it? Do I find a work offensive or innocuous? Is it provocative or trite? Why do I react as I do? Does it recognize my presence or underscore my absence in my community? Does it enable my voice or abet its suppression? And the Tilted Arc makes it
Art Controversy and Asset-Based Community Development
75
a quintessential object for this analysis because, as Douglas Crimp remarks, “insofar as our society is fundamentally constructed upon the principle of egotism, the needs of each individual coming into conflict with those of all other individuals, Sierra’s work does nothing other than present us with the truth of our social condition” (Crimp 1986, 53). According to Crimp, Serra’s Tilted Arc forces members of the community to face the human condition. These are the kind of interactions/reactions that contribute to cultural-capital formation in a community. PART 3. PUBLIC ART AND ABCD Art controversies are often embodied in legislative action and court cases. By being located “publicly” and seeking public acknowledgment, and response, public art by definition is controversial and thus imbues a community with cultural capital. In part 3, we finish the application of the model linking cultural capital to arts-based community development. The third and final relationship from figure 3.1 is that the micro-level cultural capital formation supplies a force of creativity and innovation to ABCD. We explore how cultural capital from public art contributes to arts-based community development. Again, cultural capital is a “force of creativity and innovation,” Phillips and Shockley write, and it is “the major foundation on which artsbased development approaches are built and implemented” in a community (2010, 108). Exemplified not only by Serra’s Tilted Arc but also by Judy Baca’s murals and the street art of JR, we show that art can be deployed as a tool for community organizing and a language for public engagement. In the decades after Tilted Arc was dismantled (or according to Serra’s precept of site-specificity, destroyed), its well-documented legacy provides a platform to discuss the important role community voice plays in the public art sphere, transitioning the purpose from art-as-object to art-as-tool in community transformation. This, in essence, is cultural capital as a force of creativity and innovation. Art as a Tool for Community Organizing The cultural capital from public art facilitates community organizing. In direct contrast to Serra’s work, a parallel movement in community-centered public art production exposed a shift in defining cultural capital, no longer relying solely on the gallery-driven arena and democratizing the art-making process as a tool of community development. This socially engaged model built a citizen-led, relationship-oriented, values-based response to the mainstream art establishment while uplifting the voices of nondominant communities. This
76
Gordon E. Shockley and Anne Kotleba
historical development has led to current artists like French street artist JR thinking and acting more intentionally about the way they embed communitydevelopment principles into their work and the products that are produced. In her book Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art, Suzanne Lacy investigates the growth of public art into participatory action. The book, as the movement itself, is not a blueprint for theory-building but a map of expansive engagements where artists were already working. Lacy herself, while author and educator, is foremost an artist who utilizes performance to confront violence in public spaces from a feminist perspective (Gonzales et al. 2018, 22). Her art was, and still is, a blending action of activism and spectacle. Deviating from the public art sculptures and murals from traditional schools, this new genre emphasized the inclusion of the public audience in the action of the artists. By connecting theories of art to the broader population, the audience enters a dialogue with the artist in the public space, thereby making it difficult to distinguish if the focus is the artwork or the relationship (Lacy 1995, 20). Lacy at once possesses cultural capital in both Throsbian and Bourdieuan senses and generates its formation in the community through her public art. Around the same time as Serra’s rise in the 1970s, an underground movement of activist-centered art gained recognition outside the conventional, institutional spaces. As Serra debated his own anti-institutionalist artistic freedom in sculptures like the Tilted Arc, this new generation of artists from largely nondominant communities—mostly female and artists of color—were organizing “a common interest in leftist politics, social activism, refined audiences, relevance for communities (particularly marginalized ones), and collaborative methodology” (Lacy 1995, 25). Their use of new media was particularly noteworthy as it encouraged artists to think critically about the role audiences play in the art-making process. Somewhat ironically, to Lacy and this new generation, Serra was part of the old fraternal order of the old guard patriarchal artists, clinging to a postmodern avant-garde individualism. Yet, in retrospect, they acknowledged that Serra and the controversy over Tilted Arc fate was an important front in the culture wars (Vartanian 2019). As the new generation of activist artists developed new rules for artmaking, they gave value to the cultural roots of marginalized and underrepresented communities who were often ignored by mainstream culture. This can be seen as another part of their community development. According to MexicanAmerican painter Yolanda López, “In an era when the state was disintegrated to the degree where it can no longer attend to the needs of the people, artists who work in the community need to consciously develop organizing and critical skills among the people with whom they work.” The origins of “community arts” was birthed within this space, much out of the radar of the dominant art world (Lacy 1995, 27). These new, activist artists—including
Art Controversy and Asset-Based Community Development
77
Lily Yeh, Amalia Mesa-Bains, and Rick Lowe with Project Row House, among others—centered on the audience, relationships, communication, and political intention. Yet, if there is one early model of community-engaged, activist-centered art, we could look to The Great Wall of Los Angeles mural and the legacy of Judy Baca and Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC). SPARC deals with the “issues of communication, empowerment, and change.” It utilizes several languages, ranging from “Spanish and English to bureaucratic, economic, and aesthetic. SPARC uses these languages and art to translate, mediate, and inform” (Cleveland 2000, 265). Baca’s murals encouraged the formation of cultural capital in her Los Angeles community. “A wall that becomes a mural becomes a bridge to useful knowledge, ideas, and inspiration” (Cleveland 2000, 265). For The Great Wall, Baca facilitated a halfmile-long mural depicting a revisionist history of California to include the perspective of the expansive ethnic diversity of the state (Baca 1995, 132). Painted by over 400 youth, in the Tujunga Wash, a concrete retaining wall segmenting the city, The Great Wall, became “a tattoo on a scar where a river once ran” (Baca 1995, 133). Baca’s and others’ public art were instrumental in progressing the Chicano movement and organizing community social action in California and beyond (Cieri and Peeps 2000, 213). SPARC’s values were based in amplifying the voices of marginalized young people in the community who were oppressed by privatized space and overpoliced by the dominate culture (Baca 1995, 137). Art gave these young artists a means to resist and a venue to be heard. This constitutes community development driven by cultural capital flowing from public art. There were other public art projects like Baca and SPARC that contributed to arts-based community development. Like SPARC, many youth-based art programs and social enterprises still thrive today. Manchester Bidwell Corporation (MBC) facilitates long-term success for youth and adults though career training, entrepreneurial interest, and arts development (MBC n.d.; Cleveland 2005, 39). Founder Bill Strickland emphasizes creativity and the arts to help combat economic and social devastation experienced in the local neighborhoods. Alumni of the programs repeatedly report the diversity of opportunities prepared them for education and the workforce after high school (Cleveland 2005, 46). While there are hundreds of youth-focused art programs throughout the country, some of the most impactful are those that align with Strickland’s model and provide the youth with a means for economic development along with artistic skills. Young Aspirations Young Artists, or YAYAs, has been empowering New Orleans young people since 1988, providing educational experiences in the arts and entrepreneurship. YAYAs’ artwork can be found in galleries around the city and youth receive at least half the income from the sales (YAYAs n.d.). In Boston, Artist’s for
78
Gordon E. Shockley and Anne Kotleba
Humanity (AFH) employs more than 325 teenagers annually in paid art and design apprenticeships, providing underresourced youth the keys to selfsufficiency. In addition to their own creative endeavors, AFH apprenticeships offer a wide range to fine art and design services for hire, teaching young people the professional skills to navigate commissioned projects (AFH 2020). MBC, YAYAs, and AFH all developed cultural capital in communities and used it as a tool for community organizing. Language for Audience Engagement The expansion of art from a transactional social relationship to a transformational practice empowers the participants to build a sustained platform for change. Most critically of all, or perhaps most transformationally, is the inclusion of participants from outside the art world and outside the action itself. The heightened attention to production process and audience is a defining characteristic of engaged art. And this is enabled by cultural capital flowing to the community. Lacy also identifies the growing need for a language to interpret audience engagement. She likens this to concentric circles in a nonhierarchical structure, such as ripples emanating in a pond. At the center of the circles is the origin or genesis of the idea. Then, working outward, circles signify collaborators and codevelopers, volunteers and performers, and an “intermediate” audience that has direct experience with the artwork. The outside circles include media audiences who spread the news and interpret the artwork. Lastly, the outermost circle signifies the lasting memory and myth of the artwork from the audience. Lacy described these circles as flexible and fluid, depending on how the artwork is established, with participants moving back and forth between levels (Lacy 1995, 177–80). Lacy’s model approximates one of cultural-capital formation. Decades later, Pablo Helguera reinterpreted these levels in his own multilayered participatory structures. He added nominal participation, directed participation, creative participation, and collaborative participation (Helguera 2011, 14–16). While the others are typically developed over a more sustained engagement with the artist or the piece, nominal participation is generally a one-time encounter. Yet, even under nominal participation, one’s interaction can bring transformational change through dialogue and experience. Helguera encourages us to consider these distinctions to help set goals for the artist, evaluate the work’s intention, and evaluate the outcomes for the community. Both Lacy’s and Helguera’s models of arts participation are compatible with and complement the trapezoidal, transaction model of arts controversies, cultural capital, and ABCD (figure 3.1). Like the activist community artists of the late twentieth century, French street artist JR is unabashedly political in his art’s message. He reminds
Art Controversy and Asset-Based Community Development
79
viewers how racism, sexism, poverty, and xenophobia infiltrate our public spaces to promote discrimination and violence (JR n.d. b). JR’s often guerilla-style work through photography and art interventions utilizes the classic street art technique of wheat pasting large-scale posters in public spaces. His use of portraiture uplifts the faces of the voiceless, cast-off, or unseen community members. Yet, these relationships extend far beyond that of artist/subject and transcend the boundaries of public space into a virtual realm, which allows JR to be included and welcomed to the most forgotten communities. JR’s installations become their own language for dialogue with the greater public. For his Women are Heroes project, JR traveled to several conflict zones to highlight the essential role that women play in the community while illuminating the fact that women are the primary victims of war, crime, rape, and political or religious fanaticism. Separate, yet similar, installations and photo sessions took place in India, Cambodia, Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Brazil, Le Havre, and Paris (JR n.d. b). As JR photographed the women using a 28mm wide-angle lens, he asked them if they wanted to make a face. Some chose to pose silently “allowing everything they had been through to be read in their eyes” (JR n.d. b). Others offered unguarded smiles, laughed outwardly, and opened their souls allowing us to witness a release of pain and sorrow and capturing the spirits of individuals typically invisible (JR n.d. b). JR pasted the portraits, usually the eyes, sometimes the full faces or mouths, on walls in the native community, on trains, and on the rooftops of residences (which, incidentally, also provided protection from water). In a film made by JR to enhance the project in the Morro da Providencia favela in Rio de Janeiro, a women tells JR: “I only give this interview as you will take it far from here, otherwise I wouldn’t because I’m afraid” (JR 2012). The project description on JR’s website states, “the participants often asked JR to make their stories travel—as a way of voicing what they had gone through and what they had resisted, and of telling the world that they existed” (JR n.d.). JR honored their wishes as the images of the women were shared around the globe—thus encouraging the formation of cultural capital around the globe, too. JR’s Women Are Heroes is full of cultural capital. What made his project successful as an art piece lies in the trust JR built as an outsider with the vulnerable women. What makes this project remarkable as a tool for community development is the impact exposure, confidence, and platform it had on the women who participated. Translated from an interview in JR’s film, one of the first women to live in Morro da Providencia advocates on behalf of her community, “I love this place. I love all of this here. I believe passion is what drives me to try to improve things around here, to build morale, to build community and to be able to better conditions for people who really need it. Most of the time they come straight to my door” (JR 2012). As the artist, JR
80
Gordon E. Shockley and Anne Kotleba
assumes the role of facilitator, yet by approaching the community of women from an ABCD perspective, he uplifts the gifts of the women to be celebrated, encouraged, and sustained. We can hear this confidence and spirit directly from the women themselves because the other successful component to JR’s project was the vast array of media created to support the project and provide numerous outlets for the women’s message to “travel.” The portraits were pasted on the walls, were carried by trains, and stared back at airplanes overhead. Due to the digital nature of the content, JR could repurpose, reprint, and adapt it to fit in other spaces or outlets. Additionally, the documentation then becomes part of the art. Photographs of the walls are shared and reshared through social media. Video interviews of the women are heard by people worldwide. A widely expansive audience can meet the women and given access to this place-based work while never stepping in front of a poster. The innovation and success of Women Are Heroes won JR a TED Prize in 2011 of USD 1,000,000, which he used to announce his next project, Inside Out. In his previous projects, JR was the outsider who used his camera to create dialogue and earn trust with the participants—whom he considered collaborators. With each community he realized that everyone had a message they wanted to share, and if he was able to give everyone access to the tools, they could accomplish more as a collective that any individual artist could manage (JR 2018). Thus, Inside Out was born along with the reinforced idea that “art can change the world” (JR 2014). Inside Out is a participatory global art project that allows individuals and groups anywhere in the world to upload a portrait along with a message about a cause they support. JR’s team prints the portrait on a large-scale poster and returns it to the new “collaborators” to paste in a public space in their community. In the first eight years of the project, over 400,000 people representing 140 countries participated in Inside Out. Some global actions associated with this project include LGBT activists in Minsk, Moscow, and St. Petersburg; people working on the front lines of the food and fishing industry in Malawi; and Lakota Tribe members in an action called “We Still Exist” (JR n.d.). This massive participatory global project was documented in a film that premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and on HBO in 2013. JR infused the principles of ABCD by decentering himself in the process, empowering community members, individuals, and groups to take ownership of their own images and take up space in public places to force a response. In his 2014 TED Talk entitled “Art Can Fail,” JR says, “The artist’s role is to transform his time, rather than reflecting it. His role is to be ever changing, evolving, and challenge the status quo” (JR 2014). It is the belief that art can change the world by changing people’s lives that has sustained art in public places as a tool for community development for generations. Whether through a minimalist sculpture in a government plaza, a
Art Controversy and Asset-Based Community Development
81
revisionist history of California inclusive of all peoples, or the act of pasting a poster on a wall to say I am here, artist facilitators will continue to challenge the status quo in the name of stronger communities. Art controversies flowing from macro Throsbian cultural capital that, in turn, encourage Bourdieuan, micro-level cultural capital, all finally coming together as a super-charged force of creativity and innovation to support ABCD. CONCLUSION: INTERACTION/ REACTION WITH/TO PUBLIC ART The chronology of Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc spanned the 1980s. It began with GSA’s commission of Serra in 1979, and the installation of Tilted Arc in 1981 in front of Javits Federal Building in Manhattan, and then it ended with the sculpture’s dismantling and removal to a federal storage facility in 1989. A great deal happened between those strict endpoints. In 1981, just two months after its installation, 1,300 people working in the federal plaza or adjacent buildings signed a petition “calling for the work’s removal.” On March 6, 1985, the New York regional office of GSA begins hearings for its removal. At the hearing, 122 spoke in favor of Tilted Arc and preferred that it remains in the federal plaza, while slightly less than half (fifty-eight) spoke out against the sculpture and demanded its removal. But later that year on May 31, 1985, after receiving more than 7,000 signatures demanding its removal, GSA announced that the Tilted Arc will be moved to another location. Serra fought back in court and asserts the sculpture’s site specificity, arguing moving it would mean its destruction: “To relocate it is to destroy it,” he asserted. “It was built specifically for that place.” A federal judge finally ruled that GSA may remove Tilted Arc despite its commission and sitespecificity. The judge held that “the government had the right to do what it wished with its property.” And the government finally dismantled Tilted Arc into three pieces and removed it to storage on March 15, 1989 (Chronology from Singer and Brookman 1992, 336–37, 40). The controversy over Serra’s Tilted Arc, however, was far from over. There are several interpretations of the art controversy that are summarized well in Harriet Senie’s Tilted Arc Controversy: Dangerous Precedent? (2001, 135–51), whose work has been used extensively in this chapter. Was the Tilted Arc controversy a preface to the culture wars that erupted in 1989 over the exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe’s X Portfolio and Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ? Did its removal represent government censorship? Or was it a dispute over artistic style? Did it signal the conclusive end of American modernism in the arts? Did it have no larger connection to art and was rather just a bad sculpture? Was it just too threatening of a sculpture or did it simply
82
Gordon E. Shockley and Anne Kotleba
make walking in the federal plaza too inconvenient? Did the majority of the community hate it and want it removed? Was Tilted Arc too sophisticated for the community to understand or even appreciate? The controversy’s meaning continues to be examined today, as we have done in this chapter. We would answer Yes to all of those questions about how to interpret the controversy over Serra’s Tilted Arc. In this chapter, we have attempted to demonstrate that all the interactions/reactions with/to a controversial work of art like Tilted Arc are useful in the formation of cultural capital in a community. Individual reactions could be negative or positive: it just awakens them to the world of art. Iconoclasm of public art is never good or even beneficial, as we see now in the summer of 2020. Controversy has erupted over murals asserting Black Lives Matter and statues explicitly or implicitly gesturing toward the Civil War Confederacy, Founding Fathers, and/or the institution of slavery. Regarding the latter public art, New York Times art critic Holland Cotter wrote an article entitled “We Don’t Have to Like Them. We Just Need to Understand Them.” In it, as the title indicates, he opines, “Public political images are never innocent. . . . [I]t’s necessary, for history’s sake, that we first stand back, look hard, sort them out” (2020, C12). The same could easily be said for the controversy over Serra’s Tilted Arc: people just had to “stand back, look hard, sort them out.” And, as they did, cultural capital formed in the community. REFERENCES Artists for Humanity. “About Us.” Artists for Humanity. n.d. Accessed 2020-07-13. http://afhboston.org/aboutus.html. Web. Alexander, Jeffrey C., and Bernhard Giesen. “From Reduction to Linkage: The Long View of the Micro-Macro Link.” The Micro-Macro Link. Eds. Alexander, Jeffrey C., et al. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. 1–42. Print. Archer, Michael. Art since 1960 (New Edition). Thames & Hudson World of Art. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1997 and 2002. Print. Baca, Judith F. “Whose Monument Where? Public Art in a Many-Cultured Society.” Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art. Ed. Lacy, Suzanne. Seattle: Bay Press, 1995. 131–38. Print. Becker, Howard S. Art Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982. Print. Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Trans. Nice, Richard. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984. Print. Bourdieu, Pierre. “The Forms of Capital.” Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. Ed. Richardson, John G. New York: Greenwood Press, 1986. 241–58. Print. Bourdieu, Pierre. “Manet and the Institutionalization of Anomie.” Trans. Parnell, Juliette. The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. Ed. Johnson, Randal. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. 238–53. Print.
Art Controversy and Asset-Based Community Development
83
Bourdieu, Pierre. “Outline of a Sociological Theory of Art Perception.” Trans. Anonymous. The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. International Social Science Journal, Nov 1968, Vol. 20, Issue 4, pp. 589–612. Ed. Johnson, Randal. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. 215–37. Print. Bourdieu, Pierre. The Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field. Trans. Emanuel, Susan. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992. Print. Bourdieu, Pierre. The Social Structures of the Economy. Trans. Turner, Chris. Cambridge, UK and Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2005. Print. Bourdieu, Pierre, Alain Darbel, and Dominique Schnapper. The Love of Art: European Art Museums and Their Public. 1969 in French—Les Editions de Minuit L’amour de l’art: les musees d’art europeens et leur public. Trans. Beattie, Caroline and Nick Merriman. Cambridge, UK and Malden, MA: Polity Press, 1991. Print. Bourdieu, Pierre, and Jean-Claude Passeron. Reproduction: In Education, Society and Culture. Trans. Nice, Richard. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1977. Print. Center for Arts and Culture. “America’s Cultural Capital: Recommendations for Structuring the Federal Role.” Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society 31.3 (2001): 180–83. Print. Campbell, Mary Schmidt. “New Trends in Cultural Policy for the Twenty-First Century.” Social Text 17.2 (1999): 5–16. Print. Cieri, Marie, and Claire Peeps. “Interview with Amalia Mesa-Bains.” Activists Speak Out: Reflections on the Pursuit of Change in America. New York: Palgrave, 2000. 209–28. Print. Cleveland, William. “Case Study: Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild.” Making Exact Change: How U.S. Arts-Based Programs Have Made a Significant and Sustained Impact on Their Communities. Saxapahaw, NC: Art in the Public Interest, 2005. 36–46. Print. Cleveland, William. “Judy Baca: SPARC—the Social and Public Arts Resource Center.” The Politics of Culture: Policy Perspectives for Individuals, Institutions, and Communities. Eds. Bradford, Gigi, Michael Gary and Glenn Wallach. New York: The New Press, 2000. 258–65. Print. Cole, Bruce. Art from the Swamp: How Washington Bureaucrats Squander Millions on Awful Art. New York: Encounter Books, 2018. Print. Coleman, James S. Foundations of Social Theory. 1990. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994. Print. Coleman, James S. “Microfoundations and Macrosocial Behavior.” The MicroMacro Link. Eds. Alexander, Jeffrey C., et al. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. 153–73. Print. Collins, Randall. “A Micro-Macro Theory of Intellectual Creativity: The Case of German Idealist Philosophy.” Sociological Theory 5.1 (1987): 47–69. Print. Collins, Randall. “On the Microfoundations of Macrosociology.” American Journal of Sociology 86.5 (1981): 984–1014. Print. Cotter, Holland. “We Don’t Have to Like Them. We Just Need to Understand Them.” The New York Times June 24, 2020 2020, sec. Arts: C1, C12. Print. Crimp, Douglas. “Serra’s Public Sculpture: Redefining Site Specificity.” Richard Serra/Sculpture. Ed. Rosenstock, Laura. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1986. 41–55. Print.
84
Gordon E. Shockley and Anne Kotleba
Dyke, Chuck. “Bourdieuean Dynamics: The American Middle-Class Self-Constructs.” Bourdieu: A Critical Reader. Ed. Shusterman, Richard. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999. 192–213. Print. Fowler, Bridget. Pierre Bourdieu and Cultural Theory: Critical Investigations. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 1997. Print. Fried, Michael. “Art and Objecthood: Essays and Reviews.” Art and Objecthood. Art forum 5 (June 1967): 12–23. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1967/1998. 148–72. Print. Frow, John. Cultural Studies & Cultural Value. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1995. Print. Gaddis, John Lewis. A Frolic of One’s Own. New York: Scribner Paperback Editions, 1994. Print. Gamboni, Dario. The Destruction of Art: Iconoclasm and Vandalism since the French Revolution. Paperback ed. London: Reaktion Books, 1997. Print. Giddens, Anthony. The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. Print. Gonzales, Elyse A., et al. “Suzanne Lacy and Pablo Helguera in Conversation.” Western Humanities Review 72.3 (2018): 17–44. Print. Grams, Diane. “Building Arts Participation through Transactions, Relationships, or Both.” Entering Cultural Communities: Diversity and Change in the Nonprofit Arts. Eds. Grams, Diane and Betty Farrell. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008. 13–37. Print. Grenfell, Michael, and Cheryl Hardy. Art Rules: Pierre Bourdieu and the Visual Arts. New York: Berg, 2007. Print. Helguera, Pablo. Education for Socially Engaged Art. New York: Jorge Pinto Books, 2011. Print. Holt, Douglas B. “Distinction in America? Recovering Bourdieu’s Theory of Tastes from Its Critics.” Poetics 25 (1997): 93–120. Print. Hopkins, David. After Modern Art, 1945–2000. Oxford History of Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print. Johnson, Randal. “Editor’s Introduction: Pierre Bourdieu on Art, Literature and Culture.” The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. Ed. Johnson, Randal. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. 1–25. Print. JR, “Art Can Fail,” filmed 2014 at TED2014 All-Stars. TED video, 7:59, https://ww w.youtube.com/watch?v=M63DGCavIkE. JR. “How Artist Jr Is Helping Connect Our Humanity through Street Art | Ted + Gbs Present Torchbearers,” filmed in 2018 by Great Big Story, 5:33, https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=PQTnOye2XuQ. JR. “Inside Out Project Website.” n.d.-a. Accessed 2020-07-13. Web. http://www .insideoutproject.net/en. JR. “Women Are Heroes (Brazil)—Art in the Streets—Mocatv Ep.3.” filmed by JR 2012, published by Museum of Contemporary Art YouTube Channel, 9:47, https:/ /www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNzXKEC333c. JR. “Women Are Heroes Project.” JR-art, n.d.-b. Accessed 2020-07-13. Web. http:// jr-art.net/project-list/woman-are-heroes.
Art Controversy and Asset-Based Community Development
85
Kammen, Michael. Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture. Vintage Books, 2006. Print. Kramer, Hilton. “Is Art above the Laws of Decency (New York Times, July 2, 1989).” Culture Wars: Documents from the Recent Controversies in the Arts. Ed. Bolton, Richard. New York: New Press, 1992. 51–56. Print. Kramer, Hilton. “Richard Serra at Moma.” The Triumph of Modernism: The Art World, 1987–2005. 1986. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1986/2006. 137–43. Print. Krauss, Rosalind E. “Richard Serra, a Translation.” The Originality of the AvantGarde and Other Modernist Myths. Ed. Krauss, Rosalind E. First MIT Press paperback ed. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1985. 261–74. Print. Lacy, Suzanne. Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art. Ed. Lacy, Suzanne. Seattle: Bay Press, 1995. Print. Lamont, Michele, and Annette Lareau. “Cultural Capital: Allusions, Gaps and Glissandos in Recent Theoretical Developments.” Sociological Theory 6.2 (1988): 153–68. Print. Marx, Karl. “Manifesto of the Communist Party.” Trans. Moore, Samuel. The Communist Manifesto (Norton Critical Edition). 1888. Ed. Bender, Frederic L. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1988. 54–86. Print. Manchester Bidwell Corporation. “About.” Manchester Bidwell Corporation n.d. Accessed 2020-07-13. http://manchesterbidwell.org/about/about-mbc/. Web. McQuarie, Donald. “Introduction.” Marx: Sociology/Social Change/Capitalism. Ed. McQuaid, Ronald W. New York: Quartet Books, 1978. 1–36. Print. Morato, Arturo Rodriguez. “The Culture Society: A New Place for the Arts in the Twenty-First Century.” Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society 32.4 (2003): 245–56. Print. Phillips, Patricia C. “Temporality and Public Art.” Art Journal 48.4 (1989): 331–35. Print. Phillips, Rhonda, and Gordon Shockley. “Linking Cultural Capital Conceptions to Asset-Based Community Development.” Mobilizing Communities: Asset Building as a Community Development Strategy. Eds. Green, Gary P. and Ann Goetting. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2010. 92–111. Print. Quinn, Ruth-Blandina M. “The Abc of Arts-Speak.” Public Policy and the Arts: A Comparative Study of Great Britain and Ireland. Suffolk: The Ipswich Book Company, 1998. 59–94. Print. Radbourne, Jennifer, and Margaret Fraser. Arts Management: A Practical Guide. St Leonards, Australia: Allen and Unwin Pty Ltd, 1996. Print. Senie, Harriet F. “Baboons, Pet Rocks, and Bomb Threats.” Critical Issues in Public Art: Content, Context, and Controversy. Eds. Senie, Harriet F. and Sally Webster. New York: HarperCollins, 1992. 237–46. Print. Senie, Harriet F. “Richard Serra’s “Tilted Arc”: Art and Non-Art Issues.” Art Journal 48.4 (1989): 298–302. Print. Senie, Harriet F. Tilted Arc Controversy: Dangerous Precedent? Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2001. Print. Serra, Richard. “Richard Serra (B. 1939) from the Yale Lecture (January 1990).” Art in Theory, 1900–2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Kunst & Museumjournaal,
86
Gordon E. Shockley and Anne Kotleba
vol. 1, no. 6, 1990, pages 23–33. Eds. Harrison, Charles and Paul Wood. Malden, MA and Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing, 1998. 1096–99. Print. Shaikh, Anwar. “Capital as a Social Relation.” Marxian Economics (the New Palgrave). Eds. Eatwell, John, Murray Milgate and Peter Newman. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1990. 72–78. Print. Shubik, Martin. “Culture and Commerce.” Journal of Cultural Economics 23 (1999): 13–30. Print. Singer, Debra, and Philip Brookman. “Preface to Culture Wars.” Culture Wars: Documents from the Recent Controversies in the Arts. Ed. Bolton, Richard. New York: New Press, 1992. 331–63. Print. Steiner, Wendy. The Scandal of Pleasure: Art in an Age of Fundamentalism. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1995. Print. Tepper, Steven J., and Yang Gao. “Engaging Art: What Counts?” Engaging Art: The Next Great Transformation of America’s Cultural Life. Eds. Tepper, Steven J. and Bill Ivey. New York and London: Routledge, 2008. 17–47. Print. Throsby, David. “Cultural Capital.” Journal of Cultural Economics 23 (1999): 3–12. Print. Throsby, David. “Culture, Economics and Sustainability.” Journal of Cultural Economics 19 (1995): 199–206. Print. Throsby, David. Economics and Culture. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Print. Tucker, Robert C. The Marxian Revolutionary Idea. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1969. Print. Vartanian, Hrag. “Discussing the Sculptures of Richard Serra with Hal Foster.” Hyperallergic, podcast audio, Jan 24, 2019, https://hyperallergic.com/481413/di scussing-the-sculptures-of-richard-serra-with-hal-foster/. Wirth, Louis. “Urbanism as a Way of Life.” American Journal of Sociology 44.1 (1938): 1–24. Print. YAYAs. “Young Aspirations Young Artists.” n.d. Accessed 2020-07-13. https:// www.yayainc.org/. Web.
Chapter 4
The Unique Value of the Arts for Civic Engagement End-of-Life Dialogue in Singapore from the Hospital to the “Heartlands” Justin Lee, Hana Alhadad, Lim Tze Ming Jae Andrew, and Ngiam Su-Lin
INTRODUCTION This chapter showcases the potential and unique value of the arts in civic engagement, specifically when it deals with a challenging or taboo subject matter. In Singapore, one such issue is death and end-of-life matters, which continue to be avoided in everyday conversation among many Singaporeans and perceived as inauspicious especially among older persons. Commonly thought to be the purview of galleries and theatres, the arts can also be a powerful tool in civic engagement, catalyzing the organic and often unpredictable development of communal relationships and capabilities, creating imaginative and safe spaces to deliberate on social issues and expanding the horizons of possible solutions. We focus on how an arts-based community engagement project has helped citizens to participate in dialogue to raise awareness of end-of-life issues and the importance of end-of-life planning. Combining the relational approach of community development and a creative approach unique to the arts, Both Sides, Now (BSN) is coproduced by ArtsWok Collaborative, a nonprofit focused on arts-based community development, and Drama Box, a socially engaged theater company.
87
88
Justin Lee et al.
UNPREPARED FOR DEATH IN SINGAPORE Singapore’s population is aging rapidly. In 1970, one in thirty-one Singaporeans were sixty-five years of age or older. In 2015, this increased to one in eight, or 440,000 seniors; this proportion is expected to rise further to one in four by 2030, amounting to approximately 900,000 seniors, double from the 2015 number (Ministry of Health 2016, 8). People are living longer: the average life expectancy of Singaporeans was 83.6 years in 2019, an increase from 82.9 years in 2015. The median age has been on the rise, and stands at 41.1 years as of 2019, an increase from 39.3 years in 2014 (Department of Statistics 2019, 21). It is also expected that there will be fewer Singaporeans of working age—defined as between twenty to sixty-four years of age—to support the elderly. In 2015, there were approximately five working-age citizens for every senior aged sixty-five and above; this number has dropped to four persons per senior in 2019, and is expected to decline further to two persons per senior by 2030 (Department of Statistics 2019, 20). Despite the increasing salience of death for Singapore’s aging population, end-of-life conversations and planning among Singaporeans remain rare and reactive. In 2013, only half of Singaporeans reported talking about death or dying with their loved ones. Among those aged sixty and above, this number dropped to less than four in ten. Most people only begin to consider end-of-life issues when they become terminally ill and do so within a purely medical context, as part of palliative care planning in nursing homes, hospices, specialist clinics as well as general and community hospitals. A statutory body coordinates an Advance Care Planning (ACP) program that helps facilitate discussions on future health-care plans before patients become very ill and lose the ability to communicate for themselves. However, only approximately 5,100 ACPs were completed between its introduction in 2011–2015. Advance Medical Directives (AMD) are also relatively rare, and since its introduction in 1997only 24,682 had been made by 2015. These are legal documents to refuse extraordinary life-sustaining treatment to artificially prolong life in the event of terminal illness where death is inevitable and impending (National Archives of Singapore 2016, 15). Not making adequate plans can result in unnecessarily distressing deaths for the individual and the families, who might dispute various decisions that need to be made. A good death also goes beyond ACP or AMDs and palliative care and depends on preferences of the patient on the place of dying, whether they are surrounded by loved ones, making wills and also other social aspects such as last wishes and life closures.
The Unique Value of the Arts for Civic Engagement
89
Reasons for avoiding end-of-life dialogue include discomfort at broaching the topic with others, not wanting to burden others with such discussions, and perceiving the subject as inauspicious (Lien Foundation 2013). Family members may put off discussions because they are too busy to attend to loved ones until an acute medical event occurs, or fear that talking about the end of life might reduce their loved one’s hope or will to live. In some cases, families even chose not to reveal terminal diagnoses to their relatives due to cultural preference for protecting the patient from the truth. Even if conversations do happen, the culture of joint decision-making in families and the social expectation of family-centered care for members may make it difficult for elderly patients to make their own health-care decisions, who are equally inclined to defer to family members (Arivalagan and Gee 2019, 54). Personal preferences can be complicated by competing, well-intentioned concerns from family members. Indeed, significant differences in attitudes and decisions regarding end-of-life care have been reported among patients and their relatives regarding the use of specific medical interventions (Ang, Zhang, and Lim 2016, 23), paying for life-extending treatments (Malhotra et al. 2015, 843) or ideas of what constitutes a “good” death (Lee, Woo, and Goh 2013, 37). Physicians and health-care professionals may not know how to engage in end-of-life discussions with patients, which are both difficult and timeconsuming and which may require specific skills or training to facilitate properly. Lack of awareness or misconceptions of available end-of-life care options also limit meaningful dialogue and consideration. Although many people know that hospices provide a place of care for the terminally ill, half of Singaporeans are not aware of the availability of such hospice services in Singapore, with even more respondents not able to properly define what hospice palliative care is. Furthermore, many Singaporeans do not think about hospice palliative care because of the perception that costs are high (Lien Foundation 2013). While there have been many public education campaigns and nonprofit initiatives to encourage Singaporeans to embrace end-of-life planning, it continues to be rare and reactive, and occurs only when life-threatening conditions, chronic illnesses, and incidents necessitate uncomfortable decisions given imminent death (Loh and Arivalagan 2015). Such decisions tend to be made at the last minute, introducing potential complications between family members, medical professionals, and the dying person who may not have the benefit of time, sound mind, and active control over decisions concerning end-of-life care (Arivalagan and Gee 2019, 27). It is in this context that an arts-based project was conceptualized to encourage people to speak freely, think deeply, and act in a timely way on end-oflife matters. End-of-life conversations among family members can lead to
90
Justin Lee et al.
greater continuity in service planning as individuals’ care needs can be made known earlier. Individuals can also make important legal decisions earlier on and avoid later grief. At a more fundamental level, this helps to engender a culture of acceptance of death in the face of its inevitability, shifting the focus from how to live longer to how to live and die well. SOCIALLY ENGAGED ARTS IN SINGAPORE In Singapore, socially engaged artists operate at the intersection of arts, community development, and social services, which offer unique constraints and opportunities emerging from this niche position. We will provide some context of these three respective sectors here. These sectors have evolved independently through the administration of separate statutory agencies, but increasingly cross-sector interactions have emerged because of the recognition of how complex social issues are and the value of tapping into the strengths of diverse community assets (Lee, Mathews, and Tan 2017). In the early years, policies pertaining to the arts and culture took a backseat to economic development. It was only in the late 1980s and 1990s that policymakers began to turn their attention to the arts and culture, but even then, only as a sector with new economic potential. Arts and cultural policies were designed to transform Singapore into a global arts city—this aspiration to be placed in the same league as cosmopolitan cities has the additional motive of “staying on top as a focal node in the late-capitalist world system of the new millennium” (Kwok and Low 2002, 154). The investment in arts and culture was rationalized as economically sensible because it would attract foreign investment and human talent (Chong 2005, 556). The arts gradually became regarded by the state as a platform for encouraging interracial harmony and nation-building, and later on, as a tool for community bonding through broad-based participation in arts activities. The state has increasingly recognized the value of using the arts as a mode to engage the community at the local level and within the wider community, address communal issues, and empower individuals to embrace their civic identities. Currently, the community arts ecosystem in Singapore is highly dependent on the state providing to artists and nonprofit organizations to sustain such projects. Community development in Singapore has been dominated by government-sponsored grassroots organizations. After Singapore attained self-government, the People’s Association (PA) was established as a unique statutory body with a wide mandate to oversee grassroots organizations, community development councils, and community centers. The PA is an integral player in Singapore’s community space, coordinating grassroots initiatives and developing new programs and schemes to promote social cohesion and trust. With an overwhelming advantage in funding and outreach, the PA is able
The Unique Value of the Arts for Civic Engagement
91
to help distribute the burden of Singapore’s development among passionate individuals in civic society (Paul and Tan 2003, 18). Therefore, strong stateled grassroots organizations led to the unintended consequence of displacing voluntary and nongovernmental efforts. There are very few NGOs that engage in the work of “community development” even though many offer community-based programs, choosing instead to focus on the delivery of direct services to tap into available funding. Voluntary efforts at community work typically have to either work within the PA system or find a niche outside them. Therefore, socially engaged artists will often seek funding from and ask for permission to use community spaces administered by the PA. In Singapore, social service agencies (SSAs) are NGOs that provide services that benefit vulnerable or disadvantaged groups such as the elderly, vulnerable families and children, youth-at-risk, ex-offenders, and people with disabilities. The National Council of Social Service, a membership organization of SSAs, is also a statutory body and funder by way of its daughter agency Community Chest, a centralized fundraiser. Typical services funded include casework and counseling, homes, rehabilitative centers, drop-in centers, and helplines, among a myriad of others. There is also a typical professional profile of SSAs, who largely hire social workers, counselors, psychologists, and therapists as frontline staff. Financially speaking, SSAs who regularly provide social services as a primary function are largely funded by external sources of income such as donations and fundraising, and government grants, which can constitute anywhere from 65 percent to over 90 percent of an organization’s funding (Sim, Ghoh, Loh, and Chiu 2015, 27). Artists usually work with SSAs to gain access to vulnerable communities, and there is a tendency by SSAs to regard community arts merely as a kind of “service” that achieves therapeutic outcomes for their clients (Lee et al., 2019). As a result of straddling multiple fields, the work of socially engaged artists is not always clearly understood compared to more well-defined domains such as arts organizations, social services agencies, or community organizations, which have their own sector administrators, scope of work, and ready pools of funding. However, this also provides unique opportunities for pioneers who are experimenting in this new niche area. Nonprofits like ArtsWok are able to do field building even as they do the work, creating exemplars of what is arts-based community development in Singapore. At present there are several categories of players that make up the ecosystem of community arts in Singapore (adapted from Lee and Sim 2017): 1. Community artists or socially engaged artists. They do not necessarily have a shared professional identity nor do they necessarily call themselves community or socially engaged artists. They play a central role in engaging communities by cocreating works and encouraging
92
Justin Lee et al.
conversations and appreciation for the arts among participants (National Arts Council 2018). Some artists create superhero costumes to engage children with special needs and those from less-privileged communities. Others have used performances of dance, drama, painting, or storytelling at hospitals to enhance patient well-being. A dance company has taught seniors everyday movements based on the principles of contemporary dance aimed at improving their physical and mental well-being. 2. Specialized media platforms that feature community arts. Brack (brack. sg), for example, is an online platform based in Singapore, which features socially engaged artists, writers, as well as cultural and social intermediaries in Southeast Asia, writing in the intersection between art and society, and raising awareness for projects that utilize art for social good. Brack also runs an artist-in-residency program, where artists are invited to Singapore to devote a specific period of time to a socially engaged project. Another example is Our Better World (ourbetterworld.org), a digital storytelling initiative of Singapore International Foundation that features stories of people doing good in Asia and has a significant profile on many community artists. 3. Market aggregators. These platforms source and help market artistic products made by vulnerable or marginalized populations such as seniors facing isolation, persons with disabilities, single mothers from lowincome groups, and ex-offenders. For example, the National Council of Social Service set up a social enterprise called Heartgifts to help clients of SSAs in Singapore design, package, and market their artistic products to the public. 4. Intermediary organizations. They are an emerging group in the arts community, of which ArtsWok Collaborative is an example. They help connect socially engaged artists with organizations, build artist capabilities to work with and in communities, and bring stakeholders across diverse fields and knowledge together to work in community arts projects. All of the above actors can be considered to participate in civic engagement of some form because definitions of civic engagement are broad and inclusive and can span political and nonpolitical actions and can operate at local, institutional, or national levels. The most widely accepted definition of civic engagement comes from Thomas Erhlich, who posits civic engagement as “working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation that make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes” (Ehrlich 2000, vi). Civic engagement can occur within a variety of environments and contexts such as shared causes, movements, campaigns, organizations, and neighborhoods or
The Unique Value of the Arts for Civic Engagement
93
local communities, and involvement in these various contexts could benefit the individual or the collective. Committing to participate in and contribute to the improvement of one’s community, cause, or nation, is essential to and characteristic of civic engagement (Americans for the Arts 2008, 6). We build upon these and identify the following interrelated features of civic engagement. We regard civic engagement to be (1) motivated by the desire to make positive contributions to community or society at large across a variety of possible contexts or causes; (2) involves civic action, which can be voluntary or paid labor, and includes many possible ways of participation; (3) requires the exercise of civic skills or the ability to involve, mobilize, or collaborate with others; and (4) is premised upon social solidarity, reciprocity and trust, or will result in solidarity because of taking action. CATALYZING END-OF-LIFE DIALOGUE In this study, we focus on arts-based civic engagement project that has moved from the hospital to the “heartlands.”1 Both Sides, Now (BSN) is a multiyear arts-based community engagement project that creates awareness of the importance and facilitates opportunities to have end-of-life conversations in various communities. It was first conceptualized in a hospital setting but has since moved on to different communities and neighborhoods. The project is presented by two arts organizations, ArtsWok Collaborative and Drama Box, together with two foundations who originally commissioned the project in 2013, Lien Foundation and Ang Chin Moh Foundation. Other key stakeholders include government agencies who also fund the project. Some of the coauthors of this chapter are the driving creative forces behind BSN. This chapter also draws primary data based on a prior case study of ArtsWok by the Institute of Policy Studies (Lee et al. 2020). In that research, interviews were conducted with three members of ArtsWok’s management team and staff as well as two board members,2 all of whom had been with the organization for at least two years. BSN first started as an immersive arts experience in Khoo Teck Puat Hospital in 2013, where it aimed to promote end-of-life conversations among patients, caregivers, doctors, and health-care professionals. It has since been installed in residential communities (2013–2014) and across fifty senior centers in Singapore (2014–2016). From 2017 onward, a longer-term, community-centered approach was taken in two new communities over two and three years, respectively. This allowed the project team to deepen its engagement approaches and invite communities to cocreate alongside artists in engaging fellow residents and the wider public. Alongside these public art installations were performances, participatory arts activities, workshops, talks, and
94
Justin Lee et al.
a resource toolkit with accompanying training developed in order to enable health-care staff and community care workers to use creative approaches in having end-of-life conversations. Although multiple art forms feature in each iteration of BSN, we focus here on several key and perennial ones. One participatory artwork has featured in almost every iteration of BSN over the seven years is Life Journey: Up and Down, where participants are invited to contribute a few of their high and low moments in their lives. Participants would plot against a large graph, using different colored strings to chart these moments according to their intensity and at what age they happened. Conversations often take place between the participant and volunteerfacilitator of the activity, as memories and emotions are brought to the fore, and participants invariably reflect on their values and relationships via experiences that have shaped them. Over a few days, the artwork that gets completed by the community is a large tapestry of community stories, of different life journeys intersecting one another. Viewing the artwork also encourages even more conversations, this time across life journeys, beyond one’s own, stimulating further reflection. A puppetry play, The Wind Came Home has also been staged multiple times over the years, across different communities and in many centers providing social services to seniors. Its storyline involved an elderly couple, both with chronic or life-threatening illnesses, who journey through and struggle to make different end-of-life decisions. The Wind Came Home is unique for featuring puppets made out of everyday objects and having them as the main characters in the play. While working to create distance between the audience and the topic being discussed—death—the use of recognizable materials such as thermal flasks and food containers, which were common in the seventies, serve as symbols that the play’s intended elderly audience will be familiar and can connect with. Each play would last an average of thirty minutes followed by volunteer-facilitated conversations with the audience, which touch on scenes presented in the play that are drawn from real-world complexities underlying end-of-life planning. It was often found that audiences resonated with elements of the play referencing similarities or differences to their own experiences, and were comfortable responding vicariously, that is what they would have done if they were a particular character. Participants were also invited to more intimate discussions about their own end-of-life plans with these volunteers, who can also refer them to end-of-life planning avenues and resources. The play therefore used elements, stories or representations that were constructs of meanings, values, or themes that resonated with the audience, in a process of imagination, interpretation, dialogue, and reflection (Alhadad 2013, 59). The project also uses participatory forms of theater, such as forum theater. Drama Box is a key proponent of forum theater in Singapore, and its members
The Unique Value of the Arts for Civic Engagement
95
are experienced creators and facilitators of this form. Exit was created for BSN and has been restaged three times in different communities. Audiences were invited to step into the shoes of various characters in the play to try and change the negative outcomes presented in the original script. The play involves two families and is set in a hospital. One family features a Chinese household where the father is unconscious and dealing with a life-threatening illness, while his wife and teenage son grapple with making health-care decisions with uncertain outcomes. The other family consists of a Chinese senior diagnosed with cancer and warded in a hospital, and her adult daughter, both of whom share conflicting views about the best course of treatment. In a later iteration of the forum theater piece, the ethnicity of the characters was changed to a Malay elder, and her daughter who was also a nurse working in the hospital. This was to contextualize the play further and encourage participation from the Malay community. Each time Exit was presented, members of the audience wanted to see different endings to the stories and volunteered to step into the shoes of a character to try out different behavioral strategies with the existing characters. Many of them empathized with the characters or wanted to right a perceived wrong that took place. Their engagement with the piece revealed a consciousness of their own agency and a desire to create different outcomes in the world of the play; for some, these outcomes mirrored experiences close to home, as they shared during the debrief after each attempt on stage. The strategies used by the facilitators often generated active participation from the audience. Moments of civic engagement came about from the participation, when ideas from the audience were shared, embodied, and expressed in a variety of ways, and where the audience took charge of how their ideas and experiences were represented in the play. Another participatory theater piece created by Drama Box involved creating a new form of storytelling and audience participation, in an incomplete play, Last Dance. The piece revolved around a mother and son hosting a gathering on the death anniversary of their husband/father, with the audience playing as invited guests to remember the deceased. As the story unfolded through the telling of the mother and son taking place in the center of the space, audiences who were seated at different tables around the area were repeatedly invited to the center to participate in the storytelling by sharing their responses to the story or sharing their own experiences. This was facilitated by an overall facilitator who helped the audience respond to each other’s sharing, in addition to the unfolding story. There were also moments in the play where audiences engaged in participatory arts activities taking place at their own tables in response to the play as well as conversations with one another, and together with volunteer-facilitators at each table. These conversations ranged from their fears and desires concerning the end of life, to what they would like their final moments to be like. Like Exit, Last Dance served
96
Justin Lee et al.
to foster a “safe space” for the audience, where they could feel comfortable to express their emotions and ideas about: fears, wishes, sadness, and hopes about dying, caregiving, as well as healing and finding closure. The process of reflectivity in the “safe space” allowed the audience to explore difficult emotions, and identify with each other’s sharing of stories, which promoted a sense of community connectedness in a shared space (Alhadad 2013, 35). UNIQUE VALUE OF THE ARTS Artistic Process That Respects Complexity and Diversity The arts bring a creative approach to problem-solving that can be powerful when compared to typical professionalized, service-oriented approaches, which may present blind spots. For example, when faced with end-of-life issues, social workers are likely to adopt an “intervention” approach based on the special skill sets at their disposal, offering workshops or counseling sessions designed with specific outcomes in mind, for example, nudging seniors toward behavioral change in the form of making end-of-life plans. However, this approach tends to side-line interrelated concerns that a client may bring to the encounter (e.g., denial, fears of dying, and lack of understanding of the dynamics of care planning) which are regarded as extraneous to the objective at hand, yet which are important to wrestle with. Such approaches also tend to end up preaching to the converted by reaching participants already willing to make end-of-life plans. In contrast, an arts-based approach is typically comfortable with complexity and does not seek to reduce social issues to a singular dimension that a more scientific or social service approach might take. It is able to create a space to understand contexts, circumstances, and relationships instead of seeing issues as isolated or individual problems. According to one case study respondent, this potential of arts-based approaches is matched with the propensity and capability of artists to engage complex issues in a fresh and nonlinear manner. This is analogous to how deep, personal change and transformation happens: “Socially engaged artists go in with no special or strong agendas, and they have a way of looking at complex issues. We are not afraid of going into potentially difficult topics.” She adds: We know what the project objectives are, but it’s not a straight road. Knowledge and change and transformation happen in complex ways. Sometimes it’s through painting or performing something. It’s not just through talking about your problem that the change will occur. In fact, oftentimes it’s not focusing on the problem, but doing something else together that you feel motivated to
The Unique Value of the Arts for Civic Engagement
97
want to change. You feel motivated to change through art. That’s the beauty and magic of socially engaging arts.
Furthermore, the arts provide a platform for dialogue and give voice to those who are often left out of public discourse and offers an opportunity to hear diverse voices, highlighting those from within the community as well as bringing in outside voices. This allows all participants to get to hear varied perspectives on the topic or issue being discussed, rather than just a single story. In doing so, participants get to experientially step away from the echo chamber of their own contexts and enter the world of others. Through an artsbased approach, participants are able to share their experiences and explore the issue in relation to the experiences of others and the impact it has in their lives. Hearing and understanding each other’s stories, perspectives, or life experiences can also help create a more diverse understanding and appreciation of the world, and to feel empathy for one another. Different art forms have their own internal logics, processes, and ways of working that tap diverse types of intelligences, triggering different ways of seeing and allowing the exploration of new meanings and identities. Visual arts, performances, film, among others, therefore, bring a variety of unique affordances and possibilities to community development. Tapping into diverse types of intelligences also has implications for community education and development, in recognizing the various styles of learning and understanding, as well as developing various learning and engagement tools through different art forms. Through storytelling, the use of metaphors, characters, or archetypes, participants are able to express certain issues that may otherwise be too difficult to express in words, or are too taboo in conventional parlance. In this way, the arts help to stimulate and at times deepen dialogue, motivating honest, raw conversations, and meaningful conversations. The various forms of expressions and dialogues allow participants to see and hear things from new perspectives, visualize new opportunities, and solutions as participants imagine what could be or what they collectively want to see in their own community (Americans for the Arts 2008, 10). It helps participants to achieve new levels of understanding, empathy, and adaptation as they see and hear new and different perspectives. A multimodal civic engagement project also offers multiple entry points for participation depending on participant’s level of social or emotional comfort in that space and time. For example, one could choose to stand on the periphery and observe from a distance, or choose to actively participate sharing stories, and insights. Some arts-based approaches offer flexible engagement opportunities and a no-obligation invitation to participate at a level that one is comfortable and can feel safe with, exploring sensitive issues at their
98
Justin Lee et al.
own comfort levels because of the distance made possible by an artwork or performance, in comparison to professionalized, target interventions such as counseling. This aspect is especially important when unpacking issues that are sensitive. In The Wind Came Home, for example, real-life situations that might have been uncomfortable to confront in a more direct and personal manner, were narrated from the perspective of a stray cat. These situations include real-world complexities and dilemmas in which elderly caregivers are mired, ranging from everyday sacrifices to one scene when the care recipient inadvertently causes the death of the caregiver. This allows participants to choose to what degree they would like to adopt the position of a distant observer, or a vicarious participant with more personal connection to scenes depicted—much unlike service-oriented interventions, which can be unhelpfully direct in addressing sensitive issues. A case study respondent observed that an elderly resident who had watched the Both Sides, Now performances this year, had done so last year as well albeit from outside of the event space, and remarked: “Especially for sensitive issues like this [end-of-life issues], people need the time and space to process their own issues, and to engage [in Both Sides, Now] at their own pace and comfort level.” Another respondent pointed to the centrality of respectful dialogue in an arts-based approach to thinking about and asking questions: Talking about a serious topic in a fun way, observing from a third-person, “outside” perspective to reflect on one’s own life—it is very powerful sometimes. And if you are not comfortable, you can change topic.
Expanding the Horizon of Possible Solutions, by Not Focusing on the Solutions First Because the arts is uniquely positioned to provide an imaginative space that brings forth new ways to view complexity and various perspectives in which difficult issues can be considered, they also expand the horizons of possible solutions. Interestingly, this works because of the arts’ focus on process, as opposed to having a singular focus on solution. A respondent put it this way: “Sometimes change occurs through the process of creation. Often it is not focusing on the problem that you feel motivated to connect and to change. That’s the beauty of the arts.” The process of forum theater gives the audience a part in the dramatic action, by discussing various scenarios, and trying out different solutions through drama (Boal 2001, 3). The participatory process draws on the experiences of the participants to collectively create theater and engage in discussion of difficult or taboo subjects through theater. The interactive art forms used in Both Sides, Now avoid expressing isolated opinions of individuals, but
The Unique Value of the Arts for Civic Engagement
99
rather, the knowledge generated in the participatory process, which becomes a catalyst of collective reasoning whereby stories shared are socially heard and added to people’s collective knowledge. By sharing their experiences through the stories and taking ownership of their issues or difficulties, participants engage in the process of finding solutions, not only through discussions but also by immersing themselves in role-play that depicts the real-life emotions and reactions that the issues provoke (Alhadad 2013, 29). This arts-based approach banks on innovation and creativity to solve problems, and the capacity to imagine change as well as the willingness to work toward that change. The participatory theater process is not designed explicitly as an ideation session to arrive at possible solutions, but it is through theatre-driven dialogue on complex issues that participants start exploring solutions to real-life situations, problems, or dilemmas. It is a process that fosters democratic and cooperative forms of interaction among participants, drawing upon Augusto Boal’s participatory theater techniques which are designed to develop and reshape ideas by “turning the practice of theatre into an effective tool for the comprehension of social and personal problems and the search for their solutions” (Boal 1995, 15). This is reflected in the praxis shared by Paulo Freire (2005) and Robert Chambers (1997) (who draws on Freirian concepts), who describes a community development approach as “with” and “by” the people rather than “on” or “for” the people, which allows individuals to identify problems in their lives, and to find solutions to overcome the issues. The dialogic and participatory nature of engaging the audience and participants, for example, poses questions and invites participants to respond and take action. Though the approach is not necessarily designed to find solutions, the process lends to an interactive manner in which those involved can seek collective solutions to the questions or issues posed. When participants are meaningfully engaged in the free, loose processes of art-making, they may inadvertently find solutions to difficult subjects in their own lives. BUILDING CONNECTIONS AND COMMUNITY CAPABILITIES NATURALLY One key aspect in adopting any approach to civic engagement is relationshipbuilding, which is a fundamental tenet of the change work necessary in community development. ArtsWok takes the development of interpersonal relationships between and among stakeholders and the community as its priority, and achieves this through taking advantage of the free expression that art-making affords. The participatory and interactive process of the arts has the capacity to cultivate critical thinking and foster not just tolerance, but an understanding of
100
Justin Lee et al.
differences, and trust and consensus among participants. Participants actively involved in community arts projects may feel more motivated to want to do more for their community and are more inclined toward individual and collective action. As one participates more actively in an arts-based community development project, they may find that they gain not only the skills to hold a dialogue but also the confidence to participate in broader dialogues in their communities, and about issues that matter to them. Therefore, active participation in the arts could help build community capacity and cooperation and enhance social cohesion. The safe space that an arts-based approach offers has the potential to enable participants to overcome the typical risks associated with self, identity, personal ability, and relationships, and help participants become more confident not only in their ability to try new things but also what they could do for their community, both individually and collectively. As opposed to seeing people’s issues as isolated or individual problems, when done well, an artistic experience can catalyze the organic and often unpredictable development of communal relationships and capabilities. According to a respondent, sometimes, it is when the community participates in art-making that relationships are formed unknowingly: The unique value of an arts-based approach to community development work is that it feels like playing and having fun. It allows people to have their own creative expression. When you are playing and doing arts, relationships are formed and learning is done unknowingly, time is filled up meaningfully, and you are happy.
DISCUSSION When harnessed well, the arts have unique qualities that make it powerful as a means of civic engagement. Arts-based civic engagement is not only motivated by positive social change, taking or catalyzing community and building civic skills but also, importantly, is premised upon and contributes to the relationships and solidarity of the community. Doing this work not only requires an aesthetic sensibility but also an astute understanding of local contexts and relationships, like-minded stakeholders, the affordances of available communal spaces, and a cocreation process that engenders collective participation and ownership. Furthermore, unlike the provision of a service, there are key differences in expanding the impact of arts-based community development work. For it to be meaningful, arts-based civic engagement should be adapted to the local context and local relationships, which means that scale cannot be achieved through the standardized replication of a predefined service model. Some aspects of the
The Unique Value of the Arts for Civic Engagement
101
approach, like developing a toolkit that distils the creative approach can be replicable, but projects and conversations can and should be different for different communities, which will present different issues, whether shared or personal. There are many challenges to this because socially engaged artists have to focus their energies on a lot of intermediary work that is often invisible and underappreciated. Just as audiences see actors and appreciate the work of directors, the creative producer’s role, such as ArtsWok’s, is often behind the scenes, its value less obvious to stakeholders. Socially engaged artists have to create bridges across the social services, community development sector, and the art world. To be successful as an intermediary requires the ability to pull together partnerships and resources across multiple government agencies, funders, arts groups, voluntary organizations, and local communities that have different agendas and use different vocabularies. This work can only be sustained by cultivating a strong network of partners and good relationships with communities themselves. Beyond that, being guided by principles of community engagement becomes essential in the process of effectively engaging and understanding the community.
NOTES 1. The “heartlands” is a term invented by local politicians to refer to public housing estates occupied by regular Singaporeans with practical interests and blue-collar jobs, in contrast to more globetrotting cosmopolitans (Jie 2019). 2. All interview responses are anonymous. Consent from all interview respondents was obtained for all direct quotations used.
REFERENCES Alhadad, Hana. 2013. “Dreamtime Peter Pan: An Exploration of Participatory Theatre Processes, Performance and the Negotiation of Identities Among Marginalised Young People in Brisbane.” PhD diss., School of Social Work and Human Services, The University of Queensland. Americans for the Arts. 2008. “The Arts and Civic Engagement: Strengthening the 21st Century Community.” http://www.americansforthearts.org/sites/default/fi les/ 2008_NAPR_full_report.pdf. Ang, Guat Cheng, Di Zhang, and Kim H. J. Lim. 2016. “Differences in Attitudes to End-of-life Care Among Patients, Relatives and Healthcare Professionals.” Singapore Medical Journal 57, no. 1 (January): 22–28. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/pmc/articles/PMC4728698. Arivalagan, Yvonne, and Christopher Gee. 2019. “Leaving Well: End-of-life Policies in Singapore.” IPS Exchange Series 13. https://www.lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/docs/defau
102
Justin Lee et al.
lt-source/ips/ips-exchange-series_no-13_leaving-well-end-of-life-polices-in-sing apore_web.pdf. Boal, Augusto. 2001. Theatre of the Oppressed. 6th ed. New York: Theatre Communications Group, Inc. Boal, Augusto. 1995. The Rainbow of Desire. London: Routledge. Chambers, Robert. 1997. Whose Reality Counts? Putting the First Last. London: Intermediate Technology Publications. Chong, Terence. 2005. “Singapore’s Cultural Policy and its Consequences: From Global to Local.” Critical Asian Studies 37, no. 4 (August): 553–568. https://doi .org/10.1080/14672710500348455. Department of Statistics. 2019. “Population in Brief 2019.” www.strategygroup.gov .sg/files/media-centre/publications/population-in-brief-2019.pdf. Ehrlich, Thomas. 2000. Civic Responsibility and Higher Education. Washington, DC: Oryx Press. Freire, Paulo. 2005. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 30th Anniversary ed. New York: Continuum. Jie, Pan. 2019. “How George Yeo and Sumiko Tan Invented the Singapore Heartland.” RICE Media, August 11, 2019. www.ricemedia.co/culture-people-how -george-yeo-and-sumiko-tan-invented-the-singaporean-heartland. Kwok, Kian Woon, and Low Kee-Hong. 2002. “Cultural Policy and the City-State.” In Global Culture: Media, Arts, Policy, and Globalization, edited by Diana Crane, Nobuko Kawashima, and Ken’ichi Kawasaki, 146–168. New York: Routledge. Lee, Geok Ling, Ivan M. H. Woo, and Cynthia Goh. 2013. “Understanding the Concept of a ‘Good Death’ Among Bereaved Family Caregivers of Cancer Patients in Singapore.” Palliative & Supportive Care 11, no. 1 (March): 37–46. https://doi .org/10.1017/S1478951511000691. Lee, Hing Giap Justin, Shawn Z. S. Goh, Sarah M. Lionetto, Joanne Tay, and Alice Fox. 2019. “Moving Beyond the Art-as-Service Paradigm: The Evolution of Arts and Disability in Singapore.” In Routledge Handbook of Disability Arts, Culture and Media Studies, edited by Bree Hadley, and Donna McDonald, 100–113. London: Routledge. Lee, Justin, Hana Alhadad, Andrew Lim, Shamil Zainuddin, and Dhevarajan Devadas. 2020. The Unique Value of the Arts in Community Development: A Case Study of ArtsWok Collaborative. https://lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/docs/default-source/ips/ a-case-study-of-artswok-collaborative-report.pdf. Lee, Justin, Mathew Mathews, and Robyn Tan, eds. 2017. “Mobilising Diverse Community Assets to Meet Social Needs.” IPS Exchange Series 12. https://lkyspp. nus.edu.sg/docs/default-source/ips/exchange-12_mobilising-diverse-community -assets-to-meet-social-needs.pdf. Lee, Justin, and Jui L. Sim. 2017. “Arts-Based Community Engagement in Singapore: Success Stories, Challenges and the Way Forward.” In Handbook of Research on the Facilitation of Civic Engagement through Community Art, edited by Leigh Nanney Hersey, and Bryna Bobick, 391–411. IGI Global. Lien Foundation. 2013. “Lien Foundation Survey on Death Attitudes (General Population).” PowerPoint presentation. https://www.lienfoundation.org/sites/def
The Unique Value of the Arts for Civic Engagement
103
ault/files/Gen%20Pop%20Findings%20Report%20-%20Full%20REPORT%20 %28Website%29_0.pdf. Loh, Soon How, and Yvonne Arivalagan. 2015. “Speaking of the End.” IPSCommons, December 17, 2015. http://www.ipscommons.sg/speaking-of-the-end. Malhotra, Chetna, Muhammad A. Farooqui, Ravindran Kanesvaran, Marcel Bilger, and Eric Finkelstein. 2015. “Comparison of Preferences for End-of-life Care Among Patients with Advanced Cancer and Their Caregivers: A Discrete Choice Experiment.” Palliative Medicine 29, no. 9 (October): 842–850. https://doi.org/10 .1177%2F0269216315578803. Ministry of Health. 2016. I Feel Young in My Singapore!: Action Plan for Successful Ageing. Singapore: Ministry of Health. http://www.sustainabledevelopment.un.org /content/documents/1525Action_Plan_for_Successful_Aging.pdf. National Archives of Singapore. 2016. “Parliamentary Debates Singapore: Official Report Contents.” http://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/data/pdfdoc/201607 11005/WQ-11Jul16.pdf. National Arts Council. 2018. “Impacting Communities through the Arts: 12 Case Studies of Arts Engagement in Singapore.” https://artsforall.sg/uploads/files/Impa cting%20Communities%20Through%20the%20Arts_National%20Arts%20Coun cil.pdf. Paul, Kenneth, and Andrew S.-S. Tan. 2003. “Democracy and the Grassroots Sector in Singapore.” Space and Polity 7, no. 1 (August): 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1080 /13562570309245. Sim, Isabel, Corinne Ghoh, Alfred Loh, and Marcus Chiu. 2015. “The Social Service Sector in Singapore: An Exploratory Study on the Financial Characteristics of Institutions of a Public Character (IPCs) in the Social Service Sector.” http://www .fas.nus.edu.sg/swk/doc/CSDA%20An%20Exploratory%20Study%20on%20th e%20Financial%20Characteristics%20of%20IPCs%20in%20the%20Social%2 0Service%20Sector.pdf.
Chapter 5
Herons on the Bayou Bridging Communities through Public Art Leigh Nanney Hersey and Brooke Foy
INTRODUCTION Art has long defined the character of a city. Images of ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt, often depict sculptures of gods and goddesses and iconic architecture of the public buildings. Throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, numerous public sculptures were erected in honor of military and political figures, such as Trafalgar Square in London which commemorates Britain’s naval victory over France in 1805. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, many communities commissioned now-controversial statues of Confederate War generals, leading to areas like Monument Avenue in Richmond, VA, which had at least five statues of Confederate war personnel before they were removed in 2020. The Fairmont Park Art Association was founded in 1872 in Philadelphia. Now known as the Association for Public Art (aPA), it was the first U.S. nonprofit organization focused on integrating arts and urban design. The founders “believed that art could play a role in a growing city” (aPA 2020). Just over 100 years later, Robert Indiana’s well-recognized “LOVE” statue, installed in 1976, bookends an avenue full of art and culture, with the Philadelphia Museum of Art anchoring the other end of the boulevard. Antoni Gaudi’s Parc Guell is a forty-fiveacre park in Barcelona that is filled with mosaic sculptures and murals that was developed from 1900 to 1914. The site has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site recognizing “the exceptional creative contribution of this architect to the development of architecture and construction technology in the 19th and early 20th centuries” (UNESCO 2020). The first major public art project supported by the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) was Alexander Calder’s La Grande Vitesse in Grand Rapids, MI in 1967. It is such a part of the city’s identity that a silhouette of the piece is incorporated into the city government logo. The small, rural community of Paducah, KY, is known internationally 105
106
Leigh Nanney Hersey and Brooke Foy
for its textile arts and as the home of the National Quilt Museum. These are some of the ways that communities are interconnected with their prominent art. The tradition continues today as many municipalities are turning to arts, heritage, and culture to help strengthen their communities. Public art is often easy to find in cities. It may include murals, sculptures, monuments, or statues. Lacy (1995) points out that since the creation of the National Endowment for the Arts, there has been an important expansion and development of public art. Commissions for public artworks by community and corporate organizations have become a common feature in the art world. The arts can be a powerful tool in achieving this goal by enhancing the capacity to build structures, create systems, connect people, and develop skills to achieve greater impact. Some people believe that “[a]rt strengthens communities, drives tourism, and fosters an environment of creativity and innovation” (Eisenburg, quoted in Fox 2017, February 2). Arts and cultural artifacts can also contribute to educational achievement for students, both through improved test scores in topics other than art, as well as creating a deeper understanding about their own community. However, for arts, heritage, and culture to have these impacts, they must be accessible to a wide range of residents. This chapter provides a case study focusing on an iconic public sculpture project in Northeast Louisiana and its relationship to community development. The chapter examines how the Herons on the Bayou project took flight in the neighboring cities of Monroe and West Monroe, Louisiana. It builds on both public art and creative-placemaking literature to demonstrate how such a project contributes to the community. It outlines the creation of the project, early indicators of success, and lessons learned through the project. The chapter can provide helpful information for other communities that are considering such a project. Scholars can use this research to continue exploring the relationship between arts, creative placemaking, and community development. The topic of iconic public art sculpture projects has received some attention from the popular press, but much less from the scholarly perspective. This research contributes to the literature by filling this gap and incorporating the public-serving perspective to the analysis. The research will document the process and explore the initial reactions of the public art project by the community, as seen by the artists, sponsors, and community members, providing a resource for other communities interested in pursuing such a project. LITERATURE REVIEW When exploring the literature focused on a public art project, it is important to draw from the interdisciplinary aspects of public art. On the one hand, it is
Herons on the Bayou
107
art—anchored in aesthetic qualities, individual in nature, and often rooted in emotions. On the other hand, it is public—bound by policy and regulations, collective in nature, and rooted in nationalistic ideals. Often, these two worlds collide, seemingly on opposite sides of the spectrum. However, public art is often able to bridge these somewhat contrasting philosophies to create something that is beautiful and responds to the collective at the same time. This section brings these two elements together to better understand public art and creative placemaking. Public Art Public art has become a part of many communities across the United States. As public art has developed over the years, what it has come to mean has also evolved. Common characteristics of public art include placemaking, environmental art and activism, cause-related art, and interdisciplinary performance events (Americans for the Arts 2012). Public art can also have an educational role for young and old alike. Public art itself is difficult to define and is open to interpretation by both the creator and the viewer. For those in fields of public administration and public policy, public art has a limited view weighing heavily on two components: publicly visible and publicly funded. For artists, public art “is a broad term that refers to art in public spaces and includes architecture, landscape, and urban design” (Argiro 2004, p. 25). Americans for the Arts (2003) states that “public art develops from the engagement of artists with public space” (p. 1). Miles (1997) refers to public art as “works commissioned for sites of open access” (p. 5). Russell (2004) defines public art as “artworks outside museum and gallery walls” (p. 19). Traditionally public art has been paid for by city government and located on city-owned property. However, as private companies become more involved in city planning and development, the public art field sees a growing opportunity to obtain funding from and space for future public art works in both public and private settings (Americans for the Arts 2012). Hunting (2005) considers public art as “an umbrella term to cover any art that is not housed in formal museums or galleries” (p. 1). Hunting (2005) furthers categorizes public art by considering its location (hanging in the mayor’s office versus on view in the public square) and its source (privately purchased versus government funded). Each community has its own purpose for establishing public arts programs, frequently drawing on the economic benefits and cultural identity of the community. Scottsdale (AZ) Public Art program seeks to “contribut(e) to the community’s creative, cultural, and economic vitality” (Scottsdale Public Art 2019). The City of Chicago Public Art Program “provides citizens of Chicago with an improved public environment and enhances city buildings
108
Leigh Nanney Hersey and Brooke Foy
and spaces” (City of Chicago 2020). Becker (2004) notes that cities can see public art as a way to improve impersonal spaces, encourage dialogue, or as a way for a city to express its identity. Some communities have seen friction between the established art community and those engaged in some public art projects (Vinciguerra 2005). Zottarelli (2011) found that the primary criticisms of iconic sculpture projects are that they are “repetitive, calculable and predictable artwork” (p. 73). Additionally, some of the artists found the rules of the project limited their creative expression (Zottarelli 2011). The broader focus of visual culture has been explored by several researchers over the years. Visual culture can be described as the “field of study that involves a combination of art history, cultural studies, art education, anthropology, and critical theory” (Hassan 2012, p. 909). It is important as a research discipline as it “presents ideas and stories that shape people’s lives” (Keifer-Boyd et al. 2003, p. 46). Visual culture can study a wide variety of images, including murals, graphic design, emojis, and other objects that are seen on a regular basis. The research presented here builds on the idea of visual culture to analyze how the heron sculptures are impacting the community. The arts can be a powerful tool to help strengthen communities and allow them to have the capacity to build structures, systems, people, and skills so that it can achieve greater performance and impact. The Americans for the Arts state that “Arts and culture promote understanding and action on issues facing our communities and the world” (Americans for the Arts n.d.). Much of the literature related to public art comes from the public administrator’s view and how city planners and community leaders can use public art to drive economic and community development. In contract, Herons on the Bayou an artist-driven project rather than one driven by the city. Creative Placemaking City leaders are turning to creative placemaking as a strategy for community development. The National Endowment for the Arts (2012) instituted creative placemaking as “a resource for mayors, arts organizations, the philanthropic sector, and others interested in understanding strategies for leveraging the arts to help shape and revitalize the physical, social, and economic character of neighborhoods, cities, and towns.” Osgood (Rewind 2020) suggests that creative placemaking contributes to the “community-defined social, physical, and economic outcome” (5:41). Creative placemaking can be achieved through a variety of ways. Some cities have invested heavily in public art which everyone can experience. Other cities have incubated arts entrepreneur projects that stress the importance
Herons on the Bayou
109
of art as an economic driver, supporting galleries, arts festivals, and activities that encourage art as a profession. Some cities and states have created cultural districts which “spark community revitalization based on cultural activity through tax incentives, technical assistance, and resources” (Office of Cultural Development 2020). Public art programs such as these demonstrate how cities are moving toward becoming a creative placemaking community. Markusen and Gadwa (2010) suggest that a creative placemaking community which “animates public and private spaces, rejuvenates structures and streetscapes, improves local business viability and public safety, and brings diverse people together to celebrate, inspire, and be inspired” (p. 3). Methodology This case study examines the development and implementation of the Herons on the Bayou project, an iconic public sculpture endeavor located in Northeast Louisiana. The study covers approximately two years from initial funding through the year after the big reveal and installation. This example of implementing a multipiece public art project in a small city provides community leaders and artists with guidelines for conducting a similar project in their own communities. Case study methodology best demonstrates how these communities are incorporating the arts as part of their development. O’Sullivan et al. (2003) describe case studies as “studies that examine in some depth persons, decisions, programs, or other entities that have a unique characteristic of interest” (p. 39). They are considered the “preferred research strategy if one wants to learn the details about how something happened and why it may have happened” (O’Sullivan et al. 2003, p. 39). Case This section provides information on the Herons on the Bayou project itself. It starts with an overview of the participating cities of Monroe and West Monroe, Louisiana. Next the project is identified, explaining how and why the project came to be. The project process is outlined, providing helpful information in setting up a similar project. The section concludes with recommendations and discussion of the project. Community Background The Herons on the Bayou project was focused on the neighboring cities of Monroe and West Monroe in northeast Louisiana. The two cities are divided by the Ouachita River and face many of the challenges of similarly paired
110
Leigh Nanney Hersey and Brooke Foy
cities divided by a river. Monroe was founded in 1785 by a group of French pioneers from south Louisiana. West Monroe was founded much later, first laid out in 1837, but not recognized as a town until 1859. Monroe is the larger of the two cities with a population of about 50,000. It is the ninth largest city in Louisiana and the largest city in the twelve-parish region that makes up Northeast Louisiana. Across the river sits West Monroe with a population of about 14,000. Both cities are located in Ouachita Parish. Monroe is 186 miles from the state capital of Baton Rouge, and 286 miles from the famous New Orleans. One heron sculpture was sponsored in the nearby town of Rayville, located twenty-three miles east of Monroe. Rayville is located in Richland Parish and has a population of about 4,000. The arts play an important, yet loosely woven, part of the community. The Northeast Louisiana Arts Council serves the region “by striv[ing] to be a transformative force for the community by encouraging a passion for the arts, promoting partnerships and collaboration, and ensuring access to the arts for all” (Northeast Louisiana Arts Council n.d.). The organization has fifteen nonprofit arts-related partners that benefit from grant opportunities and general arts awareness. It also has an individual membership program for those that support the arts in the region. The bimonthly Downtown Gallery Crawl, sponosored by the Downtown Arts Alliance, showcases galleries and artists on both sides of the river. In recent years, vintage Coca-Cola murals have been re-created in the historic areas of the cities. The School of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Louisiana Monroe has a strong arts program that regularly hosts performances for the public and coordinates two on-campus galleries. While there is a close-knit connection between those who focus on the arts, few projects have reached all members of the community. To change this, Brooke Foy, lead coordinator of the Herons on the Bayou project, envisioned bringing artists and businesses together to create an art installation throughout the parish. Herons on the Bayou Project Themed public sculpture projects have become popular throughout the United States. While many public art projects are funded through government sources, these projects tend to be supported by philanthropic or collective means and the public is encouraged to be engaged in the creation of the art (Decker 2002). These iconic sculpture projects that are placed throughout the city and become emblems of the city. Nashville has guitars; Memphis has tigers; Cincinnati has pigs; Sandy Springs, GA, has turtles; and Athens, GA, has bulldogs. Now, Monroe and West Monroe, LA, has herons. Samples (2017) found a similar project in Carrollton, GA, helped raise scholarship funds, connected the community and the local university
Herons on the Bayou
111
(University of West Georgia), and served as emblems of pride for the community. Decker (2002) notes that these sculptures “become part of the social fabric immediately” (p. 119). Foy, the lead artist who coordinated the project and coauthor of this chapter, is very community-oriented in her work. As a professor at the University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM), she ensures that her students have opportunities to work on community-based projects, while encouraging them to be embedded in the community. Her earlier works have included numerous murals on historic buildings and parks throughout West Monroe and public art projects on the ULM campus. She has been instrumental in the creation of a bimonthly gallery crawl which brings hundreds of people out to view art on both sides of the river. When conceptualizing the Herons on the Bayou project, her primary goal was to provide a way for artists to come together, show their talents, and connect them to businesses throughout the community. In the fall of 2017, with the support of the Delta Regional Authority, the Monroe-West Monroe Convention and Visitors Bureau, the University of Louisiana Monroe, and many other community organizations and businesses, Herons on the Bayou was born. Herons are common throughout the state of Louisiana and often found along the riverbanks and bayous of the region. With the start-up funding, Foy and her team began to pitch the heron sculptures to local businesses. They created a cardboard mock-up that they could present to business owners. Foy originally anticipated that thirty local businesses would sponsor a six-and-a-half-foot-tall heron. Their sponsorship would allow them to select their heron design, have it painted, and placed at their location of business. Additionally, each sponsor would receive an unpainted tabletop heron to display inside. In all, fifty-one herons were sponsored, including five Herons with Heart, which were granted to nonprofit organizations in the community. Businesses could sponsor a heron for $2,500. Foy also reached out to the artist community to submit their designs for the herons. More than 100 artist design ideas were submitted for the sponsored herons. A design template was provided so all artists’ submissions would have the same platform to show their work. The template showed the heron from the top and each side. Submissions came from local artists well established in the community, University students looking to expand their experience, art educators and their classrooms, and less-established artists interested in trying new things. Design submissions were due in December 2018. Artists who submitted a design that was chosen were awarded $250 for supplies and an additional $500 upon completion for their Heron. In January 2019, Foy hosted a reception which allowed sponsors to view all of the artists’ submissions and select their design. Some sponsors chose designs that reflected to their business, such as “Perched on Powerlines” by ULM student Inique Harris and sponsored by energy company Entergy.
112
Leigh Nanney Hersey and Brooke Foy
Other designs reflected life in Louisiana or the artistic style of the creator. Thirty-six artists were selected to paint herons for the project. At the February Art Crawl, all the winning designs were revealed for the public to see. Meanwhile, welders with the City of West Monroe created the legs for each of the herons. Once selected, artists had approximately two months to paint their herons. In conjunction with the sponsored herons, Herons with Heart provided the opportunity for nonprofit organizations to become a home for a heron and raise money for their organizations. Nonprofit organizations submitted applications expressing their interest in a heron and how they would use the funds raised through the project. Thirty nonprofit organizations applied for a heron and six were selected: Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge, The Louisiana Purchase Zoological Society, Ouachita Green, Kiroli Park Foundation, Chennault Aviation & Military Museum, and the Food Bank of Northeast Louisiana. In June 2019, the Big Reveal Celebration was held in Kiroli Park, West Monroe. It was the first time all of the completed herons were seen together. The event was free and open to the public and hundreds of people from around the region attended. The Herons with Heart were auctioned off, with proceeds benefiting the nonprofit organizations. Each nonprofit organization received at least $500 from the project. After the Big Reveal, Foy and her team began installing the herons in the permanent homes. In March 2020, a map was published that listed the locations for all fifty-one herons. Residents were encouraged to use the map and go on a “heron hunt” to find all the herons. Based on the success of the initial project, phase two is now under development. According to Hunting’s matrix, the Herons on the Bayou project would be considered Public Placement/Partial Public Origin as the statues were mostly placed at local businesses and highly visible by the public. The funding came from a combination of government seed money and grants, and corporate sponsorship. While Herons on the Bayou has public funding and support from many of the government and community development organizations in Monroe and West Monroe, it is still a grassroots project. It was led by an individual artist and her team. She brought the project to investors, but it still lacks a singular home. Discussion and Recommendations The Herons on the Bayou project was started to provide local artists with the opportunity to showcase their work, while connecting to the community. The project led to so much more than that. This section will provide
Herons on the Bayou
113
discussion and recommendations that can help other communities considering project. EXPANDING ARTISTS NETWORKS One of the key goals from the beginning of the project was to expand and connect the artist community. This goal was achieved in many ways, but it also revealed a gap in the network that continues to need development. Foy had a strong connection of artists to call on for design ideas. As a studio art professor, a leader in creating public art, and a convener for artists to showcase their work through events such as Art Crawl, she was able to reach many artists of varied techniques and experience to participate in the project. Because of this, she knew she would have strong designs submitted. Foy was also encouraged by the number of artists that were not already in the network that participated. While she knew many of the artists, a number she was less familiar with also submitted their work. Many had been creating art in their own environment, but not sharing it with an audience. For example, several art educators submitted their personal design for the selection process. Previously most of their artwork had been relegated to the classroom and close friends. By participating in a large-scale public art project, these artists said that they felt connected to the artist community and it motivated them to create more art for larger audiences. Now, there is a wider pool of artists for future exhibitions, public art calls, or commissioned artwork. Although the goal of expanding the artist network was met, it also revealed a large gap in the community—that of inclusion. One of the biggest challenges was having a diverse pool of artists submitting their work. The artists spanned a large age group, from middle school students, to university students, to experienced professional artists. Additionally, women represented more than half of the selected artists. Women face a number of barriers in entering the creative space, such as frequent interruptions related to home and family responsibilities, lack of time and limited resources (Stalp 2015). It is encouraging to see a significant number of women artists participate in the project. Despite these advances of inclusion of age and gender, few artists of color submitted designs or were selected for the final design. Similarly, few minority-owned businesses sponsored a heron. There are inherent barriers in the arts field that make it more difficult for minority artists to advance their careers. These barriers may include limited access to wealth, lack of arts-related connections, and the Eurocentric view of art in the United States (White 2018). The Herons on the Bayou organizers have realized that this is
114
Leigh Nanney Hersey and Brooke Foy
a concern. Over the past year, they have worked to expand their own network of artist connections to include more minority artists to attempt to make phase two more inclusive. SPRINGBOARDING THE ARTS Herons on the Bayou served as a catalyst for increasing arts awareness in both cities. While there was an arts culture before the project, it was small and loosely woven. The project sparked an increased awareness of the arts to the area. Some of the early adopters of the herons were already engaged with the arts through sponsorships or personal interest by the business owners. However, new businesses came on board that had not shown as much commitment to the arts in the past. They found the idea appealing and as an enhancement to their business. The unveiling event brought a large number of people out of all ages and backgrounds. Attendance was much larger than the Downtown Gallery Crawl which tends to attract a regular, repeat crowd and few children. The initial goal was to have thirty sponsored herons. The project gathered 50 percent more than that, with forty-five sponsored herons and six herons with heart. After seeing the final project, new businesses expressed an interest in having a heron and phase two is in the works. This highly accessible art project differs from many others throughout the two cities. Prior to the Herons on the Bayou project, most public art was located in the downtown areas of the cities, which are adjacent, but separated by the Ouachita River. Each city’s cultural district is also concentrated around the downtown area. Several museums are located in Monroe and West Monroe. Some are free and some require a small admission fee. However, the limited hours the museums are open and the nature of the exhibitions may make them less accessible to some people. It is important to realize than not everyone visits cultural institutions. Nearly one-third of people in the United States do not intend to visit a cultural institution in the next two years (Dilenschneider 2020). Reasons for nonattendance vary, but the top three reasons are (1) they prefer another form of leisure activity; (2) they had a negative experience during a previous visit; and (3) they do not feel welcome (Dilenschneider 2020). The Herons on the Bayou project was able to break through many of these barriers and become an accessible way for many people to experience art. Their locations throughout the two cities in public settings made them geographically accessible. There are clusters where several herons are located within a few square blocks, but the herons are spread throughout the area and are located at or near places people regularly frequent. Additionally, they are always available for viewing, making it easy to stop by and see one when it is convenient. While sponsorship funding excludes many from the opportunity to own a heron, they
Herons on the Bayou
115
are placed in open spaces that do not requirement admission fees to view them, making them economically accessible to experience. Lastly, the herons offer a variety of artistic styles. No matter the viewer’s personal taste in art, it is likely that at least one of the herons will reflect their own artistic preferences, making the project aesthetically accessible, or considered beautiful, by most people. ENHANCED SENSE OF COMMUNITY In addition to strengthening the arts community, the Herons on the Bayou project also enhanced the general sense of community. The project served as a common point to bring people together. Some Native American cultures see herons as symbols of good luck and patience. In some ways, this symbolism reflects the transformation on the banks of the Ouachita River. An unexpected outcome of the project was its symbol of resiliency. In March 2016, the region suffered a devastating flood. Thousands of homes and businesses suffered from high flood waters which took weeks to withdraw. In five days, more than twenty-three inches of rain fell, flooding the bayous, river, and streets. A continuing task force, the EPA Regional Environmental Sustainability Environmental Sciences (2019), noted that Cultural Fulfillment was part of resiliency plans for building a stronger parish. In a meeting, the committee members “talked about the murals and the Herons on the Bayou projects by artist Brook (sic) Foy . . . suggest[ing], the Herons on the Bayou project somehow reflects the ongoing change in the community since the flood.” Unexpected outcomes are not uncommon in public art projects. In speaking to a group of local government leaders about incorporating the arts into local government, Osgood stated that “Some of the best project outcomes are emergent and can’t be known upfront” (Rewind 2020, 27:13). SOCIAL MEDIA One important component of building inclusive community-based art projects is the role of social media. The strategic use of social media can build awareness and create community. Saxton and Guo (2014) refer to this as social media capital where “social capital is reflected in the size of the organization’s social media network, its degree of influence over that network, and the extent to which its publics are engaged in that network” (p. 287). Social media can be used for a wide range of activities, including engaging others in conversation (Eyrich et al. 2008), raising awareness, sharing information, and fostering community (Handley and Chapman 2011). Wymer and Grau (2011) suggest that social media and internet-based communications instead offer
116
Leigh Nanney Hersey and Brooke Foy
more effective opportunities for reaching people, particularly during times of economic stress. One of the greatest benefits of using social media is the ability to have two-way conversations with those that are interested in the project. Unlike traditional methods of marketing which pushes information out, social media allows for the “deepening of relations with their clients and supporters and increases the frequency of exposure of their message” (Levinson, Adkins, and Forbes 2010, p. 195). The Herons on the Bayou project incorporated grassroots-driven social media. The project has a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Hero nsonthebayou) which was initiated in September 2018 and currently has 2,087 “likes.” This number has increased by nearly 45 percent since October 2019. An analysis of followers on October 31, 2019, showed that 83 percent of followers were women. Most of the followers (65 percent) live in Monroe or West Monroe. One-quarter of the followers fall between the ages of thirty-five and forty-four, more than any other age category. Posts about the Herons on the Bayou project fell into four broad categories: local artists, community sponsors, Herons with Heart, and youth involvement. Video posts to Facebook reached the most people, averaging 3,344 views, compared to 1,139 views of a post with only a photo (Hersey et al., 2019). Although Herons on the Bayou does not have an Instagram page, the #heronsonthebayou hashtag has 262 posts. Much research on public art has focused on public murals in urban communities throughout the United States. They can be seen as a democratic art (Conrad 1995) that “offer popular, grassroots representations of local identities and their relation to urban space and community culture” (Sieber et al. 2012, p. 263). Foushee (n.d.) examines how social media can gamify art and help people connect. She focuses on street art hunting where people find murals (with varying levels of legality) and post it on Instagram. One of the challenges is finding the often temporary art before it is painted over or removed. Street art hunting is unstructured with no restrictions. “The game fosters sense of place through the spontaneous emergence of digital and physical interactions between artists, their audiences, and the city itself” (p. 3). The game as Foushee describes it is grassroots-driven, often by the artists and art seekers. Foushee argues that “Street Art Hunting is Creative Placemaking—without the institutional oversight, intrusion, or funding” (p. 20). Similar to street art hunters, heron hunters began posting photos of the herons to their social media sites, even before the project formally encouraged such hunting. The Herons on the Bayou project does not have an Instagram page, but the #heronsonthebayou hashtag became popular. The @bikemonroela account took numerous pictures of their bicycles at the heron locations, often featuring the food or wares of the sponsoring business. Soon after the
Herons on the Bayou
117
map was published, people began driving to the different sites and snapping photos. During the quarantine time of the COVID-19 pandemic, people saw this as a safe way to get out of the house. Although there are differences between the spontaneous murals of street art hunting and the well-coordinated heron sculptures, both are examples of how public art can use social media to connect to the community. Both use social media as their platform for sharing their images. Both take hunters to parts of the city they may not have visited before. When people locate the heron (or the street art in Foushee’s case), it may offer them a new perspective on the business that sponsored the project or they may learn new things about the cities. Other communities interested in a similar public art project should consider if a structured, strategic social media marketing plan would be beneficial. Social media is becoming more important to both public and nonprofit agencies. Social media can benefit such projects by increasing awareness, engaging the community, and supporting artists and sponsors. Public sector agencies are increasingly using new media technologies for citizen engagement such as social networking, blogs, and mobile device access (Smith 2010). Organizations also need to consider the challenges that come with using social media, including human resources and financial requirements for establishing and maintaining social media sites (Briones et al. 2011; Kanter and Fine 2010; Waters et al. 2009), and measuring effectiveness (West 2011). Many nonprofit and grassroots organizations lack a strategic plan for social media (Wymer and Grau 2011). However, incorporating such a plan can be an effective and cost-efficient way to build community and enhance the city. CONNECTING THROUGH EDUCATION Another opportunity that could be enhanced is the incorporation of an educational component into the Herons on the Bayou project. An often overlooked aspect of public art is the education opportunities affiliated with it. Access to public art can be a benefit for students of all ages; however, it tends to be overlooked as learning and teaching resources (Coutts 2004). Buffington and Waldren (2012), Argiro (2004), and Russell (2004) encourage art educators to take advantage of public art as original artwork for students to experience firsthand. Furthermore, Loewen (1999) writes students’ knowledge of the time the work was created, the subject and how the work’s meaning functions in contemporary times enhance understandings of public artworks. Coutts (2004) points out that many public artists use unconventional materials and often work in partnerships with local people, architects, and planners, furthering the understanding of art creation.
118
Leigh Nanney Hersey and Brooke Foy
The accessibility of public art allows it to play a positive role in elementary and secondary education curricula and easy to adapt to meet the varying needs by grade level and student achievement. Successfully teaching with public art requires the teacher to visit the public art work prior to introducing it to the students to become familiar with the piece. Photographs and/or videos of the art work will serve as beneficial teaching resources and allow students to continue experiencing the art without subsequent visits. Briefing the students with background information about the public art and the artist who created it will lead to a meaningful experience for all parties. CONCLUSION This chapter has attempted to outline a large-scale public art project featuring iconic sculptures created by multiple artists. It provides an overview of the project from ideation to installation. The case study is coauthored by the coordinating artist and a public administration scholar which brings a unique perspective to the project. The chapter serves to help other artists and public administrators who are interested in initiating similar projects by providing guidelines and suggested practices to increase likelihood of success. The findings of the case study suggest that public arts projects such as this can be a benefit for the hosting community. Early response to the Herons on the Bayou project has been positive. There are indications that the project increased awareness of the value of the arts in the host cities of Monroe and West Monroe, Louisiana. The herons also increased the sense of community among the residents as they searched out the herons and took photographs. The case study also shows the role social media can play in creative placemaking and the importance of having a strong social media presence. The case study identified gaps that could be further addressed in subsequent projects. First of all, artists of color were not well represented in the final designs. More intentional outreach to underrepresented artists can help increase participation. Another area for improvement would be the introduction of an educational component to the project. Public art such as the herons is easily accessible and creating lesson plans that would enhance student learning would further expand the benefits. While a clear return on investment will be difficult to determine, initial results suggest that the cities of Monroe and West Monroe benefited from the project, as did the artists that participated. Additionally, there are many intangible results that come from a project such as this. The relationship building among the artists, the sponsors, and the supporters of the herons can lead to long-term impact and increased social capital.
Herons on the Bayou
119
The case study focuses on the events leading up to and surrounding one public art project in neighboring communities. This narrow scope limits its generalizability to other public art projects. Each community must identify its own public art needs and desired outcomes. However, the intent of the case study is to provide a detailed analysis of one project from which community leaders can learn and adapt the project to meet these needs. Additional research on this and similar projects should include surveys of artists, sponsors, and community members to gain deeper feedback on their impression of the project. With an increased focus on the value of creative placemaking, it is important to understand how a community can be successful and what other communities can do to gain their own success. This research was intended to broaden the knowledge of achievements that community leaders have in including the arts as a way to strengthening the communities. It is also important to provide community leaders with a toolbox of ideas and strategies that they can use in implementing such projects and being able to demonstrate success that other communities have had.
REFERENCES Americans for the Arts. Public Art Programs Fiscal Year 2001: A Detailed Statistical Report on the Budges and Programming of the Nation’s Public Art Programs During Fiscal Year 2001. (2003). Americans for the Arts. “Arts Environments: Public Art.” (2012, February 28). Argiro, C. “Instructional resources: Teaching with public art.” Art Education 57, no. 4 (2004): 25–32. Association for Public Art. “About.” June 21, 2018. https://www.associationforpubl icart.org/about. Banks, Patricia A. “Cultural justice and collecting: Challenging the underrecognition of African American artists.” In Race in the Marketplace, pp. 213–226. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019. Becker, Jack. Public Art: An Essential Component of Creating Communities. Washington, DC: Americans for the Arts, 2004. Briones, Rowena L., Beth Kuch, Brooke Fisher Liu, and Yan Jin. Keeping up with the digital age: How the American Red Cross uses social media to build relationships. Public Relations Review 37, no. 1 (2011): 37–43. Buffington, Melanie L., and Erin Waldner. “Beyond Interpretation: Responding critically to public art.” In Hutzel, Karen, Flavia MC Bastos, and Kim Cosier, eds. Transforming City Schools Through Art: Approaches to Meaningful K–12 Learning, pp. 138–147. Teachers College Press, 2012. City of Chicago, Chicago Public Art Program https://scottsdalepublicart.org/ (2020).
120
Leigh Nanney Hersey and Brooke Foy
Conrad, David. “Community murals as democratic art and education.” Journal of Aesthetic Education 29, no. 1 (1995): 98–102. Corbin, Juliet, and Anselm Strauss. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Sage Publications, 2014. Coutts, Glen. “Multimedia, Curriculum, & Public Art.” Art Education 57, no. 4 (2004): 33–39. Decker, Juilee. “Moo!! Oink!! Neigh!! Twanngg!! Themed Public Sculpture Invades American Streets.” The Journal of American Culture 25, no. 1/2 (2002): 119. Dilenschneider, Colleen. “Why People Say They Won’t Visit Cultural Entities, COVID-19 Aside (DATA).” IMPACTS. June 24, 2020. https://www.colleend ilen.com/2020/06/24/why-people-say-they-wont-visit-cultural-entities-covd-19-asi de-data/. Engaging Local Government Leaders. “Rewind: Incorporating the Arts in Local Government Processes.” ELGL and ArtPlaceAmerica, April 23, 2020. https://elgl .org/rewind-incorporating-the-arts-in-local-government-processes/. Foushée, Danielle. “Street Art Hunting: Instagram and the Gamification of Creative Placemaking.” Arizona State University. (n.d.) https://web.asu.edu/sites/default/fi les/subversivecreativity/files/foushee_street-art -hunting.pdf. EPA Regional Environmental Sustainability Environmental Sciences, Ouachita Strong Update, August 23, 2019. Eyrich, N., Padman, M. L., and Sweetser, K. D. “PR practitioners’ use of social media tools and communication technology.” Public Relations Review 34 (2008): 412–414. Fox, Erin. “From Inception to Perfection.” Florida Tech eCurrent (2017, February 2). Hassan, W. E. “The impact of political events on the development of society visual culture.” Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 51 (2012): 908–915. Hunting, Dan. “Public art policy: Examining an emerging discipline.” Perspectives in Public Affairs, 2 (2005). Keifer-Boyd, Karen, Patricia M. Amburgy, and Wanda B. Knight. “Three approaches to teaching visual culture in K-12 school contexts.” Art Education 56, no. 2 (2003): 44–52. Lacy, Suzanne, ed. Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art. Seattle, WA: Bay Press, 1995. Levinson, Jay Conrad, Frank Adkins, and Chris Forbes. Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits. Entrepreneur Press, 2010. Loewen, James W. Lies across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong. The New Press, 2019. Markusen, Ann, and Anne Gadwa. “Creative Placemaking. A White Paper for the Mayors’ Institute on City Design. A leadership initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the United States Conference of Mayors and American Architectural Foundation, NEA, Washington. 2010.” (2016). Miles, Malcolm. Art, Space and the City: Public Art and Urban Futures. Psychology Press, 1997. Northeast Louisiana Arts Council. “Mission.” https://nelaarts.org/mission/.
Herons on the Bayou
121
Office of Cultural Development, State of Louisiana. Louisiana Cultural Districts | Office of Cultural Development. 2020. https://www.crt.state.la.us/cultural-dev elopment/arts/cultural-districts/. O’Sullivan, Elizabethann, Gary Rassel, Berner Maureen, and Jocelyn DeVance Taliaferro. Research Methods for Public Administrators. Taylor & Francis, 2016. Russell, Robert. “A beginner’s guide to public art.” Art Education 57, no. 4 (2004): 19–24. Samples, Clint. “HOWL for UWG: An Example of Artful Leadership for Art-Inspired Fundraisers on Campus.” In Hersey, Leigh and Bryna Bobick, eds. Handbook of Research on the Facilitation of Civic Engagement through Community Art, pp. 567–589. IGI Global, 2017. Saxton, Gregory D., and Chao Guo. “Online stakeholder targeting and the acquisition of social media capital.” International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing 19, no. 4 (2014): 286–300. Scottsdale Public Art. Homepage. 2019. https://scottsdalepublicart.org/. Sieber, T., Cordeiro, G. Í., and Ferro, L. (2012). The Neighborhood Strikes Back: Community Murals by Youth in Boston’s Communities of Color. City & Society 24, no. 3: 263–280. Smith, A. Government online. (Report). Pew Internet & American Life Project. 2010. Stalp, Marybeth. “Still a man’s art world: The gendered experiences of women artists.” Journal of Research on Women and Gender 6 (2016): 40–55. Vinciguerra. “Going to the Dogs? And Cows and Pigs and Horses? The Trend in Public Sculpture Has Been a Boon to Some Communities, and a Source of Dismay for Many in the Fine Arts.” Philadelphia Inquirer, 2005. White, Jason C. “Toward a theory of minority entrepreneurship in the non-profit arts sector.” The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society 48, no. 4 (2018): 287–300. UNESCO Works of Antoni Gaudí https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/320/ (2020). Wymer, Walter W., and Stacy Landreth Grau. Connected Causes: Online Marketing Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations. Lyceum Books, 2011. Zottarelli, Lisa K., Colter Ellis, and Elizabeth Liebig. “Rationality and temporary public art: An exploration of imposition and resistance in temporary statue art events.” Sociologie de l’Art 1 (2011): 59–79.
Chapter 6
Cultural Districts on the Horizon The Intersection of Policy and Practice Outside of Metropolitan Centers B. Kathleen Gallagher
INTRODUCTION Cities and towns exist to serve the needs and wants of residents and businesses. These may be compatible or competing, local or global, common or atypical. They are unavoidably complex. Jane Jacobs, an activist who documented the power of communities, observed the following. Cities happen to be problems in organized complexity, like the life sciences. They present “situations in which a half-dozen or even several dozen quantities are all varying simultaneously and in subtly interconnected ways.” Cities, again like life sciences, do not exhibit one problem in organized complexity, which if understood explains all. They can be analyzed into many such problems or segments which, as in the case of the life sciences, are also related with one another. (Jacobs 1993, 564)
Faced with changes in the economy and the benefits offered by arts and cultural amenities and programs, local and state governments have identified and instituted a variety of ways to leverage the arts in response to modern problems. The arts have demonstrated diverse benefits to individuals and communities. Civic engagement, social cohesion, academic achievement, and personal well-being are improved by the arts (Belfiore 2004; McCarthy et al. 2004). In the early 2000s, theories of the creative class argued that leaders and innovators of the knowledge economy value arts and culture and will choose to live in places that provide access (Florida 2004). The economic impact of the 123
124
B. Kathleen Gallagher
creative industries further supported public intervention supporting development and sustainability of the creative industries. This argument prompted many cities and communities to pursue the creative class by building cultural districts, increasing cultural amenities, and creating funding mechanisms to publicly support arts and culture (Markusen and Gadwa 2010a). Place-based cultural policies can take a variety of forms. The benchmark arts organically cluster in large cities. Resources converge there—donors, patrons, audiences, performance spaces, and galleries, as well as the performers, artists, and directors. Their presence attracts supporting and related businesses. Creative industries, cultural tourism, creative placemaking, and cultural districts require intentionally enhancing the position of the arts and integrating contemporary ideas about art, participation, and engagement. The evolution of “arts” and “participation” lessens the ties of metropolitan resources; however, smaller communities may encounter challenges in building and sustaining cultural resources. Globalization has deteriorated small, local economies. Residents of nonmetropolitan areas are less likely to attend college, more likely to experience poverty, and are more likely to suffer from health issues (Cohen 2014). Facing this reality, those with the ability migrate to urban areas. Public resources are limited and charitable gifts to rural areas are smaller (Cohen 2014, 2015). Cultural districts have been positioned as scalable initiatives that can be adapted to varied environments to capitalize on local assets and distinctive features of a place. “Cultural districts” is a broad term with many variations. Frost-Kumpf (1998) defined a cultural district as a “well-recognized, labeled, mixed-use area of a city in which a high concentration of cultural facilities serves as the anchor of attraction” (p. 10). Within this space, there are numerous variations, including governance, types of art and culture anchors, district missions, and sources of funding (Frost-Kumpf 1998; Galligan 2008). The intentional cultivation and development of cultural districts increased rapidly in the last twenty years (Stubbs 2018). Expansion and increased use of this policy construct supports ongoing exploration of the function and effectiveness of cultural districts. This chapter explores the juncture of cultural districts and geography. Culture districts have been surveyed and summarized (Americans for the Arts 2019; Frost-Kumpf 1998; Galligan 2008; National Assembly of State Arts Agencies 2015; Noonan 2013; Stubbs 2018). Quantitative analysis and attention to the differences between urban and nonurban settings, however, remain underdeveloped. State-certified cultural districts are a subset of the broader population. They are certified or recognized according to policies of state governments. Their purpose is to utilize cultural resources to encourage economic development and foster synergies between the arts and other businesses (Stubbs 2018, 1). Seventeen states have policies establishing the
Cultural Districts on the Horizon
125
requirements and process by which a cultural district is designated by the state. Sixteen states have initiated programs. There are 331 cultural districts certified in states with regulating policies. This chapter analyzes state characteristics, the missions or purposes of the cultural district programs, the geographic distribution between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, and finally the requirements for earning state designation. It concludes that the requirements and process seem to equally support advancement of cultural districts in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas in some states, while there appear to be obstacles or barriers in other states. It concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations for continued research. Communities, Amenities, and Cultural Districts States, and the communities they govern, are locked in perpetual competition for resources. Athenians competed with Spartans in Ancient Greece. Florentines rivaled the Venetians during the Italian Renaissance. Civic competition was, and remains, largely driven by economics and competition for industry, business, and economic sustainability (Stokes 1985). Municipalities must provide economic opportunity, community features, attributes, and benefits to retain and attract residents (Burnell and Galster 1992). Cities and towns market themselves as places to work, live, and visit. Places have become products that can be branded, marketed, and consumed (Brenner and Theodore 2002; McCann 2004). To be competitive, they must offer an array of resources, including employment opportunities, housing, safety, and amenities. Amenities are facilities that contribute to the living experience of residents (Allen 2015). In urban environments, these include food markets, public transportation, schools, and professional services (Allen 2015). In rural areas, amenities of interest often include natural and recreational features, proximity to urban areas, and economic opportunity (Ulrich-Schad 2015). Mobility and globalization have escalated comparisons and underscored the significance of community assets and amenities. Metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas have strategically leveraged cultural amenities to enhance their proposition to potential consumers—businesses, residents, and tourists. Cities act on the belief that amenities will attract tourist dollars and simultaneously build a residential base to contribute revenue from income taxes and property taxes (Rosentraub 2010). Historically, cities have naturally attracted the benchmark arts—traditional, nonprofit arts organizations such as museums, symphonies, operas, and ballets (Florida 2004). These institutions were prestigious symbols reflecting the culture and economic success of the city. As cultural amenities, these were and are considered necessary indicators of the quality of place. They are deemed essential to attracting major corporations and the professionals and employees needed for operation. But
126
B. Kathleen Gallagher
on their own, they are insufficient. Urban cultural and entertainment amenities have diversified, reflecting growth of the creative sector, diversity of the populace, and audience preferences. Florida (2004) notably argued the continued relevance of arts and cultural assets for cities. Cultural amenities attract the creative class—professionals in science, engineering, architecture, and design who contribute to gains in the knowledge economy. Companies, following creative class assumptions, identify and locate in creative centers where knowledge workers want to live and contribute to the economy. This argument prompted many cities to increase cultural amenities, provide funding to the arts, and develop cultural districts in expectation of economic dividends (Markusen and Gadwa 2010a). Development of local arts and culture produce additional benefits from tourism-based enterprises. The product of the tourist sector is an experience that is delivered by a destination to its visitors. This experience is produced not by a single firm but by all players who impact the visitor experience; namely, tourism enterprises (such as hotels, restaurants, airlines, tour operators, etc.), other supporting industries and organizations (such as arts, entertainment, sports, recreation, etc.), destination management organizations (whether private, public, or private-public partnerships), the public sector (which provides public goods that serve tourists, such as roads, general infrastructure etc., as well as government tourism departments or agencies), local residents, and other publics. (Crouch 2011, 27)
Travelers are propelled to destinations by a variety of personal motivations. Specifically, cultural tourism is driven by visitors’ aspirations to learn about and experience culture through attractions and products of the destination (Richards 2018). The majority of Americans travel annually and 80 percent of those look for cultural or heritage attractions or activities (Hargrove 2014). Cultural tourists stay longer and spend more money compared to other tourists (Americans for the Arts 2017). They engage in heritage tourism, arts tourism, gastronomic tourism, film tourism, and creative tourism (NGA 2009; Richards 2018). States have developed tours and cultural trails to increase tourism from the surrounding area (NGA 2009). The use of cultural amenities to drive economic gains is not exclusive to cities and metropolitan areas. Declining conditions of rural communities in the United States have attracted greater attention (Adamy and Overberg 2018; Vance 2016; Weiler et al. 2017). The critical issues faced by rural communities are higher rates of poverty, lower job growth, prevalence of disability, and high rates of entrepreneurship (Weiler et al. 2017). Furthermore, lower rates of college education increase the difficulties of competing in a knowledge-based economy. Rural communities are experiencing out-migration of
Cultural Districts on the Horizon
127
young adults and families (Ulrich-Schad 2015). Furthermore, philanthropic support is smaller (Cohen 2014, 2015, 2018; Karmazin 2016). Despite daunting statistics, nonmetropolitan communities have leveraged arts, crafts and artisanal goods, festivals and events, and heritage and historic sites to attract support and consumers. The promise of economic benefits from the creative economy and cultural tourism have generated new initiatives in rural communities. Place-based, cultural interventions can often be categorized into four basic categories: creative industries, cultural tourism, creative placemaking, or cultural districts. The creative industries include enterprises that produce and distribute the arts (Cohen and Davidson 2019). Cultural tourism attends to the travelers motivated by the exploration of places, culture, heritage, history, the arts, festivals, and other events (Hargrove 2014). Markusen and Gadwa (2010b) identify: In creative placemaking, partners from public, private, non-profit, and community sectors strategically shape the physical and social character of a neighborhood, town, city, or region around arts and culture activities. (p. 3)
Gadwa Nicodemus (2013) underscored the importance of physical space, economics, and/or social goals to creative placemaking undertakings. Finally, cultural district is a term broadly used to communicate a variety of arrangements. Frost-Kumpf defined a cultural district as a “well-recognized, labeled, mixed-use area of a city in which a high concentration of cultural facilities serves as the anchor of attraction” (1998, p. 10). Cultural districts can be adapted to local landscapes, producing many varietals within the genus. Differences may stem from organizational form and governance, mission and goals, sources of funds, and types of art and culture anchors (Frost-Kumpf 1998; Galligan 2008). Definitions and boundaries around these arts-focused approaches are not uniform. Enabling legislation that creates the district may be enacted by local government or the state (Americans for the Arts 2019). Districts may operate independently or in partnership. Several general types have been developed to categorize districts: cultural compounds, naturally occurring, downtown districts focused on major cultural institutions, cultural production in urban downtowns, or arts and entertainment focused (Americans for the Arts 2019). Financials support may come from private or public sources, with public sources generated by multiple mechanisms (Brooks and Kushner 2002). Popular mechanisms include hotel/motel tax, parking lot revenue, special tax district, business improvement district, downtown development district, cultural overlay, community development corporation, a local gross receipts tax, tax increment financing district, or corporate or foundation financial support (Americans
128
B. Kathleen Gallagher
for the Arts 2019). Cultural districts are highly adaptable to local ecology and resources. Despite promises and the ability to adapt cultural districts to local contexts, there are critical, distinct differences between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. Scholars have initiated conversations about the dominance of urban settings in research and theory development of public administration and policy. Communities outside of large, metropolitan areas may face additional challenges in adopting and implementing new policies or regulations. Common issues include human and financial resource limitations, inertia, and social problems. Gallagher and Ehlman (2019) found that the capacity of arts organizations in smaller cities may be questioned by community partners. Nonprofit arts and culture organizations (NPACOs) outside of urban and suburban areas have lower total revenue, lower contributions, lower program revenues, and spend less on professional and staff compensation (Gallagher and Ehlman 2020). Smaller size and limited resources restrict capacity and may increase threats to an organization’s survival (Gallagher forthcoming; Gallagher and Ehlman 2019, 2020). Many nonmetropolitan communities do not include NPACOs. According to Gallagher (forthcoming), 82 percent of NPACOs are located in counties that are mostly urban areas, 8 percent are in counties that include urban and nonurban areas, and just 10 percent are in counties classified as rural or mostly rural according to the USDA’s Rural-Urban Continuum Codes. NPACOs are not a requirement of most cultural district, but NPACOs may serve as anchors. NPACOs staff and volunteers possess specialized knowledge and networks that expand community resources/capacity. The capacity limitations or absence of NPACOs will necessitate the inclusion of other cultural partners. Libraries are logical cultural partners in many communities. Summers and Buchanan (2018) argue that libraries are cultural organizations because they provide the point of access to so many cultural goods. Urban libraries, in their evolution to remain relevant as the internet provides individual access to all sort of media, have emphasized their cultural value by pursuing partnership in creative placemaking initiatives (Cabello and Butler 2017; American Library Association 2018). Case studies report libraries functioning as cultural hubs and third spaces (Cabello and Butler 2017; American Library Association 2018; Dudley 2013; Kyle 2015; Morgan et al. 2016; Settle 2019; Summers and Buchanan 2018). For communities without NPACOs, this function is even more promising. There are 3,911 rural libraries in the United States (Institute of Museum and Library Services). State populations of rural libraries vary from 1 in Hawaii to 408 in Iowa (Institute of Museum and Library Services). Six states had more than 200 rural libraries and 39 states had fewer than 100. Gallagher and Ehlman (2020) analyzed Texas’ 160 rural libraries to evaluate the potential capacity
Cultural Districts on the Horizon
129
for undertaking creative placemaking. The landscape was dominated by single, non-networked libraries with fewer than two full-time equivalent staff. The hours open averaged fewer than thirty-five. Indicators suggest significant limitations in capacity of rural libraries to undertake additional initiatives, such as creative placemaking. It is important for rural proponents, arts advocates, and policymakers to be mindful of resource and capacity differences. State-Certified Cultural Districts The variety of cultural districts is so large that in order to make comparisons, it is advisable to narrow the scope. To address the interaction of resources and policy, the chapter surveys the policies governing state-certified cultural districts. State cultural districts are special areas, designated or certified by state governments, that utilize cultural resources to encourage economic development and foster synergies between the arts and other businesses. (Stubbs 2018, 1)
Cultural districts are lauded for their adaptability and the ease of tailoring solutions to the needs and resources of the local environment. However, while cultural districts have been identified as a means by which to serve urban and rural needs, there has been little exploration of geographic variation and influence on the development and operation of cultural districts. This chapter was undertaken to investigate state-certified cultural districts in the context of their location—within or outside of metropolitan areas. This investigation was limited to cultural districts certified through state policy and action. Seventeen states have developed policies for state designation of cultural districts. There are variations in status of these policies. Rhode Island established the first state cultural district program in the United States in 1998. The program, offering tax-free sales of art created within the district, has been expanded to the entire state. For the purposes of this chapter, Rhode Island is treated as a single arts district. In contrast, Arkansas established a program in 2011. The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (2015) reported that the program had not been activated. Exploration of the website of the state arts council did not return any evidence of activity. Several states have recently established or implemented cultural district programs. California approved legislation in 2015 and adopted a two-year, pilot program for the inaugural launch. Washington state passed legislation in 2017 and has already certified three cultural districts. Connecticut passed legislation in 2019 with the intent to launch in early 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic has delayed implementation.
130
B. Kathleen Gallagher
While there are not currently state-designated cultural districts in Connecticut, the requirements and procedure for designation are reported. The states with cultural districts are diverse in their characteristics. They are geographically dispersed, but there are several apparent clusters. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut neighbor one another. Another band connects Maryland to states in the rustbelt. This cluster includes Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Indiana. The largest cluster by number of states and geographic area occurs in the south central states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico. California and Washington are not adjacent but dominate the Pacific Coast. Iowa and South Carolina are the remaining states. States also vary demographically. Key to this exploration are the year in which cultural district policy was adopted, the number of cultural districts designated by the state, the population, percentage of the population in rural communities or small towns, median household income, state GDP, and state unemployment. The ranges and averages for these are reported in table 6.1. Also included are national figures, where appropriate. Ranges in population size, rural population, educational attainment, wealth, and economic conditions underscore that cultural districts can be implemented in a variety of settings. Mission statements articulate aspirations of organizations or programs, highlighting the values and anticipated outcomes. Analyzing mission statements of cultural districts synthesizes the intentions and directions of cultural district programs across states. Mission statements, or statements of purpose, were collected from websites or documents of the state cultural districts. Table 6.1 Summary of States with State-Designated Cultural Districts Low Year of Legislation No. of districts—2020 Population (Est. 2019) Percentage of the population rural and small town (2011) Percentage of the population twenty-five years or older with a college degree or higher Median household income (2018$) GDP (2019) in millions State unemployment (2019)
High
Mean
1998 2019 0 107 1,059,361 39,512,223 7,909,458 2.30% 51.90% 18.40%
Total
U. S.
331 328,239,523 21%
20.30%
42.90%
30.39%
31.50%
$44,921
$81,868
$59,927
$60,293
$63,541 2.70%
$3,137,469 4.90%
$541,503 3.70%
$21,427,690 3.70%
(Source: Data compilation by B. Kathleen Gallagher from state cultural district websites, U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
131
Cultural Districts on the Horizon
The words were pasted into wordclouds.com, a program that counts the frequency of words. The words are weighted according to frequency and graphically depicted. The list of words was reviewed and simplified and grouped together. For instance, art and arts, community and communities, district and districts were grouped, and so on. The aggregation of mission or purpose statements produced 583 words with 263 unique words. Words that appeared four or more times are presented in table 6.2 and ranked. It should come as no surprise that “cultural” and “district” appeared most frequently (thirty-five and thirty-four times, respectively). Community is also a central theme of cultural districts. Art and economic are tied for fourth most frequently used words. This underscores the dual purpose of promoting cultural and economic benefits to support a variety of communities. Cultural districts have been promoted for their promise to benefit diverse communities through adaptability to the local resources and assets within the district. This chapter identified the challenges faced by many rural communities and was undertaken to explore the interaction of cultural districts and geography with special attention to differences between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. To this end, the population of state cultural districts and geographic location of cultural districts certified in the states with active programs were analyzed. The cultural district population was aggregated from the state arts agencies websites and resources. There are 331 places that are state-designated cultural districts. State populations of cultural districts range from 3 (Washington, established in 2017) to 107 (Louisiana, established in 2007). Using zip codes, these districts were coded for rurality using the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. Districts were classified into nine geographic/density codes that include proximity to metropolitan areas and size of the resident population. Table 6.2 Most Frequently Used Words in Mission or Purpose Statements Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Word Cultural District Community Art, economic Creative Develop Program Attract Activity, area, designate, local, support City, provide Establish, promote, tourists Artists, business, enhance, place, purpose, recognize, tax, town
Frequency 35 34 20 14 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4
(Source: Data compilation by B. Kathleen Gallagher from the websites for cultural districts for each state.)
132
B. Kathleen Gallagher
State cultural districts are distributed in all categories—metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, places with resident populations over 1,000,000 and under 2,500. The majority (77.34 percent) are located in metropolitan areas with the balance (22.66 percent) located in nonmetropolitan areas, as detailed in figure 6.1. It is relevant to consider how the distribution of state cultural districts reflects the population. Does the percentage of nonmetro cultural districts align with the percentage of the state population located outside of metropolitan areas? For eight states (California, Colorado, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and West Virginia), the percentage of nonmetro cultural districts is equal to or greater than the percentage of the population living in nonmetro areas of the state. The distribution of cultural districts in seven of the states is not in proportion to the population distribution (Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Washington). While the missions of the state cultural district policies vary between states and reflect differing policy agendas, this geographic analysis does indicate that rural communities may be at a disadvantage in some states. Additional exploration is needed to evaluate causes of the discrepancy.
Figure 6.1 State-Designated Cultural Districts in the United States by Community Geography. (Source: Data compilation by B. Kathleen Gallagher. Cultural districts were matched to counties or parishes and then coded according to the Rural-Urban Continuum Codes from the USDA Economic Research Service.)
133
Cultural Districts on the Horizon Table 6.3 Summary of Requirements for State Certification of a Cultural District Requirement
# of states
Applicant is municipality or county Partnerships, community support Boundary map Cultural assets list, map Local designation or resolution Leadership, goals, or long-range plan Anchor institutions Marketing/ Tourism Accessibility requirement Applicant is Nonprofit Demographic and socioeconomic information Signage requirement Existing incentives
15 14 14 12 11 11 10 8 7 4 4 4 3
(Source: Data compilation by B. Kathleen Gallagher from the websites for cultural districts for each state.)
A preliminary analysis of potential barriers was conducted by examining the requirements for state designation. Categories established in the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies Strategy Sampler of cultural districts (n.d.) were used. Information for California, Connecticut, and Washington were added, drawing from the information published on state agency websites. There are thirteen categories of requirements. States require between two and eleven requirements, with an average of seven. The categories of requirements are listed in table 6.3, with the number of states that include the criteria. It is evident that local government involvement, partnership or collaboration, and clear boundaries that include cultural assets are essential to most designations. Programs were divided into two groups to understand whether requirements were barriers for rural communities. Groups were assigned according to whether the ratio of nonmetro cultural districts was in proportion to the rural population of the state. The requirements were then examined. There were apparent differences between the two groups along these lines. Collection of additional data may help to understand these variations and build additional understanding of the influence of location on the establishment and maintenance of cultural districts. CONCLUSION The population of cultural districts in the United States has expanded dramatically in recent decades. Growing evidence of the importance of the creative industries prompted development of policies to target and leverage the benefits of arts and culture-related activity. The creative class, creative
134
B. Kathleen Gallagher
placemaking, cultural tourism, and cultural districts are common areas of public intervention. Simultaneously, the economic losses in American manufacturing have challenged rural communities to replace industry jobs with alternatives. Harnessing arts and culture to off-set losses caused by contraction of manufacturing in the United States has produced many successful examples. Understanding the synergies between cultural development policies and rural experiences offers the potential for increasing effectiveness. This chapter identified a purpose of exploring state cultural district programs with additional attention given to understanding the influence of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan locales. There are sixteen states with active cultural district programs. The states vary in size and geography. The programs vary in age and scope. There is no single model of cultural districts, even when limiting to those with state designation. Analysis of missions illustrates that art and economics are central to the purpose of cultural districts—from attracting businesses, residents, and tourists to promoting an authentic place and local identity. These two forces are united in the purpose of state cultural districts. This supports the potential to nonmetro areas looking for economic opportunities. Of the 331 statecertified cultural districts located in sixteen states, seventy-five are located in nonmetropolitan areas. That is to say, 77.34 percent of cultural districts are in metropolitan counties and 22.66 percent are not. This is fairly close to the U.S. population—79 percent are located in metropolitan areas and 21 percent are in nonmetro areas. Do state cultural district policies serve and support formation of cultural districts in nonmetro areas? Relying on available data present in existing reports and state arts agency materials to answer this question, the conclusion is sometimes in half of the states with active cultural district programs the percentage of nonmetro cultural districts is equal to or greater than the percentage of the state population residing in nonmetro areas. In the other half, that is not currently the case. Analysis of the requirements established by states does not produce a clear explanation for the variation in this study. There were no evident patterns between the two groups across the thirteen categories of requirements. Additional research will advance knowledge about the development and administration of cultural districts. The development of cultural districts requires allocation of resources toward the goal. Consideration of the types and availability of resources needed to initiate and advance the case for a cultural district may offer additional perspective on elements of successful districts may reveal opportunities for technical assistance from the state agencies and or variance in standards in accord with the size of the community. Research should seek to include the experiences of state program managers, local administrators, and aspirational groups—those interested in applying for certification.
Cultural Districts on the Horizon
135
REFERENCES Adamy, J. and P. Overberg. “Rural America Is the New ‘Inner City.’” Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Institutional News, 26 May 2017 2017. https://www.wsj.com/ articles/rural-america-is-the-new-inner-city-1495817008October 15, 2018. Allen, N. “Understanding the Importance of Urban Amenities: A Case Study from Auckland.” Buildings, vol. 5, 2015, pp. 85–99, doi:10.3390/buildings5010085. Americans for the Arts. “Arts & Economic Prosperity 5.” vol. 5, Americans for the Arts, 2017. http://www.americansforthearts.org/sites/default/fi les/aep5/PDF_Files/ ARTS_AEPsummary_loRes.pdf. Americans for the Arts. “National Cultural Districts Exchange Toolkit.” Americans for the Arts, May 15, 2019. https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-program/rep orts-and-data/toolkits/national-cultural-districts-exchange-toolkit. American Library Association. “Creative Placemaking.” Tools, Publications & Resources. June 19, 2018. http://www.ala.org/tools/future/trends/creativeplacemak ing. Belfiore, E. “Auditing Culture: The Subsidised Cultural Sector in the New Public Management.” International Journal of Cultural Policy, vol. 10, no. 2, 2004, pp. 183–202, doi:10.1080/1028663042000255808. Brenner, N. and N. Theodore. “Cities and the Geographies of ‘Actually Existing Neoliberalism.’” Antipode, vol. 34, no. 3, 2002, pp. 349–379, doi:10.1111/14678330.00246. Brooks, A. C. and R. J. Kushner. “What Makes an Arts Capital? Quantifying a City’s Cultural Environment.” International Journal of Arts Management, vol. 5, no. 1, 2002, pp. 12–23, https://www-jstor-org.proxy.libraries.smu.edu/stable/41064773. Burnell, J. D. and G. Galster. “Quality-of-Life Measurements and Urban Size: An Empirical Note.” Urban Studies, vol. 29, no. 5, 1992, pp. 727–735, doi:10.1080/ 00420989220080661. Cabello, M. and S. M. Butler. “How Public Libraries Help Build Healthy Communities.” Brookings Institution, 2017, March 30 2017. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-f ront/2017/03/30/how-public-libraries-help-build-healthy-communities/. Cohen, Randy, and Ben Davidson. “Creative Industries.” Americans for the Arts, May 15, 2019. https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-program/reports-and-data/ research-studies-publications/creative-industries. Cohen, Rick. “Letter from America: Philanthropy Has Neglected Rural America— and It Hurts.” Third Sector. Third SectorMainNet, December 23, 2014. http:// www.thirdsector.co.uk/letter-america-philanthropy-neglected-rural-america-hurts/ policy-and-politics/article/1326684. Cohen, Rick. “USDA Study: Rural Philanthropy Still an Underfunded Afterthought.” Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly, August 28, 2018. https://nonprofitquarterl y.org/rural-philanthropy-continues-to-look-sparse-and-worse-according-to-usda-st udy/. Cohen, Rick. “What Ails Rural Philanthropy and What Must Be Done.” Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly, April 16, 2015. https://nonprofi tquarterly.org/2014/12 /04/what-ails-rural-communities-philanthropy-what-must-be-done.
136
B. Kathleen Gallagher
Crouch, G. I. “Destination Competitiveness: An Analysis of Determinant Attributes.” Journal of Travel Research, vol. 50, no. 1, 2011, pp. 27–45, doi:10.1177/004728510362776. Dudley, M., editor. Public Libraries and Resilient Cities. American Library Association, 2013. Florida, Richard. The Rise of the Creative Class: and How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books, 2004. Frost-Kumpf, H. A. “Cultural Districts: The Arts as a Strategy for Revitalizing Our Cities.” Americans for the Arts, 1998, pp. 1–36. general editor, Americans for the Arts. Gadwa Nicodemus, A. “Fuzzy Vibrancy: Creative Placemaking as Ascendant Us Cultural Policy.” Cultural Trends, vol. 22, no. 3–4, 2013, pp. 213–222, doi:10.10 80/09548963.2013.817653. Gallagher, B. Kathleen. “Death and Life: The Promise and Problems of the Arts in Rural Communities.” International Journal of Arts Management, 2020. Gallagher, B. Kathleen and Matthew P. Ehlman. “Arts at the Intersection: Cross-Sector Collaboration and Creative Placemaking in Rapid City, SD.” Public Performance and Management Review, 2019, doi:10.1080/15309576.2019.1601113. Gallagher, B. Kathleen and Matthew P. Ehlman. “When in Doubt, Go to the Library? Libraries & Rural Creative Placemaking.” Journal of Rural and Community Development 15, no. 2, 2020. Galligan, A. M. “Evolution of Art and Cultural Districts.” Understanding the Arts and Creative Sector in the United States, edited by J. M. Cherbo et al. Rutgers University Press, 2008, pp. 129–142. Hargrove, C. “Cultural Tourism: Attracting Visitors and Their Spending.” 2014 National Cultural Districts Exchange, Americans for the Arts, 2014. https://www .americansforthearts.org/sites/default/files/CulturalTourismAttractingVisitors.pdf. Institute of Museum and Library Services. (2017). Public Libraries Survey. [Data set]. Institute of Museum and Library Services. https://www.imls.gov/research- evaluation/data-collection/public-libraries-survey. Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Modern Library, 1993. Karmazin, B. “It’s Time for a Strategy on Rural Philanthropy, Not Just Shaming.” The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 2016. Kyle, T. Public Libraries: The Original Community Hubs. Omtario Library Association, 2015. Markusen, A. and A. Gadwa. “Arts and Culture in Urban or Regional Planning: A Review and Research Agenda.” Journal of Planning Education and Research, vol. 29, no. 3, 2010, pp. 379–391, doi:10.1177/0739456X09354380. Markusen, A. and A. Gadwa. “Creative Placemaking.” National Endowment for the Arts, 2010, pp. 3–60. general editor, National Endowment for the Arts, https://ww w.arts.gov/sites/default/files/CreativePlacemaking-Paper.pdf. McCann, E. J. “‘Best Places’: Interurban Competition, Quality of Life, and Popular Media Discourse.” Urban Studies, vol. 41, no. 10, 2004, pp. 1909–1929, doi:10.1 080/0042098042000256314.
Cultural Districts on the Horizon
137
McCarthy, K. et al. “Gifts of the Muse.” RAND, 2004, p. 104. general editor, RAND Corporation, http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2005/RA ND_MG218.pdf. Morgan, A. U. et al. “Beyond Books: Public Libraries as Partners for Population Health.” Health Affairs, vol. 35, no. 11, 2016, pp. 2030–2036, doi:10.1377/ hlthaff.2016.0724. National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. “State Cultural District Programs: Key Issues, Strategies and Management Practices.” Strategy Sampler, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, n/d, p. 14. general editor, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, https://nasaa-arts.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/CulturalDi strictsStrategySampler.pdf. National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. “State Cultural Districts.” National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, 2015. NGA Center for Best Practices. “Arts & the Economy: Using Arts and Culture to Stimulate Economic Development.” NGA Center for Best Practice, 2009. https:// www.americansforthearts.org/node/100916. Noonan, D. S. “How U. S. Cultural Districts Reshape Neighbourhoods.” ArtWorks: Research, National Endowment for the Arts. 2013. Richards, G. “Cultural Tourism: A Review of Recent Research and Trends.” Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, vol. 36, 2018, pp. 12–21, doi:10.1016/j. jhtm.2018.03.005. Settle, K. “Cultural and Creative Enrichment: How Libraries Deliver.” vol. 2019, Gov.UK, 2016. https://dcmslibraries.blog.gov.uk/2016/08/31/cultural-and-creative -enrichment-how-libraries-deliver/. Stokes, C. J. “Do Urban Tax Rates Converge? They Do in Cities Alike in Population, Settlement Density, and Dependence on Non-Property Tax Revenues.” American Journal of Economics and Sociology, vol. 44, no. 1, 1985, pp. 29–38. Stubbs, R. “State Cultural Districts.” State Policy Briefs, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, May 2018 2015/2018, pp. 1–15. general editor, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, https://nasaa-arts.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/State CulturalDistrictsPolicyBrief.pdfJune 1, 2020. Summers, S. and S. Buchanan. “Public Libraries as Cultural Hubs in Disadvantages Communities: Developing and Fostering Cultural Competencies and Connections.” Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy, vol. 88, no. 3, 2018, pp. 286–302. Ulrich-Schad, J. D. “Recreational Amenities, Rural Migration Patterns, and the Great Recession.” Population and Environment, vol. 37, no. 2, 2015, pp. 157–180, http:// www.jstor.com/stable/24769780. Vance, J. D. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. Harper, 2016. Weiler, S. et al. “6 Charts That Illustrate the Divide between Rural and Urban America.” NewsHour 2017-03-17. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/six-chart s-illustrate-divide-rural-urban-america.
Chapter 7
Designing and Creating Programs of Promise Kathy Marzilli Miraglia
OVERVIEW This chapter is focused on the design and implementation of program models that strengthen collaborations between universities, regional schools, and community partnering organizations with the goal of broadening art practices beyond the K–16 (elementary through university) classroom and creating meaningful community connections. Learning objectives are directed toward, but not limited to, intergenerational awareness, gender issues, social justice concerns, community activism, historical and cultural learning, and environmental sustainability including strategies that are integrated with the arts. First, the chapter outlines the three types of collaborations intended for K–16 classrooms: (1) Integrated Literacies Partnership, (2) Service-Learning Partnership, and (3) Culturally Based Partnership. Second, the chapter outlines the steps toward designing meaningful partnerships. Third, the chapter provides three case studies that describe how students in university course work designed partnerships through networking with professionals in public nonprofit agencies. Lastly, the outcomes of the partnerships are explained. INTRODUCTION Unlike social arts practices, which focuses on collaboration between the artist and the community, this chapter addresses K–16 educators who are interested in designing curriculum focused on community collaborations. Every community agency, school, and university “has unique and powerful assets, the most important of which resides in its people—their creativity and cultural traditions” (Borrup 2006, 139). No educational program should educate 139
140
Kathy Marzilli Miraglia
students unless they can provide them opportunities that ignites imagination and sparks the desire and passion to change oneself and the world (Butterwick and Clover, 2013). Arts education partnerships have become an important means for developing and sustaining school arts programs that engage students, teachers, and communities. Tapping into additional perspectives, resources, and support from arts agencies and postsecondary institutions, arts education partnerships strengthen arts education infrastructure within schools and develop a web of sustainable relationships whereby stakeholders mutually benefit. (Carlisle 2011, 144)
Traditionally, art has played a significant role in the history of our humanity, expressing ideas and beliefs through artistic practices. The myth that existed where only talented and trained artists created artworks in their studios, and museums were places for the elite to visit, has changed (Congdon 2004). In the 1980s, the Getty Center’s Discipline Based Arts Education (DBAE) approach was adopted by many art education programs across the country and persisted through the 1990s. DBAE’s emphasis was focused on fine arts practices which included art history, art criticism, aesthetics, and production (Dobbs 1992). Formalism was the most prevalent art theory (elements and principles of design), concentrated on the canon of best-known artists, Western art history, and sometimes art from other lands. These practices have changed to a more participatory approach. Art education curriculum has often been on the cutting edge of education, willing to change to address the needs of the times. Newer pedagogical approaches are recognized as effective ways to teach through project-based, arts-based, and community-based methods, and social justice and constructivist pedagogy. Artists, art students, and the K–16 art education curriculum have become more involved in community practices. The overarching term of communitybased art education (CBAE) refers to a “broad orientation, [where] CBAE describes art education practices that are attentive to possible relationships between the arts and communities” (Bastos 2002, 70). CBAE may also refer to a wide variety of art forms that are produced by a particular community (Adejumo 2000). Art educators have not sat on the sideline when investigating uncomfortable topics. Students are presented with the time and space to express themselves in a visual medium to address social issues. Postmodern art making combines the roles of artist, teacher, and citizen, especially when presented as community learning in a course curriculum, which then becomes the basis for pedagogy (Taylor 2002). Congdon suggests that if teachers intend to implement community-based art programs in the formal setting of their schools or universities, they will come to appreciate that “familiarity with the customs
Designing and Creating Programs of Promise
141
of a culture can increase the tendency to value and celebrate them. In the process students can take pride in, and gain insight into, practices that . . . [are] unfamiliar and . . . strange” (2004, 40). And yet the reverse also holds true as Bastos referred to “making the familiar strange” (2002, 70) which values and recognizes art practices such as cooking, gardening, or sewing, among others. The implementation, documentation, and assessment of community-based collaborative programs are meant to expand art experiences beyond K–16 classrooms in which learning objectives are met through service to another organization and reciprocity between the two is achieved (Miraglia 2017). Reciprocity is necessary for both partners, learning from each other and working together. These programs are not the same as community service where the service performed is an altruistic contribution, such as a clothing drive, and it is not the same as participating in an internship (Miraglia 2017). The case study examples described in this chapter provide authentic teaching and learning experiences in the field, or in situ as they were conducted through university course work and set in a middle school, high school, an environmental center, and community agencies. In addition, these collaborations sought to foster a better understanding of, and commitment to the visual arts and provide meaningful service to local community agencies through the introduction, development, and implementation of service-learning in visual arts education courses in the K–16 curriculum. BENEFITS OF SERVICE-LEARNING While student development is focused on expanding skills (Chambers 2009), built into a partnership program are vital connections that are made between students’ understanding and real-world problems, challenges, and social responsibilities. These connections are achieved when the art curriculum goes beyond an isolated classroom lesson and integrates critical thinking skills with their collaborative learning experiences (Lim et al. 2013). However, providing opportunities outside of the classroom as service-learning may not go far enough unless there are curricular opportunities for students to reflect upon the experience where a chance for consciousness raising may occur, known as liberatory learning (Chambers 2009). “Liberatory education is an approach that helps learners identify their strengths and abilities in order to change social conditions for themselves and others. . . . Paulo Freire . . . was considered its leading supporter. Liberatory education focuses on local-level problems or societal-level deficiencies” (Chambers 2009, 84). Maynes et al. go on to say, “Liberatory learning involves transformational shifts in social consciousness and provides service of benefit to both the participant and the host organization” (2013, 80). The participant and the community partner
142
Kathy Marzilli Miraglia
both give and get service in a spirit of reciprocity. Service-learning involves social learning where “the service provides the participant with potential impacts, personally and educationally. The focus is on what the participant takes from the experience by learning about other social conditions in the larger community” (Chambers in Maynes et al. 2013, 81). Eyler and Giles stated that service-learning linked with subject matter, which includes action and reflection, positively impacts academic learning (1999, 4). TYPES OF COMMUNITY-BASED ARTS PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONS There are various types of community-based partnerships, three of which are described here. Before embarking on any type of community partnership project first ask yourself: What do you want your students to know and learn as a result of the partnership? What do you want them to be able to do or speak about? How do the arts help students grapple with difficult issues? Are students’ opinions changed, or transformed by participating in the partnership? What are the outcomes of the services performed or the collaborations engaged in? Deciding on the kind of community partnership you would like to design is the next step. Understanding how the type of partnership you might engage in will guide you on how to set up goals and objectives. Each one of these options have intersecting and overlapping characteristics (Figure 7.1). 1. Integrated Literacies Partnership is defined as a partnership between an art class, arts organization, or local artist and/or a community organization through which specific visual arts learning objectives are integrated with other career skills, expertise, content, techniques, and/or experiences. Integrating the curriculum with the needs of the partner allows students to practice and develop aesthetic and media literacies, interface with public and private agencies, and present themselves in a professional manner. Immersion of students “in an interdisciplinary arts program emphasizes visual, verbal, and media literacy: aesthetic and technical skill, and critical, analytical and creative thinking” (Naidus 2009, 55). The research, artistic, career, and marketing skills of students are employed in a meaningful way that benefit both the student and the partner where solutions to issues, problems, and conditions that the partner identifies can be addressed in a mutually beneficial and productive way. 2. A Service-Learning Partnership, according to Eyler and Giles, is a form of experiential education where “learning occurs through a cycle of action and
Designing and Creating Programs of Promise
143
Figure 7.1 Three Types of Community-Based Arts Partnerships. Source: Author.
reflection. . . . Experience enhances understanding; understanding leads to more effective action. . . . [as students seek to] achieve real objectives for the community and deeper understanding and skills for themselves” (1999, 7–9). In the process, students “link personal and social development with academic and cognitive development” (9). Service-learning experiences maintain learning objectives within the course curriculum where curricular choices determine activities and can help address unmet community needs while simultaneously providing students opportunity to gain academic knowledge and skills (Root 1997). Service-learning in the curriculum requires that credit is earned through coursework where community services are related to the content of a course and at the same time meets the identified needs and expertise of the partners (Bringle et al. 2009). “The goal of service-learning is to deepen students' civic responsibility while providing opportunities for experiential knowledge in their academic study” (Taylor 2002, 124). Three requisite and basic tenets to implementing an effective servicelearning program include the following: (1) students must be engaged in service-learning experiences that are hands-on and address the needs of the community or entity they serve; (2) the goal of the service-learning program must be of equal importance with both the service and course goals; (3) there must be a reciprocal benefit to both the students and those receiving the service that will define and control what the service will be (Coffey and Laverty 2015).
144
Kathy Marzilli Miraglia
3. A Culturally Based Partnership is learning that happens when students interact with partners who identify as a particular cultural group. A culturally based collaborative method is inclusive of traditions that focuses on everyday artistic expressions of people living in cultural groups. It embraces diversity and multiculturalism grounded in community beliefs and values and aspects of local experiences that may include religious, age, race, ethnicity, political, social, environmental, and economic issues, while sharing common interests, perspectives, and goals (Adejumo 2000; Congdon 2004). Congdon (2004) refers to this form as the “folkloric” approach, where the group identity may stem from the places in which they live (5). The group may acknowledge their shared ethnicity, ways of communicating, occupation, histories, recreational activities, spiritual association, group association, artistic expressions, or shared interests and relationships. When referring to indigenous pedagogy, Acuff (2007) reminds us to acknowledge one’s own privilege and positionality in relationship to other groups of people (147). Designing Meaningful Partnerships Knowing and understanding your partnering organization’s history and the community it resides in is important to see if the undertaking holds the possibility of being a workable relationship. Before starting your partnership, investigate the nature of your partnering organization by looking at their website or social media to make sure that this partner’s mission fits with your curriculum and a partner that you would invest time. In other words, know your audience. The foundation on which to build a curriculum for a partnership is to recognize that reciprocity for all stakeholders is essential. The essential element in preparation and planning is to determine what that reciprocity will be by drafting your preliminary curricular goals, objectives, and outcomes as the key to designing curriculum is to first establish goals and objectives and how they will be assessed (Wiggins and McTighe 2005). After contacting your partnering agency, they will need to identify and establish their own goals and objectives that fit with their mission and needs. Consider the following questions before starting: • Who will be our partners? Provide some background. • What are the essential needs of the partner and of your curriculum? • What will your students learn and gain as an outcome? • What is the main goal of the partnership? What are the objectives? • How will the objectives of the partnership be assessed? • What service is to be provided to the partner?
Designing and Creating Programs of Promise
145
• What are the expectations of the partner? • Where does the reciprocity occur? • How will you and your partner support the work? • What is the proposed art activity? • How will data be collected in order to assess the partnership? • What are some possible obstacles or ethical responsibilities? In the design of a partnership, there are items to consider and a sequence of steps to follow in the preparation and planning before implementation. The following is a sequenced outline of action steps in order to implement an effective partnership: 1. Obtain necessary permissions (principal, superintendent, university IRB). 2. Meet to interview the contact or responsible person in your partnering organization. 3. Clarify values, goals, objectives, and outcomes for you and your partner and develop a list of expectations. 4. Conduct a needs assessment. Decide what the expertise, assets, and needs of your partner are. 5. Design an assessment instrument to determine the efficacy of the program. 6. Determine and agree with your partner about how data are to be collected. 7. With your partner, design a proposal complete with stated goals, objectives, expectations, strategies, activities, assessment tool, and budget to be agreed upon. 8. Draft a letter of agreement or memorandum of understanding (MOU) for each partner to sign with the proposal attached. 9. Draft a calendar of items to be accomplished with deadlines and action steps. 10. Before implementing activities, obtain student and parent permission. 11. When implementing the action plan, keep a journal, and document with photos and artifacts. 12. Write an executive or reflective summary to be shared with the partner. 13. Share results with the wider community: exhibit, present, plan an event, among others. Making Contact with Your Partnering Agency In a university class, it would be the responsibility of the student to make contact with the partnering agency. However, in a K–12 situation, the responsibility would fall upon the classroom teacher. When working in or with a
146
Kathy Marzilli Miraglia
K–12 school, it is necessary to seek and obtain permission from the school’s administration first. Student assent and parental consent or permission will also be necessary once the partnership action plan has been established. Identify a contact person and the main or key person that you will be working with, as they are not always one in the same. Usually information of who to initially contact can be found on the agency’s website. Make sure that the person who you will work with during the partnership has the confidence of the partnering agency to make decisions on behalf of the agency. Make initial contact through email and/or a phone conversation and introduce yourself by explaining who you are, what your mission is, and the purpose of establishing a partnership. Be prepared. Impress the contact person that you know what the agency does, what the mission of that agency is, and other details. If necessary, write notes or a script beforehand. Explain that you are interested in establishing a connection with this agency that has the potential of a mutual partnership. Ask if you can meet with your partner face to face or by remote technology. Interview your partner with the goal in mind that you have a clear understanding of their mission and what they do. Use the interview questions provided here as a guide. If you cannot visit in person, then use an alternative means to interview them such as FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, or phone conference. To interview a relevant, responsible, and key contact person, consider this suggested interview questionnaire. 1. How does your agency/organization serve the community? 2. What sectors of the community do you serve? 3. What kinds of programs do you offer? 4. What is the mission of your organization? 5. Is this a nonprofit organization? 6. What are the needs of your organization? 7. How can we help fill a need? 8. What are the possibilities given a short time period? 9. What materials would be needed? 10. Are you agreeable to entering this partnership? Drafting a Proposal After contacting and interviewing the partnering agency’s responsible key person and verifying that they would like to enter into a partnership, you will need to draft a proposal to present to your partner. Follow the suggested items below to draft your proposed plan. 1. State the relevance of your proposal. 2. Establish one main goal.
Designing and Creating Programs of Promise
147
3. Establish three objectives. 4. Include a calendar schedule and timeline in your plan. 5. Include a theoretical budget. 6. State your expertise in carrying out the plan. 7. State the need of the partnering agency to be met. 8. State the benefits to you and the organization. 9. Create a lesson plan(s) that defines the arts activity. 10. List the tasks that each person is responsible for carrying out. 11. State how data are to be collected. 12. Present the proposal to your partner. 13. When you both are in agreement, draft an Agreement Letter. Writing the Agreement Letter Once the responsible person from your partnering agency has seen and agrees with your proposal, it then becomes the plan. Draft an agreement document that outlines what you will be providing to the organization, what you will be responsible to do, and any expectations for which the organization is responsible. Refer back to your plan. Usually a partnership agreement is between two people or parties who are entering a relationship. An agreement letter or MOU defines in writing the terms of an agreement between two or more parties, so each party knows exactly what their responsibilities are. It also protects their legal rights. The information needs to be presented in a professional, polished way. However, agreement letters almost always contain the following information: • Contact information for both parties • Location/address for both parties • Terms and conditions of the relationship • Any financial costs that may be incurred or expected • Start date of the agreement • End date of the agreement • Attached plan and assessment • Signatory lines which include any necessary signatures Upon drafting the agreement, take it back to the key person to look over and determine that they are in agreement. All parties should provide their signatures on the signatory lines. Action Step Calendar Part of your plan will include a schedule or calendar of the progression of your partnership that includes dates of when items or actions will be
148
Kathy Marzilli Miraglia
Table 7.1 Schedule of Activities Planning time Interview with Partnering organization’s key personnel Conduct a needs assessment Draft a plan Create pre- and post-surveys, questionnaires, or interview protocol to collect data Create Agreement/MOU document Agreement or MOU accepted and signed Set up—Collect supplies Start date Administer pre-survey/questionnaire, and/or interviews Date(s) of events and activities Administer post-survey/questionnaire and/or interviews Date of completion Documentation: keep a journal, take notes, document with photos and artifacts Collect data Assess/evaluate Write summative reflective report Source: Authors’ calculations.
accomplished. An actual calendar or day planner is recommended to pencil in the due dates. The schedule should include the items as indicated in table 7.1 as a guide. Ethical Considerations When working in or with a K–12 school, it is necessary to seek and obtain permission from the school’s administration. Student assent and parental consent or permission will also be necessary. In writing a permission form to obtain your students’ assent and parent or guardian consent make clear the purpose and intent of the partnership, what the activities will be, if there will be any field trips, and if any audio or video recordings will be made. If this partnership project involves university students, you will most likely have to contact your Internal Review Board (IRB). It may be necessary in a particular situation to maintain confidentiality of participants. The Importance of Collecting Data Collecting data will help you determine if the goals and objectives have been accomplished, in particular when writing your summative reflective report. First, you must determine the appropriate data sources that will give you the best information and evidence needed to verify the results of the partnership. Types of useful qualitative data instruments are surveys, questionnaires, interviews, scales, observations, sentence completion, and artifacts.
Designing and Creating Programs of Promise
149
An often-used data instrument is the survey. Surveys can gather demographic or nominal data where the information obtained is largely descriptive, for example, the age, gender, grade level, among others, of respondents. The survey can also take the form of a scale, which collects ordinal data, ranging from one extreme to another or on a scale of agreement, for example, strongly agree, agree, no opinion, disagree, strongly disagree (Boulmetis and Dutwin 2011). Written questionnaires ask open-ended questions, for example, what kinds of arts events have you attended in the past year? Structured or semistructured interviews questions are fixed and prepared in advance, are asked orally, and answers can be audio recorded or written. Semi-structured interview questions can be a bit more open-ended than a structured interview. In an unstructured interview, you may ask any questions of each respondent. Observations of activities or events are made as an unobtrusive observer who records the environment, what they see and hear, or other pertinent details. In sentence completion, respondents are asked to complete a thought: for example, “If I attended an exhibition at this gallery I would like to see _______ (fill in the blank).” An artifact can be any product made as a result of activities and can be considered data if it has some qualifying factor. Using pre- and postsurveys, questionnaires, and interviews can help you determine if a change has occurred over the course of the partnership. This would happen in the analysis stage. Interviews, questionnaires, and observations would require some knowledge of how to code and find categories and themes (Cresswell and Creswell 2018; Miraglia and Smilan 2014). Demographic data and rating scales may be counted as percentages of responses. Write analytic memos or notes to yourself as you progress through the process of the partnership. These notes are reflections about the process of your partnership, how it is progressing, and what the data may be directing you toward (Cresswell and Creswell 2018). These memos may also record formative assessment of your partnership. Formative Assessment and Summative Evaluation of the Partnership Formative assessment is important in order to ascertain if you are on the right track as you progress through the partnership. Your assessment tool should address the following: 1. Does your partnership address the needs of your partner? (What are the needs? How are they being addressed?) 2. Is the partnership meeting goals and objectives?
150
Kathy Marzilli Miraglia
3. Is there reciprocity and benefits for both participants? 4. Is there contextual relevance and outcome as an authentic experience? 5. Is there a transformation of perspectives happening, in addressing social justice, community issues, or other relevant issues? 6. At what level are these items operating? (high—3 points, medium—2 points, low—1 point, no evidence—0 points) Writing a Reflective Summary Why write a summary report? Writing a summary helps you as a reflective practitioner by understanding how the partnership program worked and how it could be implemented again. You and your stakeholders would be interested in the resulting outcome of your partnership for many reasons. If the partnership holds promise, you would want to know if it needs improving or to highlight what went well. What allies did you make? What more did your students learn in engaging in a community partnership? What stories do they have to tell? Without documenting the process and the outcome, no one would know their stories. The summary report would help you make your case, share your story. “You’re in the strongest position when you can document the stories with facts” (Borrup 2006, 227). After implementing your action plan and assessing it, gather and analyze the data. The data can determine if goals and objectives have been met. You may use the formative assessment tool again by stating each item in the past tense. When data and assessments have been analyzed, then you are ready to draft your evaluation summary. Start writing your reflective report by using the items in this outline as sections or headings. Outline of the Summative Report 1. Stated purpose of the partnership 2. Stated goals and objectives 3. Needs of the partners 4. Description of the design of the program 5. Description of the partnership site 6. Expended budget 7. Timeline 8. Assessment tool (filled out) 9. Results of data—what did the data indicate? 10. Summary (The So What Factor, benefits, outcomes: What needs were fulfilled or neglected? What did you accomplish?) 11. Discussion (Strengths and weaknesses. What would you change? Did things happen the way you thought?)
Designing and Creating Programs of Promise
151
12. Conclusions (Outcomes) and recommendations (What would you tell others to do next time?) 13. Appendices 1. Documentation (photos, artifacts that you created such as brochures) 2. MOU 14. References The Promise of Designing Arts-Based Community Arts Partnerships: Student Case Studies In the case studies presented here, students in university classes, both graduate and undergraduate, participated in community arts partnerships courses designed to foster original collaborations between regional schools and community partner organizations. The goal was to expand art education practices beyond the classroom creating and strengthening community connections and understandings of the issues existing within the community. The course work provided students with opportunities to design, implement, evaluate, and reflect upon their own partnership program models in art education. The courses required students to connect with partnering agencies and to build a working relationship with their staff and membership. Together students, along with the agency’s staff, planned and designed programs to enrich, aid, or provide new resources for that agency and its members. Students and their partnering agency implemented and evaluated their program to ascertain the impact of the partnership on their educational practice, as well as investigating the efficacy of the partnership program for the partner. Students designed and implanted pre- and postsurvey or questionnaire instruments and interview protocols, kept journals, and wrote analytical memos for evaluation. The following partnership examples were designed by four art education students (two enrolled in an undergraduate course and two in a graduate course) focused on designing community partnerships.1 An Integrated Literacies Partnership Pre-service teachers, Addi Catarina and Jennifer Grota, conducted an Integrated Literacies Partnership by integrating art and science pedagogy, art skills, technology, and professional management skills. Both had an interest in natural science and, as art education students, had an ability and experience drawing from nature. Their experience was limited in working outside of the university in a professional situation using their art skills. Addi and Jennifer decided to work together in designing a partnership for an undergraduate course focused on designing community partnerships in art education. Addi was acquainted with The Lloyd Center, an environmental research center
152
Kathy Marzilli Miraglia
and natural science educational center focused on educating the public about coastal and watershed issues, and conducting research on coastal ecosystems and endangered and threatened species. The center is based on eighty-two acres of forest, freshwater wetlands, salt marsh, and an estuary located nine miles from the university. The center has three departments: the research, education, and outreach departments focused on environmental education. The center integrates its curriculum with urban and suburban area schools, offering field-based education and experiences designed to align with science, technology, history, and social studies standards to over 15,000 students each year. For Addi and Jennifer this partnership was a natural fit as it combined their love for art, education, and natural science with supporting the purpose and mission of the center. After meeting with the educational director, as written in their summative report, it was determined that the center’s current materials lacked “personalization and quality design” (Catarina and Grota). The center lacked the budget or staff to redesign their activity sheets that were cohesive and distinctive. Addi and Jennifer identified the center’s need to update their educational materials used for schoolchildren with illustrations that included organisms and animals from the local ecosystem. These activity sheets are an important tool for students on field trips to the center, serving the Lloyd Center’s educational mission. The main goal of this partnership was to maintain the Lloyd Center’s objectives in redesigning the educational activity materials. Determining the objectives and assessment criteria of the partnership was the outcomes of the ensuing meetings and discussions between the staff, Addi, and Jennifer. Before planning and drawing began, they first asked the following essential research questions: How can we prepare students for what they will learn on field trips? How can we make the activities more unique to the Lloyd Center? How can we make the activities age appropriate? How can our illustrations support the educational goals of each activity? We asked ourselves these guiding questions often while planning, designing, and illustrating the new activity sheets. This kept our work framed within the main goals and essential ideas of the project. (Catarina and Grota, summative report, December, 2019)
Together they set to work planning and implementing their artistic skills, hand drawing illustrations in graphite, editing, scanning, and designing lesson plans. Then they scanned the drawings and edited them in Adobe Photoshop. They emailed drafts to the center and received feedback. Revisions were requested concerning the Asian shore crab and green crab, which were missing markings and features that the Lloyd Center felt were important when
Designing and Creating Programs of Promise
153
teaching students. It was also suggested that Addi’s and Jennifer’s names and university affiliation should be included on the materials. After revisions to the activity sheets, final approval was made by the center. As a result of their partnership, the Lloyd Center was presented with four newly illustrated and designed activities packets (Figure 7.2). Addi and Jennifer were gratified to have flexibility, setting their own deadlines that worked with their schedules and felt they gained valuable work experience, illustrating, designing, using digital tools to enhance artwork, working professionally, and managing long-term projects and goals. Addi and Jennifer conveyed that the knowledge and skills gained in this partnership would have been difficult to achieve in an isolated classroom setting and the skills they used could be directly applied later in their careers with lasting effects. By updating the activities to include realistic illustrations, species found in the local area and/or in the Lloyd Center’s exhibits, and the Lloyd Center’s formatting and logos, we created documents that will support the Lloyd Center’s educational philosophy and promote deep learning in the students that participate in their programming. Because we provided digital versions and gave the Lloyd Center the right to copy and distribute the material at their own discretion, we gave them the ability to benefit from this partnership long after the semester
Figure 7.2 Activity Sheets Drawn and Designed by Addi Catarina and Jennifer Grota. Source: Addi Catarina and Jennifer Grota.
154
Kathy Marzilli Miraglia
ended. Jennifer and I have also gained long-lasting benefits because of the experiences working with a community partner. We will be able to use this experience on our resumes and the resulting illustrations in our portfolios. We will be able to apply the new technology and artistic skills we gained in future projects. (Catarina, summative report, December, 2019)
Service-Learning: An Intergenerational Partnership Through a goals-based methodology (Boulmetis and Dutwin 2011) John Sladewski, an in-service middle school art teacher enrolled in the university’s master of art education program, explored how ten seventh grade digital photography students from Elizabeth Hastings Middle School (EHMS), located in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, collaborated with five seniors from the Fairhaven Council on Aging through a service-learning pilot partnership. The goal of his partnership was to bridge the generational gap between EHMS photography students and the participating members from the Council on Aging as well as “build strong communication, interactions, and bonds between middle school students, senior citizens, teachers, and the community as a whole” (Sladewski). The purpose and expectation of the partnership was that seniors would share their lives’ stories and local history with students. In turn, students would teach and share their knowledge of digital photography with seniors, which included the use of digital cameras or smart devices, the iMac computer platform, and Adobe Lightroom to sort, edit, and process the photos that were taken during a field trip. Research questions were the following: Will students connect to the history of Fairhaven and to the seniors? How will the seniors respond to being taught by seventh grade students? Can the seniors effectively use the technology? Data were collected through pre and post surveys and observations. The outcome of providing an interactive cooperative learning experience was a collaborative photomontage installed at the Council on Aging. Reciprocally, seniors told their stories about living in their city and students experienced the reward of being teachers. John first obtained permission from Elizabeth Hastings Middle School’s administration then met with Ann Silvia, director of the Fairhaven Council on Aging. Together they planned a field trip with students and seniors to historical Fort Phoenix, a local historical site in the town of Fairhaven. The Council on Aging provided transportation and snacks. Participants then spent one morning photographing at Fort Phoenix followed by lunch at the middle school and a class period working together on the photographs. The seniors visited the art class three more times to edit, process, and print photographs that resulted in the photomontage (Figure 7.3). The completed photomontage was presented to the Council on Aging on the evening of Monday, December 16, 2019.
Designing and Creating Programs of Promise
155
Figure 7.3 Seventh-Grade Photography Students and Member of the Council on Aging. Source: Photograph by John Sledewski.
Analysis of data showed students learned about the history of their city and felt they had things in common with the seniors after the partnership experience. According to results, John felt the effects of the partnership were positive. I believe the partnership was a success and worth continuing. Both the seniors and the students were actively engaged in the work/activities. It was visible through observations that both partners enjoyed the company of each other. There was constant communication and sharing of information and there was an overall positive energy and sense of togetherness throughout the partnership. The data showed that both the students and seniors felt connected to each other and the community and also learned and improved their photography skills. As a teacher, this created a new relationship between my school and myself in the community and also strengthened the bonds with agencies outside of my school that I have been developing over the previous two years. (Sladewski, summative report, December, 2019)
The partnership holds promise as the director of the Council on Aging indicated they would like to participate in the program again. “All the seniors who participated loved it too” (Silvia 2020 email communication). This partnership met the goals of a service-learning program as students earned credit through the digital photography curriculum and course, services were
156
Kathy Marzilli Miraglia
related to the content of the course, identified needs were accomplished, and expertise of the partners were shared. A Culturally Based Intergenerational Mural In this culturally based partnership, in-service high school art teacher Ann Simon implemented a program designed to share the culture and history of a seacoast town that included her high school Art I class (grades nine to twelve) and members of a local nursing facility with senior residents of varying ages and abilities. The purpose of the partnership was to connect students to an older generation; to learn about different perspectives; uncover ageist stereotypes, increase students’ pride in their town and school; learn about the local area and its history; foster collaboration, teamwork, and leadership skills; teach students new art techniques and skills while also advocating for the arts in all generations. The goal was to find similarities between students’ and seniors’ generational experiences growing up in their town. Ann’s concern was that her students did not possess pride in their home and retained stereotypes of elderly members of their town. Research questions included the following: 1. Will students learn about the history of their town from seniors? 2. How will students connect with an older generation? 3. What will both generations learn from each other? 4. Did students collaborate well with the senior participants? 5. Does each generation have a different perspective of their town? Qualitative data included pre- and post-questionnaires from both students and seniors, notes taken from observations of students during their normally scheduled art class, students’ artwork, time-lapse video, and focus group interviews. After obtaining necessary permissions and planning with the activity director at the senior nursing facility, Ann administered pre-questionnaires to both students and seniors to ascertain their generational opinions and knowledge of their town’s histories. Students discussed ageist stereotypes while talking about different perspectives. Students were asked what stereotypes have they heard about the elderly? They responded: “they can’t hear or see; low attention span; they hate children; they can criticize you or be rude; they are not easy to work with; they smell or have hygiene issues” (Simon, summative report, December, 2019). Students were asked what stereotypes did they think seniors have of you? They responded that “seniors might think students are rude, ignorant, disrespectful, unmotivated, impatient, loud, moody, and are on their phones too much” (Simon, summative report, December, 2019).
Designing and Creating Programs of Promise
157
Ann explained the history of the town in a presentation featuring old photographs of what main street looked like before cars. They discussed the meaning of pride-of-place and asked to consider current landmarks or imagery that represented their local area. After the discussion and brainstorming, students broke up into six groups and drafted a six-part connecting oil pastel mural of important landmarks in the towns. The art director of the nursing facility came to the art class as a guest speaker and provided students with information about the facility and what to expect when working with seniors. The students asked her questions and discussed ageist stereotypes. She shared with students seniors’ pre-questionnaire responses. Seniors were asked: What do you think about this generation’s (teens) perspective of our town? Answers included the following: “I think a lot of them are headed for jail; How do I get out [of the town]?; and Times have changed” (Simon, summative report, December, 2019). Senior’s responses to the pre-questionnaire focused on history which helped students learn about landmarks and points of interest that could not be found in books and from the seniors’ perspectives. “My grandmother played piano—she was self-taught. She played for the silent movies at the Main Street Cinema.” “My grandparents used to live here in the summer. . . . They would go boating and sunbathe on the island.” “My husband and I had our first date at the local restaurant. Our first kiss was during the fireworks at the point in 1975.” “There used to be a drive-in practically on the beach.” “There used to be a roller skating rink and across the street was a casino with a bowling alley, wrestling matches and dances, . . . I went to my cousin’s wedding there. There was a lumberyard right across from the VFW. There were two movie theaters. . . . There was a vegetable stand. Oh, and we had a shoe man across from the laundry mat and pizza parlor.” (Simon, summative report, December, 2019)
These responses to their pre-questionnaire helped students add detail to their mural sketches. Students then went on two field trips to the nursing facility from 9:30 a.m. until noon on November 12 and 18, 2019, bringing their mural sketches with them. There were signs placed at the nursing home advertising the event. The seniors were having their morning coffee in the activity room while students set up tables and art supplies. Students started coloring and asked the seniors if they would like to participate (Figure 7.4). Some seniors were happy to help and others enjoyed watching and conversing with students. Students chatted and collaborated with seniors throughout the field trips. Ann took photographs, observational notes, and set up a camera for a time-lapse video. One senior even proudly brought out his art portfolios to show to the
158
Kathy Marzilli Miraglia
Figure 7.4 Students Work on Oil Pastel of Town Mural for the Nursing Facility. Source: Photograph by Ann Simon.
students. Some seniors stayed partnered with the same students for both visits. Those seniors who did not participate in coloring the mural with students came and enjoyed watching. Students taught seniors how to use oil pastels and talked to them about their grandchildren, their careers, their old high school experiences, and what they did when they were teenagers. Collaboration was seen the entire time during the field trips and was evident in the final mural. After the field trip, students finished the last details of their mural adhering to guidelines which included: each group had to symbolize the local area in their mural with a landmark; each mural section had to connect to the next group; each group must include at least three elements from the senior’s questionnaire responses. Once the mural was completed, it was taken to the nursing facility where they were hung for display in their main foyer. The mural was also on exhibit at the school’s annual art show. When students responded to the post-questionnaire, a few felt that most of these stereotypes were not a real representation of a person. “Everyone has certain stereotypes attached to them, but they don’t define who we are.” Another student responded, “I think they [seniors] should be recognized for how wise and sweet they are rather than older and slower.” Students learned that the town was a seaside resort for tourists. One student responded in their post questionnaire: I liked taking a break from school to do something good for the community. I love working with people I haven't met before because I learn new things from them. …Even though we lived very different lives, we still enjoy similar things. Many of the seniors liked to talk about the sports and clubs they were involved
Designing and Creating Programs of Promise
159
in high school. Some of them liked to draw, paint, and sing. Even with a large age difference, we still enjoy many of the same activities. (Simon, summative report, December, 2019)
Ann did not find that this partnership increased students’ pride-of-place. Students’ opinion on this item stayed at about 50 percent. It was clear that more work was needed. And yet, in the words of one student, “A lot of people take this town for granted” but goes on to say, “we have teachers who care, which is crazy!” CONCLUSIONS AND OUTCOMES: SUSTAINABILITY OF THE PARTNERSHIP, THE CYCLE OF ACTION, REFLECTION, AND PROMISE According to Carlisle, “Arts education partnerships in the twenty-first century continue to address the need for strengthening schools and communities and furthering cultural understanding while developing students’ capacities for creativity, collaboration, and innovative thinking” (2011, 144). When reflecting upon the efficacy and the promise of replicating a community partnership ask if the key component for a successful partnership has been met. Has learning through experience and reflecting on that experience taken place? Has there been reciprocity between partners through a sharing of expertise and service? Has liberatory learning taken place where consciousness raising has occurred? Did the community partnership provide opportunities for social learning about conditions in the larger community linked with course subject matter? When parents, teachers, students, and others view one another as partners in education, a caring community forms around students and begins its work. (Epstein et al. 2018, 11)
John Sladewski and his middle school students shared their expertise teaching seniors about digital photography. Seniors who had stories to share with students were enthused and excited about creating digital photos with middle school students. Ann Simon’s high school students also shared stories with seniors while they worked together creating a mural that exhibited the memorable sites and events in their town. In both cases students changed their perspective about seniors and seniors changed their perspective about teens in their town. The social issues in these partnerships addressed problems of ageism and stereotyping. Addi Catarina and Jennifer Grota gained real-world working experience while providing educational materials for the
160
Kathy Marzilli Miraglia
environmental center. Their activity sheets will help to inform K–12 students of all ages coming from area towns and cities who attend the Lloyd Center. Their work contributes to providing access and knowledge about environmental issues. Each one of these partnerships included reflective summaries, data sources, such as pre- and post-questionnaires, interviews, observational notes, memos, and formative assessments, which informed the results written up in the reflective summaries. What could go wrong? Community partnerships can be time-consuming and require a lot of preliminary planning. Organization and delegating enough time help to make the process run smoothly and ensure success. Partnerships are sometimes tenuous. Partners have occasionally been known to renege on their commitments, miss scheduled appointments, or fail to answer emails and phone calls in a timely manner. These are red flags and you should reconsider the partnership if these happen in the beginning. The case studies presented in this chapter shared recommendations in written reflective summaries: (1) Pay attention to time management. (2) Take detailed notes during the partnership. (3) Make sure your research questions, surveys, and questionnaires align with your goals and objectives. (4) Settle all details for field trips well in advance to prepare for unforeseen circumstances. (5) Obtain administration’s approval before starting. (6) Send out consent forms to students in enough time before implementing the partnership. (7) And lastly, prepare your students about the culture of the community partners they will be working with so they are ready to interact with them in a secure and respectful manner. School administrators were well pleased to shine a spotlight about their school’s art programs in the local newspapers. High school and middle school students were so engaged that they began thinking about participating in other partnerships. Ann’s students suggested working with “little kids” or “creating coloring pages for the seniors who liked to use art therapy books.” At the root of it all is engagement, which means connecting people with their past and present and with each other (Naidus 2009). All three case studies hold the promise of replicating the partnership at another time, creating new relationships and strengthening the bonds between schools and community agencies.
NOTE 1. Details and descriptions written here of students’ case studies were adapted from their written reflective summary reports, as partial fulfillment for course credit. All necessary permissions and releases were obtained in the implementation of these
Designing and Creating Programs of Promise
161
community partnerships. Participants in A Culturally Based Intergenerational Mural preferred to remain anonymous. Art teacher Ann Simon is a pseudonym.
REFERENCES Acuff, Joni Boyd. “A Critical Race Theory Analysis of Online Resources for Creating Native American Art.” Transforming Our Practice: Indigenous Art, Pedagogies, and Philosophies, edited by Christine Ballengee Morris and Kryssi Staikidis, National Art Education Association, 2007, pp. 144–149. Adejumo, Christopher. “Community-Based Arts.” School Arts, vol. 99, no. 6, 2000, pp. 12–13. Bastos, Flavia Maria Cunha. “Making the Familiar Strange: A Community-Based Art Education Framework.” Contemporary Issues in Art Education, edited by Yvonne Gaudelius and Peg Speirs, Prentice Hall, 2002, pp. 70–83. Borrup, Tom. The Creative Community Builders’ Handbook: How to Transform Communities Using Local Assets, Arts, and Culture. Fieldstone Alliance, 2006. Bringle, Robert, Hatcher, Julie, and Muthiah, Richard. “Innovative Practices in Service-Learning and Curricular Engagement.” New Directions for Higher Education, vol. 147, 2009, pp. 37–46. Boulmetis, John and Dutwin, Phyllis. The ABC of Evaluation. Jossey-Bass, 2011. Butterwick, Shauna and Clover, Darlene. “Fear of Glue, Fear of Thread: Reflections on Teaching Arts-Based Practice.” Lifelong Learning, the Arts and Community Cultural Engagement in the Contemporary University: International Perspectives, edited by Darlene E. Clover and Kathy Sanford, Manchester University Press, 2013, pp. 66–78. Carlisle, Katie. “Arts Education Partnerships: Informing Policy through the Development of Culture and Creativity within A Collaborative Project Approach.” Arts Education Policy Review, vol. 112, no. 3, 2011, pp. 144–148. doi: 10.1080/10632913.2011.566088. Chambers, Tony. “A Continuum of Approaches to Service-Learning within Canadian Post-Secondary Education.” Canadian Journal of Higher Education, vol. 39, no. 2, 2009, pp. 77–100. Coffey, Ann and Laverty, Shane. “Service-learning: A Valuable Means of Preparing Pre-service Teachers for a Teaching Practicum.” Australian Journal of Teacher Education, vol. 40, no. 7, 2015, pp. 86–101. Congdon, Kristin. Community Art in Action. Davis Publishing, 2004. Creswell, John, and Creswell, David. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (5th ed.). Sage Publications, 2018. Dobbs, Stephen. DBAE Handbook: An Overview of Discipline Based Art Education. J. Paul Getty Trust, 1992. Epstein, Joyce L., Mavis G. Sanders, Steven B. Sheldon, Beth S. Simon, Karen Clark Salinas, Natalie Rodriguez Jansorn, Frances L. Van Voorhis et al. School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action. Corwin Press, 2018.
162
Kathy Marzilli Miraglia
Eyler, Janet, Giles, Dwight E., Jr. Where's the Learning in Service-Learning? JosseyBass, 1999. Lim, Maria, Chang, et al. “Three Initiatives for Community-Based Art Education Practices.” Art Education, vol. 66, no. 4, 2013, pp. 7–13. Maynes, Nancy, et al. “Service Learning as a Practicum Experience in a Pre-Service Education Program.” Canadian Journal of Higher Education, vol. 43, no.1, 2013, pp. 80–99. Miraglia, Kathy Marzilli. “Creating Authentic Preservice Art Teaching Experiences through Service-Learning.” Handbook of Research on the Facilitation of Civic Engagement through Community Art, edited by Leigh Hersey and Bryna Bobick. IGI Global, 2017, pp. 118–151. Miraglia, Kathy Marzilli and Smilan, Cathy. Inquiry in Action: Paradigms, Methodologies, and Perspectives in Art Education. National Art Education Association, 2014. Naidus, Beverly. Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame. New Village Press, 2009. Root, Susan. “School-Based Service: A Review of Research for Teacher Educators.” Learning with the Community: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Teacher, edited by Joseph Erickson and Jeffrey Anderson, 1997. Washington: American Association for Higher Education, pp. 42–72. Taylor, Pamela, G. “Service-learning as Postmodern Art and Pedagogy.” Studies in Art Education, vol. 43, no. 2, 2002, pp. 124–140. doi: 10.2307/1321000. Wiggins, Grant and McTighe, Jay. Understanding by Design. Association for Supervisions and Curriculum Development, 2005.
Chapter 8
Teaching Resiliency Preparing Pre-service Teachers to Work (and Stay) in Urban Art Classrooms Justin Makemson
INTRODUCTION: PRIORITIZING TEACHER RESILIENCY IN EDUCATOR PREPARATION PROGRAMS Promoting teacher resiliency is rarely a top priority of educator preparation programs in art education, programs instead concentrate on techniques, materials, curriculum, developmental theories, differentiated instruction, classroom organization, student management, and other topics important to the immediate success of pre-service art teachers. However, preparing preservice teacher simply to enter the classroom and find quick success is shortsighted; by contrast educator preparatory programs have to better equip and continue to support teachers as they enter the profession, find lasting success, and most importantly commit to staying in the classroom. Teacher attrition, defined here as educators moving from one teaching position to another or leaving the profession after a limited time in the classroom, is a considerable problem in early-career teachers. The problem of early-career teacher attrition intensifies when candidates enter into a position in an urban environment unprepared for the realities of working with a diverse student population in an environment characterized by pervasive and systematic inequities. Early-career teachers report legitimate reasons for leaving urban classrooms, including limitations in compensation, resources, opportunities for advancement, professional and administrative support, dissatisfactions with school culture, working conditions, testing and accountability pressures, and an overall sense of disappointment with the teaching profession. Research on teacher resiliency, defined here as a combination 163
164
Justin Makemson
of personal and contextual factors that contribute to a teacher’s success and capacity to commit to staying in the classroom, provides a more-complex representation of who stays and who leaves the urban art classroom. This chapter will examine how researchers define resiliency in teaching, review patterns in resiliency research, and put forward six evidence-based strategies that can help educator preparation programs promote resiliency in teaching candidates and reduce future teacher attrition in urban art classrooms. PERSPECTIVE: TEACHING IN HIGH-POVERTY MAJORITY-MINORITY ART CLASSROOMS I work with pre-service visual art teachers in New Mexico, where the yearto-year teacher attrition rate of 24 percent is significantly higher than the national average; literally one-in-four classrooms in New Mexico start the school year with a different teacher than the teacher who closed out that classroom for the last term. This position presents an interesting perspective from which to write a chapter on teacher resiliency in art education in urban environments: Though New Mexico is predominately a rural state, with over half of the state’s population living in a single metropolitan statistical area, New Mexico teachers work in school environments and respond to challenges very similar to those of urban educators across the nation. New Mexico’s schools reflect the broader demographics of the state. The public school system is made up of 51 percent rural schools and 49 percent urban/suburban schools; this composition breaks down closer to 40 percent rural schools and 60 percent urban/suburban schools at the national level. Poverty is a pervasive and persistent problem in New Mexico; 401,000+ residents, 19.7 percent of the state’s total population, live below the federally registered poverty line. New Mexico’s public school system contains a disproportionate number of schools with significant populations of lower socioeconomic status students when compared to other states: 90 percent of New Mexico public schools are classified as Title I schools, defined here as learning institutions that support and serve lower-income students. Unlike other states, New Mexico’s Title I schools are evenly situated both in metropolitan Albuquerque and in more rural areas of the state. New Mexico is one of five majority-minority states, in addition to California, Hawaii, Nevada, and Texas, in the United States. New Mexico’s public school system contains a disproportionate number of schools with significant populations of Latinx and Native American students when compared to other states: 873,000+ New Mexico residents self-identify as Latinx and make up 48 percent of the state’s total population, 31 percent higher than the national average of Latinx residents per state. A total of 219,000+ New Mexico residents self-identify
Teaching Resiliency
165
as Native American and make up 11 percent of the state’s total population, 9 percent higher than the national average of Native American residents per state. Though I am a new resident of New Mexico, I find the state’s art classrooms to be wonderfully diverse but significantly integrated environments that bring together the rich cultural, linguistic, and creative traditions of the region. PROBLEM: EMERGING PATTERNS IN EARLY-CAREER TEACHER ATTRITION IN URBAN ENVIRONMENTS Carver-Thomas and Darling-Hammond (2017) provide a comprehensive statistical analysis of teacher attrition in urban environments: 16 percent of working teachers in the United States move or leave their classrooms each school year; 8 percent of working teachers move from one position to another, while 8 percent of working teachers entirely leaving the profession. Teacher attrition in the United States is close to fourteen points higher than teacher attrition in other self-defined “developed” countries. Teacher attrition accounts for 90 percent of the entire demand for new teachers in the United States, and replacing a teacher in an urban school district can cost an estimated $20,000 per position. Part of the problem in calculating the cost of teacher attrition in urban environments is that systematic disparities make certain school settings more attractive to teaching candidates than others; this results in significant school-to-school movement and persistent openings at school settings that are less attractive to teaching candidates. Teacher retention/attrition generally fits into three classifications: “Stayers” are teachers who remain in same position for most of their career; “leavers” are teachers who change positions several times over the course of their career; and “uncertains” are teachers who remain in the same position but if presented the opportunity would consider moving to another position or leaving the teaching profession (Olsen and Anderson 2007). Freedman and Appleman (2009) recognize a fourth “drifter” classification: “Drifters” are teachers who stay in the profession but specifically leave an urban teaching position for a nonurban teaching position. Teacher turnover closely correlates to student academic achievement, not only for students directly impacted by the change in teacher but also for other students in the school where the change takes place; problems with teacher turnover are compounded when districts hire unqualified, uncertified, and/or unprepared teachers to fill persistent openings. Nowhere is teacher attrition more prevalent than in early-career teachers and urban education—researchers (Gallant and Riley 2014; Guarino, Santibanez, and Daley 2006) estimate that close to 50 percent of early-career
166
Justin Makemson
teachers leave the profession within their first five years in the classroom. Simpson (2008) identifies two core problems facing pre-service and earlycareer teachers, many of whom do not have backgrounds and experiences similar to their students, in urban art education: First, teachers are being given and asked to teach a curriculum that does not meet the needs of their students; there is a real need in the urban art classroom for the teacher to negotiate what to teach and how to teach it with their students. Second, teachers are largely unprepared to communicate effectively with their students in the diverse modalities and languages inherent in the urban art classroom; visual art, which could be considered a universal form of communication, is often unfortunately and systematically marginalized in school environments. Researchers (Kraehe, Acuff, and Travis 2016) moreover recognize pervasive and systematic inequities in urban art education tracking along the lines of poverty and race: These inequities impact the distribution of resources; student access to art; student participation in art; community recognition of artistic efforts, effects, and contributions; and the transformational influence of artistic participation. Race is the first predominant factor contributing to teacher attrition in urban schools. Carver-Thomas and Darling-Hammond (2017) find that most teachers are prone to leave a teaching position in schools with a population of students-of-color greater that 25 percent of the school’s total population; teacher attrition in schools with majority-minority populations is 70 percent higher than in schools with a smaller proportion of students of color. Poverty is the second predominant factor contributing to teacher attrition in urban schools. Title I schools and schools with high levels of free or reduced-price lunch programs maintain teacher attrition rates 50 percent higher than schools with populations of higher socioeconomic status students. Even so, research shows that the demographic of race is generally more predictive of teacher attrition than the demographic of socioeconomics when compounded with other factors. Teacher attrition in urban environments is exacerbated by problems in preparation and support: Urban schools often lack the professional learning networks, community-building initiatives, curriculum support, mentorship programs, and openings for lessexperienced teachers to collaborate/observe with more-experienced teachers found in nonurban schools (Algozzine et al. 2007; Carter and Keiler 2009). The participation of some early-career teachers in professional learning networks is contingent upon external incentives and support; urban schools find creating incentives and support for professional development difficult when working with limited resources simply to maintain base operations for their student populations (Elfers, Plecki, and Knapp 2006). Table 8.1 provides an overview of fifteen different emerging patterns in early-career teacher attrition research, identifies resiliency factor(s) and
9. Teacher attrition is higher in STEM-related subjects, English, special education, and foreign languages than the other subjects (Carver-Thomas and DarlingHammond 2017). 10. Teacher attrition is higher in noncertified teachers and teachers from alternative licensure programs than licensure programs (Carver-Thomas and DarlingHammond 2017; Ingersoll, Merrill, and May 2014).
1. Teacher attrition is higher in private schools than public schools (Guarino, Santibanez, and Daley 2006; Ingersoll 2001). 2. Teacher attrition is higher in smaller schools than larger schools (Carter and Keiler 2009). 3. Teacher attrition is higher in urban public schools than suburban or rural public schools (Carter and Keiler 2009; Elfers, Plecki, and Knapp 2006; Guarino, Santibanez, and Daley 2006; Ingersoll 2001). 4. Teacher attrition is higher in high-poverty schools than low-poverty schools (Borman and Dowling 2008; Carver-Thomas and Darling-Hammond 2017; Elfers, Plecki, and Knapp 2006; Guarino, Santibanez, and Daley 2006; Ingersoll 2001; Macdonald 1999). 5. Teacher attrition is higher in schools with large populations of students of color than small populations of students of color (Borman and Dowling 2008; CarverThomas and Darling-Hammond 2017; Guarino, Santibanez, and Daley 2006). 6. Teacher attrition is higher in secondary schools than intermediate or primary schools (Schaefer, Long, and Clandinin 2012). 7. Teacher attrition is higher in schools with higher student misbehavior rates than lower student misbehavior rates (Brown and Wynn 2007). 8. Teacher attrition is higher in schools with higher student violence rates than lower student violence rates (Patterson, Roehrig, and Luft 2003).
Emerging Pattern in Early-Career Teacher Attrition Research
Table 8.1 Emerging Pattern in Early-Career Teacher Attrition Research
Personal/Contextual
Personal/Contextual Contextual Contextual Contextual
Teach and student socioeconomic status Teacher and student race School type Student behavior Student behavior and school discipline policies Teacher preparation and content areas Teacher preparation and classroom experience
Contextual
School setting
(Continued)
Personal/Contextual
Personal/Contextual
Contextual
Contextual
Factor Classification
Type of school/ Classification of school School size
Resiliency Factor
Teaching Resiliency 167
Personal/Contextual
Contextual Personal Personal Personal
Teacher compensation and possibilities for advancement School location Teacher age Teacher gender Teacher race
Sources: Data from Billingsley (2004); Borman and Dowling (2008); Brown and Wynn (2007); Carter and Keiler (2009); Carver-Thomas and Darling-Hammond (2017); Elfers, Plecki, and Knapp (2006); Guarino, Santibanez, and Daley (2006); Imazeki (2005); Ingersoll (2001); Ingersoll, Merrill, and May (2014); Macdonald (1999); Patterson, Roehrig, and Luft (2003); Schaefer, Long, and Clandinin (2012).
11. Teacher attrition is higher in school districts that have low starting salaries and limited opportunities for financial advancement (Billingsley 2004; Carver-Thomas and Darling-Hammond 2017; Guarino, Santibanez, and Daley 2006; Imazeki 2005). 12. Teacher attrition is highest (16 percent) in schools in the southern United States and lowest (10 percent) in the northern United States (Carver-Thomas and Darling-Hammond 2017). 13. Teacher attrition is higher in younger teachers than older teachers (Billingsley 2004; Borman and Dowling, 2008; Guarino, Santibanez, and Daley 2006; Macdonald 1999). 14. Teacher attrition is higher in female teachers than male teachers (Borman and Dowling 2008; Guarino, Santibanez, and Daley 2006). 15. Teacher attrition is higher overall in white teachers than teachers of color (Borman and Dowling 2008; Guarino, Santibanez, and Daley 2006); teacher attrition is higher in teachers of color than white teachers only in urban environments (Carver-Thomas and Darling-Hammond 2017)—Here there is a possible correlation between attrition and the concentration of teachers of color in urban teaching environments, working with high-poverty student populations, and a disproportionate percentage of teachers of color in alternative teacher licensure programs.
Table 8.1 Emerging Pattern in Early-Career Teacher Attrition Research (Continued)
168 Justin Makemson
Teaching Resiliency
169
classifications of factor for each pattern, and creates a first point of reference for the discussion of teacher resiliency in the next section of the chapter. Teaching in the arts needs to be distinguished from teaching in other areas because it requires a specific set of demands that move beyond the cognitive abilities of the teacher to include interpersonal, social-affective, and communicative expectations (Wright and Gerber 2004). Frennette and Dowd (2020) examine resiliency in arts-related careers through the widespread tracking and surveying graduates of university-level arts programs: Graduates generally report finding value in an arts-based program of studies and recognize a “long and lasting impact on their respective careers in artsrelated occupations” (p.5). These responses coincide but conflict with reports that graduates express dissatisfaction with their program’s preparation for the more-practical aspects of the work. Retention/attrition rates for graduates of university-level arts programs is closely correlated to the student’s timely completion of their degree, completion of advanced degrees, personal connections, and access to professional internships. Emerging patterns in retention/attrition research for graduates of arts-related programs mostly parallel patterns in other areas; table 8.2 provides an overview of emerging patterns in Frennette and Dowd’s retention/attrition research for arts-related careers, identifies resiliency factor(s) and classifications of factor for each pattern, and creates a second point of reference for the discussion of teacher resiliency in the next section of the chapter: REVIEW: DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO PROMOTING RESILIENCY IN TEACHING To date, there is little research specific to teacher resiliency in art education and even less research specific to teacher resiliency in urban art education. The work in this chapter filters resiliency research for generalist teachers, early-career teachers, teachers of color, teachers in urban environments, musical and performing arts teachers, educator preparation and alternative licensure programs, and graduates of art programs through the perspective of someone who works with pre-service teachers in art education. Resiliency is broadly defined as a multidimensional construct, a personal characteristic dependent on patterns in a person’s traits, environment, relationships, history, and current circumstances (Connor and Davidson 2003). Most research presents teacher resiliency as a combination of personal and contextual factors: Personal factors include demographics, physical qualities, mental fortitude, impulse control, background, experiences, self-awareness, self-efficacy, and self-worth; contextual factors include teacher preparation, professional development, mentorship, school culture, work conditions, job
170
Justin Makemson
Table 8.2 Emerging Pattern in Retention/Attrition Research for Arts-Related Careers Emerging Pattern in Retention/Attrition Research for Arts-Related Careers 1. Students of color are less likely to stay in an arts-related position for an extended period of time after graduating than white students. 2. Female students are less likely to stay in an arts-related position for an extended period of time after graduating than male students. 3. Students graduating with a single-major are less likely to stay in an arts-related position for an extended period of time than students graduating with a double-major, that is, art and business or art and psychology. 4. Similarly, students who specialized/ concentrated in one area of studies, that is, lithography or medieval art history, are less likely to stay in an arts-related position for an extended period of time than generalists or students that studied more than one area of studies, that is, printmaking or art history. 5. Students graduating with an architecture degree are more likely to stay in an artsrelated position for an extended period of time than students graduating with other artsrelated degrees—Interestingly, degrees in art education appear to be nonindicators in terms of future retention/attrition.
Resiliency Factor
Factor Classification
Race
Personal
Gender
Personal
Concentration and Contextual preparation
Concentration and Contextual preparation
Concentration and Contextual preparation
Source: Data from Frennette and Dowd (2020).
security, classroom support, personal support, opportunities for collaboration, and student responses to the teacher’s efforts (Schaefer, Long, and Clandinin 2012). Resilient teachers have ability to recover quickly and find success after encountering difficult situations, hardships, and negative outcomes in their teaching experiences (Di Fabio and Saklofske 2018). Researchers link resiliency in teaching to other personal dispositions including hardiness, hard work, persistence, resourcefulness, in addition to a personal commitment to being resourceful, self-control, environmental awareness, and flexibility (Derbis and Jasiński 2018; Freedman and Apple 2009; Gehrke and McCoy 2007). In terms of personal factors, resilient teachers work well under pressure and in challenging circumstances; resilient teachers are skilled in classroom organization and management; resilient teachers show concern or empathize with difficult colleagues and students; resilient teachers focus on the positive and are capable of restraining negative emotions; and resilient teachers take pride and fulfilment in their commitments to school and profession (Howard and Johnson 2004). Educator preparation programs can have
Teaching Resiliency
171
a demonstrated impact on teacher retention/attrition by framing resiliency as a set of personal factors that can be refined and reinforced in the course of teacher preparation: Programs can target the recruitment of teaching candidates with high-resiliency traits and behaviors, help candidates to better understand the correlation between teacher resiliency and their personal factors, and work with candidates to develop high-resiliency traits and behaviors before they enter the classroom (Masten and Reed 2002). Contextual factors have a greater overall impact on teacher resiliency than personal factors: Early-career teachers are prone to remain in a position regardless of personal factors if their school supports a teaching culture with clearly stated achievable goals, and if the school’s leadership team provides teachers with regular, reasonable, and relevant feedback on classroom performance (Derbis and Jasiński 2018). Contextual factors present a different challenge for educator preparation programs because there are contextual factors over which educator preparation programs can have very little impact—personal finance is a good illustration. Researchers (Billingsley 2004; Guarino, Santibanez, and Daley 2006) link personal finances, financial health and hardship, salary schedules, and the teacher’s ever-present sense that they can make more money through other opportunities to teacher retention/attention. School districts with a maximum salary of $72,000 or more report a teacher attrition rate 20 to 31 percent lower than districts with a maximum salary under $60,000 (Carver-Thomas and Darling-Hammond 2017). The link between teacher retention/attrition and personal finances is especially prevalent in early-career female teachers: Researchers find earlycareer female teachers who witness more-experienced female teachers at their school receiving pay raises will be more likely to stay in a position with the anticipation that they too will eventually reach that level of compensation (Imazeki 2005). Because educator preparation programs have so little control over the personal finances of teachers, it is reassuring to know that the teacher’s overall compensation, that is, salary combined with benefits, quality of work life, and other incentives, appears more important to teacher retention/attrition than salary on its own (Guarino, Santibanez, and Daley 2006). Furthermore, people working in the arts report a higher work satisfaction rate than people working in other areas, despite well-documented lower salaries; work satisfaction correlates closely to the ability to coordinate work demands to personal interests (Bille et al. 2013; Dumford and Miller 2017; Hesmondhalgh and Baker 2013; Steiner and Schneider 2013). There are a couple of points helpful in talking with teaching candidates about the value of teaching visual art at a lower salary position. Before leaving the topic of personal finance, I recognize the benefit of discussing the economic realities of teaching with candidates as part of educator preparation, even if the practice is not directly supported by evidence in resiliency research.
172
Justin Makemson
Educator preparation programs can have a demonstrated impact on teacher retention/attrition by framing resiliency as a set of contextual factors in other areas: Researchers regularly link resiliency to pre-service training in selfawareness and preparation for the physical and socioemotional demands of sustained classroom teaching (Justice and Espinoza 2007). School environments, particularly urban school environments, place sizable social and emotional burdens on the classroom teacher: [Education] is increasingly characterized by privatization, decentralization and the laws of the marketplace. Teachers are forced to contend with frequent and prescriptive government reforms, outcome-driven methods and high levels of accountability, and as a result many have been left feeling overworked, undervalued and professionally marginalized. (Greenfield 2015, 52)
The problems of being overworked, undervalued, and professionally marginalized reappear throughout research on teacher resiliency—the teacher’s perception of feeling valued and finding value in teaching is a combination of personal work satisfaction, engagement with the work, and a sense of cohesion within the work itself (Derbis and Jasiński 2018; MacDonald 1999). Researchers find that self-efficacy, defined here as the belief that that a teacher is capable of success in the classroom, is closely related to selfworth in terms of early-career teacher resiliency (Di Fabio and Saklofske 2018; Howard and Johnson 2004; Johnson and Birkeland 2003; Le Cornu 2013). Educator preparation programs help teaching candidates develop a sense of self-efficacy as they encounter and overcome the challenges of day-to-day teaching as part of their preparation to enter the classroom (Day and Gu 2013). Early-career teachers report a need to be seen as valued participants in their educational environment, proficient, knowledgeable, ready to collaborate with other teachers, and prepared to contribute to the overall success of the school (Greenfield 2015; Schaefer, Long, and Clandinin 2012). Considering contextual factors as somehow distinct from personal factors results in an incomplete understanding of teacher resiliency: Resiliency is ultimately dependent on how a teacher negotiates the environment, reacts to the environment, and demonstrates personal growth under challenging circumstances (Ungar 2012). Schaefer, Long, and Clandinin (2012) similarly describe resiliency as a consequence of the teacher’s intentions and decision to act, or not act, based on those intentions—educator preparation programs help teaching candidates increase their awareness of intentions and actions, and then control intentions and actions that could be counterproductive when working under difficult circumstances.
Teaching Resiliency
173
Theoretically, educator preparation programs are well-situated to promotes teacher resiliency in urban art education: [Our] efforts to increase the quality of teaching and raise standards of learning and achievement for all pupils must focus on efforts to build, sustain and renew teacher resilience, and that these efforts must take place in initial teacher training. (Day and Gu 2014, 22)
In practice, educator preparation programs often fall short in preparing preservice for the realities of a teaching position (Anderson, 2002; Ballantyne 2007; Demetriou, Wilson, and Winterbottom 2009; Pascoe and Sallis 2012; Warren 1992). Early-career teachers report frustrations with educator preparation programs, specifically citing the ever-present tension in higher education curriculum between theory and practice, and noting a disconnect between contemporary teaching practices and content introduced in methods coursework (Duck 2007; Flores and Day 2006). The perception of tensions and disconnects in pre-service education needs to be taken seriously: Research indicates teacher retention/attrition roughly corresponds to how closely the pre-service teacher believes their preparation matches the practices of the classroom in which they will be teaching in the future (Kutcy and Schultz 2006). Moreover, it is evident that a one-size-fits-all approach to teacher preparation programs is largely ineffective (Schaefer, Long, and Clandinin 2012). Freedman and Appleman (2008, 2009) find preparing teacher candidates for a specific educational site, that is, an urban art classroom, results in lower attrition rates than preparing candidates for more general teaching duties— however, site-specific educator preparation works best in a cohort model that supports candidates through the transition to day-to-day classroom teaching, practices merging the values of the candidate with the values of program and future teaching environment, and prepares candidates for the micro-politics of teaching in an urban environment. Ingersoll, Merrill, and May (2014) report that teaching candidates in comprehensive educator preparation programs, defined here as programs that include several courses in teaching methodologies and a progressive series of teaching practicums, are two to three times more likely to stay in the profession than candidates with less comprehensive teaching preparation. Likewise, programs that meet or exceed state-determined standards for teacher licensure better prepare candidates to teach in urban environments: Candidates in alternative licensure programs are 25 percent more likely to leave their position than candidates in comprehensive educator preparation programs; in urban teaching environments, 150 percent higher in schools with majority-minority student populations, teacher
174
Justin Makemson
attrition for candidates in alternative licensure programs jumps to 80 percent higher, than candidates in comprehensive educator preparation programs. To close this review, the work of a pre-service education program does not end with the candidate’s certification and placement in a first teaching position; programs must continue working with candidates after graduation with an attention to sustaining early-career teachers through the most-challenging time in their career—framing resiliency as a matter of sustaining the teacher in a classroom, rather than simply retaining the teacher in a classroom, helps the teacher recognize the real value of what they are working toward in the classroom (Schaefer, Long, and Clandinin 2012).
INTERPRETATION: EVIDENCE-BASED PHILOSOPHIES AND PRACTICES PROMOTING TEACHER RESILIENCY Recruit and Grow Your Own Teacher Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this research is the need to create more points of access and systems of support for teaching candidates in populations that have been historically underrepresented in art education programs. Carver-Thomas and Darling-Hammond (2017) refer to this as a grow-yourown approach to teacher education; high-need school districts partner with teacher education programs to recruit people with existing ties to their schools, for example, graduates, current students, program staff, paraprofessionals, coaches, and community members, and then train/prepare those people to return to schools in the role of classroom teacher. Grow your own teacher preparation programs demonstrate several advantages over more-traditional forms of teacher preparation: Grow your own teacher programs are positioned to hone teacher preparation to reflect the demands of a specific opening or environment; teacher preparation generally happens in-situation and at the same school where the candidate will eventually work; and programs often finance or immediately compensate candidates for the cost of teacher preparation. The University of New Mexico operates an emerging grow-your-own teacher program in which educational assistants receive state-mandated professional leave, free credential examinations, and tuition support as they work toward their teaching license. This program offers licensure coursework within a traditional sixteen-week semester-to-semester schedule, but also encourages licensure areas to schedule courses online, as eight-week intensive modules, and/or during summer and intercession terms to accommodate the candidate’s schedule as an educational assistant. The university’s commitment to creating potential points of access for diverse teaching candidates is moreover evident in its commitment to keep in-state tuition costs low and through partnerships with the state-wide community college system. Similar to other public state universities, the University
Teaching Resiliency
175
of New Mexico’s in-state tuition and fees for them are approximately 75 percent less expensive than the tuition and fees average for private colleges in the United States. The semester before graduation is tuition-free for first-time undergraduates who graduate in four years. This coming year New Mexico residents will be eligible for free community college, and the statewide university system is working to make sure that community college credit will transfer into licensure-track programs of study without problem. The governor has made a much-publicized commitment to make undergraduate degrees tuition-free to New Mexico residents within the next four years. Whether or not these tuition reconfigurations will be sustainable in the economic depression that will inevitably follow the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic remains unclear, but in the meantime, educator preparation programs see this window as an opportunity to recruit teaching candidates from New Mexico populations and communities that otherwise would not be able to negotiate the financial burdens of a teaching license. Educator preparation programs can exert a greater influence on diversifying populations of teaching candidates by being actively involved in the recruitment efforts of the university and their department. I am in my second year as the chairperson for the recruiting committee in our department. This position affords me opportunity to carefully review, modify, and control how we present the art education program to prospective students in terms of our recruiting materials. I help arrange and give campus tours—something I also did for seven years at another university—and represent our department/ program at statewide college and career fairs. I also serve on the leadership team of the New Mexico Art Education Association and work closely with Albuquerque Public Schools as our program’s student teaching coordinator. Between these various roles, I have quickly established an understanding of the New Mexico’s school system, the demographics and affordances/constraints of particular schools, and I am able to “talk schools” in an informed manner with cooperating teachers and prospective teaching candidates. Within the art education program, faculty advise teaching candidates to enroll in Spanish and/or Navajo for their foreign language general education requirement to reflect the primary languages spoken in majority of New Mexico schools—80 percent or more of our teaching candidates are fluent in Spanish and/or Navajo prior to entering the program. In these circumstances, we advise students to enroll in the university’s nationally ranked American Sign Language program. Recruitment constitutes a large proportion of my workload, and I know this level of targeted recruitment, coordination, and networking would not be possible in a more populous state, states with more than one educator preparation program in art education, or at a more teaching-intensive university. The philosophy and practice of growing your own teacher is nonetheless applicable to most teaching environments as long as educator preparation programs are willing to commit to understanding the affordances/constraints of the schools in need.
176
Justin Makemson
Practice Culturally Relevant Pedagogies The question of representation in art education is often framed in terms of disconnect between students, curriculum, and/or teacher—representation is essential to student success, as students have to be able to see some of part of themselves in what is being taught, how it is being taught, and who is doing the teaching. Charland (2010) connects underrepresentation in the artists and artwork introduced to students in art education to racialized differences in identification of de-identification in visual arts. Students in urban art education classrooms need “to engage in arts educational experiences that are affirming of their backgrounds, identities, and cultural practices” (Kraehe, Acuff, and Travis 2016, 220). Research on teacher resiliency repositions or resituates deliberations concerning representation in art education, suggesting it is equivalently important for teachers to be able to see some part of themselves in what is being taught, how it is being taught, and the students in their classroom. The leavers population for urban teaching environments is skewed toward young, white, female candidates, which roughly resembles the majority population demographic enrolled in pre-service art education programs throughout the United States. Educator preparation programs can certainly tailor recruitment and establish support systems for teaching candidates more representative of student populations in high-need urban schools, but this raises the question of how to treat the other teaching candidates, many of whom are qualified, enthusiastic, and interested in teaching students with backgrounds and experiences different than their own. The goal in growing your own teacher would not be to preclude young, white, female teaching candidates from teaching in urban settings; educator preparation programs would be foolhardy to track qualified candidates into one teaching position over another based solely on demographics. To better prepare all candidates to work with diverse student populations, programs can introduce, practice, and reinforce culturally relevant pedagogies. Culturally relevant pedagogies help build skills and knowledge through cultural references, encourage students to reflect on their own lives through critical and culturally grounded processes, develop competence in and appreciation for one’s own culture and the cultures of others, and work toward deconstructing power relationships (Aronson and Laughter 2016). Dee and Penner (2017) describe the culturally relevant teacher as someone who believes that all students are capable of success, teaches in a way that contributes to and likewise encourages students to contribute to the surrounding community, and is adept at drawing knowledge out of their students. Culturally relevant pedagogies require the teacher to understand the background and experiences of their students and how a student’s background
Teaching Resiliency
177
and experiences impact their perspective on the world (Lee 2012). Culturally relevant pedagogies in art education can take a number of forms—examples include community-based projects connecting students and parents to family histories through quilt-making in a Title I elementary school (Lifschitz-Grant 2020), projects deconstructing responses to artwork to better understand the nuances of appreciation and aesthetic preferences between the teacher and students in an urban high school classroom (Selig 2009), and projects employing arts-based research methods to explore student understanding of “the lived city” and its unofficial borders within a group of undergraduate art students (Genet-Verney 2020). In my own work with pre-service art teachers, we practice culturally relevant pedagogies by designing lesson plans around local artists, public art spaces, cultural practices, traditional materials, and notable objects and locations in New Mexico. This commitment to locally and regionally grounded instruction is explicitly stated in our program’s mission statement and runs throughout our teacher preparation curriculum—and moreover helps bridge our work on campus to the community through various partnerships with local artists, galleries, museums, and community art organizations. Pre-service art teachers at the University of New Mexico have the opportunity to work more than ninety hours in-situation at schools, museums, and community art organizations before their capstone student teaching practicum. Programming and negotiations surrounding programs in our on-site gallery has also been incredibly effective in connecting to local schools, teachers, and students. The success of culturally relevant pedagogies in teacher preparation is largely dependent on the program’s openness to developing an authentic understanding of cultural intersections: despite concerted efforts in the last thirty years to make pre-service teachers more accountable for their knowledge of multicultural content, this work mostly contributes to a general pluralistic approach to multiculturalism that does recognize the cultural background of specific artists and merely suggests an illusion of inclusion (Kraehe 2010). Present the Realities of Classroom Teaching Teaching visual art in an urban environment is a difficult proposition. Educator preparation programs do a disservice to pre-service art teachers if we present the teaching profession in any other way than as a professional and personal challenge. Research indicates that teachers committed to the principle and theoretical conception of teaching are more likely to stay in the profession (Haun and Martin 2004). Goldstein (2005) reports high stress levels among pre-service teachers—stress levels higher than any other groups of university students, and even higher in pre-service teachers during practicum experiences—from conflicting perspectives on what candidates think
178
Justin Makemson
teaching will be like and what candidates see as the realities of teaching. Educator preparation programs better prepare teaching candidates by establishing levels of rigor in the program similar to the rigors of teaching dayto-day in an urban classroom (Ballantyne 2007; Tait 2008). Gray and Lowe (2019) further encourage pre-service teachers to participate in a school’s extracurricular activities to experience first-hand the teaching responsibilities expected outside of day-to-day classroom instruction. Teaching art will often include responsibilities such as participating in regional exhibits and competitions, maintaining equipment, preparing materials, sponsoring art clubs and art honor societies, and staging exhibitions throughout the school and community—this work constitutes a significant proportion of the teacher’s workload, but has been historically overlooked in pre-service art education. Part of promoting resiliency is establishing a sense of identity as a classroom art teacher in teaching candidates. Pre-service and early-career teachers have to be able to reconcile their personal and professional identities within a teaching environment (Estola 2003; Schaefer and Clandinin 2011). Reflection and self-awareness exercises help pre-service teachers determine factors in their background that contribute to beliefs about teaching and explain why the teacher feels a certain way about a teaching practice or classroom situation (Duck 2007). Curry and O’Brien (2012) find that reflection with earlycareer teachers works best when paired with self-assessment tools that can be incorporated into a teacher “wellness plan . . . [that provides] stability, a focus on internal locus of control, and support to new teachers in the school to career transition” (184). Teacher wellness plans help candidates set goals, solve problems, recognize the impact of their beliefs and biases, manage their motivations and emotions, negotiate interpersonal relationships, create work-life balance, and outline the requirements for health and happiness in teaching. Citing similarities between teacher wellness plans and the mindfulness/self-control exercises proscribed to be taught in the preK–12 curriculum, Cefai, Ferrario, Cavioni, Carter, and Grech (2014) express concern that educator preparation programs do not make greater use of reflection and self-awareness tools with pre-service teachers. I use several reflection and self-awareness tools in our methods coursework and student teaching seminar; I will address three tools in greater detail: For the first tool, teaching candidates rate and provide support for propositional claims based on Hickman’s (2004) eight-point rationale for teaching visual culture. Candidates review theoretical evidence and personal experiences to determine which of the following rationales are more important than others: (1) to enhance students’ understanding of their cultural heritage; (2) to enhance students’ understanding of the cultural heritage of others; (3) to develop students’ perception of the visual world; (4) to develop students’ understanding of their inner world; (5) to develop practical problem-solving
Teaching Resiliency
179
skills through manipulation of materials; (6) to facilitate creative behavior and lateral thinking skills; (7) to promote inventiveness and risk taking; or (8) to enhance students’ ability to make informed judgments about the made environment. This tool is introduced early in the course and repeated at the end of the semester to compare teaching candidates’ preexperience and postexperience positions. For the second tool, teaching candidates deconstruct what they value in their creative practices and the creative practices of other artists using Tallack’s (2004) hierarchical system of artistic values. Candidates examine the origins of their beliefs about teaching art, making art, and appreciating art by classifying specific personal beliefs and key experiences into the categories of personal artistic values, situated artistic values, transitional artistic values, and intercultural artistic values. This tool is helpful in discerning if a candidate’s beliefs are grounded in direct experience, interpersonal relationships, cultural participation, and/or cultural intersections—and by extension helpful in determining how a candidate’s beliefs about art impact what they teach and how they teach it. For the third tool, teaching candidates use the “Mapping Identity Project” (Congdon, Stewart, and White 2002) to create a wheel-based visual representation of the personal and contextual factors contributing to decisions regarding curriculum and instruction during a practicum experience. This tool is particularly helpful in exploring the relationship between teacher background, experiences, influences, teacher-student disconnect, and the effectiveness of pedagogical decisions. Emphasize the Practical and Reproduce Classroom Expectations Making foundations courses more practical than theoretical is a fourth evidence-based strategy to promote resiliency in pre-service teachers (Duck 2007). Foundations courses in our program introduce a variety of practical exercises including rearranging classroom spaces to fit a skill demonstration, storing and organizing materials, reviewing and filling out mock IEP forms, pricing out a lesson and creating a budget, loading and firing the kilns, reading a Material Safety Data Sheet, and scoring classroom performances using the statewide teacher evaluation system. To promote resiliency, educator preparation programs have to reflect the rigors of the preK–12 art classroom. This includes preparing pre-service teachers for the physical demands of teaching, for example, preparing students how to hydrate properly, how to make functional decisions in wardrobe, specifically in footwear, to how to brace oneself to reach into a dirty sink to unclog the drain, and how to build and maintain an immune system that will resist the germ pools present in most
180
Justin Makemson
preK–12 art classrooms. Workload and schedule are important considerations in creating parallels between educator preparation programs and preK–12 art classrooms. The methods courses in our program incorporate weekly assignments that deal specifically with lesson preparation and classroom organization, preparation areas that require frequent and persistent attention from classroom teachers, in addition to reading responses and research projects. These courses and their associated practicums contain clearly defined and significant consequences for lack of preparation to more accurately reflect the realities of teaching. Educator preparation programs can to some extent schedule courses to reflect the schedule of a public school; pre-service teachers enrolled in 8:00 a.m. methods course are getting a more realistic representation of day-to-day teaching than pre-service teachers enrolled in the 11:00 a.m. or 2:00 p.m. sections of the same course. Though research supports the strategy of creating a high-stakes environment in teacher preparation to emulate the rigors of the preK–12 art classroom, pre-service teachers are in the process of becoming and require openings to revisit work, improve upon what they have done, and reach a point where plans and projects are more classroom-ready than when they were first submitted. I maintain a strict deadline policy for assignments in my methods courses; that is, late submissions automatically receive no credit, but my students always have the option to rework and resubmit assignments to improve the quality of work and final grade, which is an average of the grade for the first submission and the grade for the newest submission—students respond positively to this approach and most repeat the rework-resubmit procedure multiple times each semester. Like many educators who work with pre-service teachers, I receive significant pushback on the comprehensive nature of our program’s lesson planning expectations. Teaching candidates and cooperating teachers report differences between what is expected for in-program lesson plans and moretruncated or abbreviated lesson plans used in an everyday classroom setting: Here it is important to reiterate with teaching candidates that lesson plans used by more-experienced teachers can appear to leave out elements and/or not have the same level of development as the plans candidates are producing for the program, but more-experienced teachers nonetheless account for these “missing elements” in their mental preparations as an internalization what was once a more external form of preparation. Research shows that pre-service experience organizing a classroom and managing student behaviors also promotes resiliency in early-career teachers (Day and Gu 2013; Gibbs and Miller 2014). Methods coursework in and of itself can only address classroom organization/management from a theoretical perspective; pairing classroom observations and practicum experiences with methods coursework permits pre-service teachers to observe and participate
Teaching Resiliency
181
in classroom situations first-hand and bring these experiences back to class meetings to deconstruct with the instructor and classmates. Early-career teachers appear particularly unprepared to teach in multiage classrooms and work with indigenous and special needs students (Fantilli and McDougall 2009; Sullivan and Johnson 2012). Educator preparation programs prepare students to teach in heterogeneous environments and work with all student populations by placing greater emphasis on developmental processes, exceptional learners, and differentiated forms of instruction in methods courses and teaching practicums. The finding about indigenous populations is interesting to consider from my position in an educator preparation program that is made up of a good number of indigenous pre-service teachers and serves a large indigenous population; I interpret the finding as another example of teacherstudent cultural disconnect and predict that indigenous pre-service teachers likely encounter similar problems when entering a predominantly nonindigenous teaching environment. Still, there is no substitute for practical in-situation teaching experience in helping pre-service teachers become more comfortable and confident in their classroom management and student interactions. Our program operates a progressive series of structured classroom observations and teaching practicums, including practicum work connected to our exceptional learner course. Faculty members and student groups organize a regular schedule of extracurricular guest speakers and volunteer opportunities. Teaching candidates coordinate with schools and community organizations to work on-site with special needs learners and on occasion transport these learners to methods classes for candidate-led studio experiences. I work personally with schools and community organizations to place candidates in positions at camps and after-school programs, where they can interact with learners from a variety of backgrounds. In one of our more exciting but unexpected partnerships, teaching candidates in our program have the potential to work with the displaced and unhoused population of artists in Albuquerque. Listen to Stories of Teaching Experience and Success Pre-service teachers require openings to discuss teaching philosophies, professional behavior, ways to manage parents and colleagues, and other aspects of the workplace with cooperating teachers and university supervisors (Castro, Kelly, and Shih 2010). Teaching candidates benefit from conversation with other teachers who have successfully taught for a number of years (Hong 2012). The goal is to find mentors that can speak to the challenges of the classroom but also demonstrate effective solutions and coping mechanisms. Our program places great emphasis on finding qualified cooperating teachers and providing systematic feedback and evaluation processes, but we
182
Justin Makemson
also create opportunities for students to participate in less-formal feedback loops. Each spring semester, we bring in graduates of the program in their first and second year of teaching to talk with current students about their experiences as a student teaching candidate, experiences on the job hunt, and how they are coping with the challenges of their first years of classroom responsibilities. Help Teaching Candidates Figure Out Where to Find Support The importance of support networks is second only to recruitment and growing your own teacher in teacher resiliency research (Brunetti 2006; Howard and Johnson 2004; Le Cornu 2013; O’Sullivan 2006). Support of educator preparation programs for early-career teachers generally falls into the three categories: Support for instructional theory and practice, support for establishing a culture for learning, and support for teacher development and transformation (Alkins et al. 2006). This chapter has already discussed the possibility of support through instructional theory and practice, so I will concentrate on establishing a culture for learning and teacher development and transformation moving forward. The opportunity for pre-service teachers to participate in and feel integrated into a learning environment is strongly linked to teacher retention (Johnson and Birkeland 2003). Bullough and Draper (2004) find the relationship between teaching candidates, cooperating teachers, and university supervisors to be critical in predicting the future success of a candidate in the classroom. Efforts to create a community of learners and other peer-support networks need to begin while the teaching candidate is still in the educator preparation program (Keogh et al. 2012). Educator preparation programs are well-situated to help teaching candidates and early-career teachers identify professional support networks, networks that are university-based, school-based, museum-based, community-based, or remotely accessible on the internet (Papatraianou and Le Cornu 2014). Finding and taking a critical perspective toward professional support resources is an important component in our program’s different methods courses: Students in our introduction to art education and studio art in the schools courses critique and then translate found lesson plans to the program’s lesson plan template. Students in secondary art education evaluate peer-created lesson plans and create evaluations of material safety data sheets, museum teaching resources, and online collections of instructional videos. Students in technology in art education compile a running list of online art collections, lesson plan collections, technology resources, and social media-based professional learning communities. Teaching candidates require openings to both build bonds within their teaching cohort and to create bridges to mentors and professional networks
Teaching Resiliency
183
outside of the program—the participation of pre-service teachers in community-engaging experiences can be “personally, professional, and socially transformative” (Lawton 2019, 203). In our program, we have two student organizations, a student chapter of the National Art Education Association and the Art Education Graduate Student Association, that present opportunities for community-building and connect students to professional support networks. These organizations plan and organize month-to-month programs that have included guest speakers, film evenings in the galleries, contests and exhibitions, portfolio building seminars and critiques, make-and-take symposiums, mock interviews, gallery walks, and service learning opportunities. Educator preparation programs can work closely with state-level and nationallevel professional organizations to encourage student participation in professional practices. Our program promotes professional teaching organizations as part of the licensure-track curriculum; we introduce teaching candidates in our foundations courses to the National Art Education Association’s curriculum and advocacy resources and direct candidates toward Digication’s NAEAspecific digital portfolio platform when building professional portfolios in student teaching seminar. Faculty members encourage professional conference participation and help students develop and submit proposals to copresent with faculty or present as a group of students at local-level, state-level, and national-level conferences. There is also a more practical component to this work as faculty help students find financial support for professional participation through grant-writing, writing recommendation letters, and organizing discount travel and housing opportunities. Faculty members at the University of New Mexico have an impressive record of offering teaching candidates and early-career teachers the opportunity to coauthor publications for academic journals and exhibit artwork created in partnership with faculty members. In an unconventional effort to encourage professional participation, the graduate student association for our program has offered paid professional memberships to the winners of contests and as door prizes at several of the bigger program events. We negotiated an agreement with the New Mexico Art Education Association three years ago in which teaching candidates can participate in the annual state conference for a reduced registration fee in exchange for limited volunteer work at the conference. This year we will be organizing and hosting the New Mexico Art Education Association member exhibition in our on-site gallery. The New Mexico Art Education Association maintains a pre-service representative position as part of their regular leadership council. The New Mexico Art Education Association also sponsors our program’s undergraduate and graduate-level pre-service art teacher of the year awards; winners are recognized at the state conference and receive a free one-year membership to the organization, or reimbursement for their membership costs if they are already a member. I personally try to nominate
184
Justin Makemson
students for university-level, state-level, and national-level awards whenever the opportunity presents itself; social recognition for student interests and efforts in art education is essential to the student’s self-identification as a pre-service art teacher. Even so, research suggests that early-career teachers need educator preparation programs to provide continued support for professional learning networks and community-building partnerships long after a teaching candidate graduates from the program. “Solo” practitioners, defined here as teachers in a role where there is only one teacher in a specific content area at a school, represent one of the largest populations of early-career leavers in teacher retention/attrition research (Kardos and Johnson 2007). Because few schools maintain a large group of art teachers, pre-service art teachers have to consider the likeliness that they will be working as a solo practitioner for most of their career. Early-career teachers with the opportunity to work as part of a team and/or share responsibility for a common group of students are more likely to stay in the profession of teaching (Haun and Martin 2004). Overall, early-career teachers benefit greatly from opportunities to collaborate with other teachers (Andrews, Gilbert, and Martin 2007). There is a great opening here for educator preparation programs to provide and support school-based professional development and help match up willing collaborators. Research on teacher resiliency speaks of the need for greater differentiation in and more domain-specific professional development (Gerke and McCoy 2007). The faculty in our program participate in professional development groups specific to early-childhood art education, design-based learning, and technology in art education. While drafting this chapter, I am simultaneously preparing to participate in a fine arts professional development online symposium for school districts in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. To evaluate the effectiveness of university-supported professional development and community-building initiatives, we have to consider if our ongoing mentorship and partnerships work to support the teacher’s unrealized potential within the urban classroom or simply enculturate the teacher to the present situation of teaching art under difficult circumstances (Schaefer, Long, and Clandinin 2012). Carver-Thomas and Darling-Hammond (2017) find that educator preparation programs at their best provide both high-quality mentoring and an induction that helps early-career teachers learn to teach effectively in high-demand environments. High-quality mentoring involves observation and feedback, time for collaborative planning and support sessions with colleagues, reducing the workload for early-career teachers, and promoting the best teaching practices for that specific teaching environment. This postgraduation approach might sound somewhat unconventional for educator preparation
Teaching Resiliency
185
programs; however, the research is compelling enough that we should seriously reconsider what we view as possible and reasonable for programs to take on in the future to promote resiliency in early-career teachers. CLOSING THOUGHTS: THE FUTURE OF TEACHER RESILIENCY IN URBAN ART EDUCATION Working in educator preparation, I delight in news that our recent graduates have secured a full-time position teaching art for the coming school year. I delight even more when graduates receive multiple offers and accept a position at a high-need school. From one perspective, these developments reinforce the belief that we are preparing teaching candidates to enter the classroom and vindicate hours of writing letters of recommendation, helping students develop resumes and professional portfolios, and preparing students for job interviews. From another perspective, I have to wonder why there are so many open positions, why positions at certain schools seem to be open every hiring cycle, and how long our early-career art teachers will stay in their position before moving on to something else. Intuitively, we can uphold that our efforts in teacher preparation are preparing teachers to enter and stay in urban art classrooms, but the truth is that we need more research specific to teacher resilience in art education—and art education in urban environments. First, educator preparation programs need to learn from resilient urban art educators which philosophies and practices support their day-to-day efforts, and then identify the source of those philosophies and practices so as to reproduce their effect in pre-service and early-career art teachers. Second, educator preparation programs need to develop working relationships with high-need schools and urban community organizations and be prepared to offer professional support as requested. Third, educator preparation programs need to be personally familiar with their teaching candidates and know which personal and context-dependent factors can serve as a strength or liability for that candidate as they move forward in their teaching career. Fourth, educator preparation programs need to be able to manage the expectations of preservice teachers and still attract interested and qualified teaching candidates. Finally, educator preparation programs need to understand specifically what makes art teachers feel valued and find value in their teaching efforts. In closing, research on teaching resiliency overwhelmingly shows a need to recruit and support historically underrepresented populations in art education, but realistically there is a real lack of understanding on the part of educator preparation programs how to best move forward; culturally relevant and evidence-based pedagogies represent a step in the right direction, but the
186
Justin Makemson
racial and socioeconomic inequities in art education are systematic and mired in years of white-privilege, complacency, and complicity. Until society and the educational community is ready for meaningful and lasting change, it will remain a challenge to prepare pre-service teachers to work and stay in urban art classrooms. REFERENCES Algozzine, Bob, John Gretes, Allen J. Queen, and Misty Cowan-Hathcock. “Beginning teachers’ perceptions of their induction program experiences.” The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas 80, no. 3 (2007): 137–143. Alkins, Kimberley, Linda Banks-Santilli, Paula Elliott, Nicole Guttenberg, and Mieko Kamii 1. “Project Quest: A journey of discovery with beginning teachers in urban schools.” Equity & Excellence in Education 39, no. 1 (2006): 65–80. Anderson, Michael. “The drama teacher’s journey.” Critical Studies in Education 43, no. 2 (2002): 87–95. Andrews, Shirley P., Linda S. Gilbert, and Ellice P. Martin. “The first years of teaching: Disparities in perceptions of support.” Action in Teacher Education 28, no. 4 (2007): 4–13. Aronson, Brittany, and Judson Laughter. “The theory and practice of culturally relevant education: A synthesis of research across content areas.” Review of Educational Research 86, no. 1 (2016): 163–206. Ballantyne, Julie. “Documenting praxis shock in early-career Australian music teachers: The impact of pre-service teacher education.” International Journal of Music Education 25, no. 3 (2007): 181–191. Bille, Trine, Cecilie Bryld Fjællegaard, Bruno S. Frey, and Lasse Steiner. “Happiness in the arts—International evidence on artists’ job satisfaction.” Economics Letters 121, no. 1 (2013): 15–18. Billingsley, Bonnie S. “Special education teacher retention and attrition: A critical analysis of the research literature.” The Journal of Special Education 38, no. 1 (2004): 39–55. Borman, Geoffrey D., and N. Maritza Dowling. “Teacher attrition and retention: A meta-analytic and narrative review of the research.” Review of Educational Research 78, no. 3 (2008): 367–409. Brown, Kathleen M., and Susan R. Wynn. “Teacher retention issues: How some principals are supporting and keeping new teachers.” Journal of School Leadership 17, no. 6 (2007): 664–698. Brunetti, Gerald J. “Resilience under fire: Perspectives on the work of experienced, inner city high school teachers in the United States.” Teaching and Teacher Education 22, no. 7 (2006): 812–825. Bullough Jr, Robert V., and Roni Jo Draper. “Making sense of a failed triad: Mentors, university supervisors, and positioning theory.” Journal of Teacher Education 55, no. 5 (2004): 407–420.
Teaching Resiliency
187
Carter, Julie H., and Leslie S. Keiler. “Alternatively certified teachers in urban small schools: Where policy reform meets the road.” The Urban Review 41, no. 5 (2009): 437. Carver-Thomas, Desiree, and Linda Darling-Hammond. “Teacher turnover: Why it matters and what we can do about it.” (2017): 1086–1125. Castro, Antonio J., John Kelly, and Minyi Shih. “Resilience strategies for new teachers in high-needs areas.” Teaching and Teacher Education 26, no. 3 (2010): 622–629. Cefai, Carmel, Erika Ferrario, Valeria Cavioni, Audrey Carter, and Tracy Grech. “Circle time for social and emotional learning in primary school.” Pastoral Care in Education 32, no. 2 (2014): 116–130. Charland, William. “African American youth and the artist’s identity: Cultural models and aspirational foreclosure.” Studies in Art Education 51, no. 2 (2010): 115–133. Congdon, K., M. Stewart, and J. H. White. “Mapping identity for curriculum work.” Contemporary Issues in Art Education (2002): 108–118. Connor, Kathryn M., and Jonathan R.T. Davidson. “Development of a new resilience scale: The Connor‐Davidson resilience scale (CD‐RISC).” Depression and Anxiety 18, no. 2 (2003): 76–82. Curry, Jennifer R., and Elizabeth R. O’Brien. “Shifting to a wellness paradigm in teacher education: A promising practice for fostering teacher stress reduction, burnout resilience, and promoting retention.” Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry 14, no. 3 (2012): 178–191. Day, Christopher, and Qing Gu. Resilient Teachers, Resilient Schools: Building and Sustaining Quality in Testing Times. Routledge, 2013. Dee, Thomas S., and Emily K. Penner. “The causal effects of cultural relevance: Evidence from an ethnic studies curriculum.” American Educational Research Journal 54, no. 1 (2017): 127–166. Demetriou, Helen, Elaine Wilson, and Mark Winterbottom. “The role of emotion in teaching: are there differences between male and female newly qualified teachers’ approaches to teaching?.” Educational Studies 35, no. 4 (2009): 449–473. Derbis, Romuald, and Arkadiusz M. Jasiński. “Work satisfaction, psychological resiliency and sense of coherence as correlates of work engagement.” Cogent Psychology 5, no. 1 (2018): 1451610. Di Fabio, Annamaria, and Donald H. Saklofske. “The contributions of personality and emotional intelligence to resiliency.” Personality and Individual Differences 123 (2018): 140–144. Duck, Lloyd. “Using sounder foundations to help avoid the” why new teachers cry” phenomenon.” The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas 81, no. 1 (2007): 29–36. Dumford, Amber D., and Angie L. Miller. “Assessing alumni success: Income is NOT the only outcome!.” Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 42, no. 2 (2017): 195–207. Elfers, Ana M., Margaret L. Plecki, and Michael S. Knapp. “Teacher mobility: Looking more closely at” the movers” within a state system.” Peabody Journal of Education 81, no. 3 (2006): 94–127.
188
Justin Makemson
Estola, Eila. “Hope as work—Student teachers constructing their narrative identities.” Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 47, no. 2 (2003): 181–203. Fantilli, Robert D., and Douglas E. McDougall. “A study of novice teachers: Challenges and supports in the first years.” Teaching and Teacher Education 25, no. 6 (2009): 814–825. Flores, Maria Assunção, and Christopher Day. “Contexts which shape and reshape new teachers’ identities: A multi-perspective study.” Teaching and Teacher Education 22, no. 2 (2006): 219–232. Freedman, Sarah Warshauer, and Deborah Appleman. “‘In It for the Long Haul’— How Teacher Education Can Contribute to Teacher Retention in High-Poverty, Urban Schools.” Journal of Teacher Education 60, no. 3 (2009): 323–337. Freedman, Sarah Warshauer, and Deborah Appleman. “‘What else would I be doing?’: Teacher identity and teacher retention in urban schools.” Teacher Education Quarterly 35, no. 3 (2008): 109–126. Frenette, Alexandre, and Timothy J. Dowd. “Who Stays and Who Leaves?.” Arts Education and the Career (2020). Gallant, Andrea, and Philip Riley. “Early career teacher attrition: New thoughts on an intractable problem.” Teacher Development 18, no. 4 (2014): 562–580. Gehrke, Rebecca Swanson, and Kathleen McCoy. “Sustaining and retaining beginning special educators: It takes a village.” Teaching and Teacher Education 23, no. 4 (2007): 490–500. Genet-Verney, Rafaèle, Ricardo Marín-Viadel, and Antonio Fernández-Morillas. “The unknown city: Visual arts-based educational research on the living city experiences of university students.” International Journal of Education through Art 6, no. 2 (2020): 245–259. Gibbs, Simon, and Andy Miller. “Teachers’ resilience and well-being: A role for educational psychology.” Teachers and Teaching 20, no. 5 (2014): 609–621. Goldstein, Lisa S. “Becoming a teacher as a hero’s journey: Using metaphor in preservice teacher education.” Teacher Education Quarterly 32, no. 1 (2005): 7–24. Gray, Christina C., and Geoffrey M. Lowe. ““Learning the Ropes”: Pre-service Arts Teachers Navigating the Extracurricular Terrain.” Australian Journal of Teacher Education 44, no. 4 (2019): 6. Greenfield, Ben. “How can teacher resilience be protected and promoted.” Educational & Child Psychology 32, no. 4 (2015): 52–68. Guarino, Cassandra M., Lucrecia Santibanez, and Glenn A. Daley. “Teacher recruitment and retention: A review of the recent empirical literature.” Review of Educational Research 76, no. 2 (2006): 173–208. Haun, Dwight D., and Barbara N. Martin. “Attrition of beginning teachers and the factors of collaboration and school setting.” RMLE Online 27, no. 2 (2004): 1–7. Hesmondhalgh, David, and Sarah Baker. Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries. Routledge, 2013. Hickman, Richard, ed. Art education 11-18: Meaning, purpose and direction. A&C Black, 2004. Hong, Ji Y. “Why do some beginning teachers leave the school, and others stay? Understanding teacher resilience through psychological lenses.” Teachers and Teaching 18, no. 4 (2012): 417–440.
Teaching Resiliency
189
Howard, Sue, and Bruce Johnson. “Resilient teachers: Resisting stress and burnout.” Social Psychology of Education 7, no. 4 (2004): 399–420. Imazeki, Jennifer. “Teacher salaries and teacher attrition.” Economics of Education Review 24, no. 4 (2005): 431–449. Ingersoll, Richard M. “Teacher turnover and teacher shortages: An organizational analysis.” American Educational Research Journal 38, no. 3 (2001): 499–534. Ingersoll, Richard, Lisa Merrill, and Henry May. “What are the effects of teacher education and preparation on beginning teacher attrition?.” (2014). Johnson, Susan Moore, and Sarah E. Birkeland. “Pursuing a “sense of success”: New teachers explain their career decisions.” American Educational Research Journal 40, no. 3 (2003): 581–617. Justice, Madeline, and Sue Espinoza. “Emotional intelligence and beginning teacher candidates.” Education 127, no. 4 (2007). Kardos, Susan M., and Susan Moore Johnson. “On their own and presumed expert: New teachers’ experience with their colleagues.” Teachers College Record 109, no. 9 (2007): 2083–2106. Keogh, Jayne, Susanne Garvis, Donna Pendergast, and Pat Diamond. “SelfDetermination: Using Agency, Efficacy and Resilience (AER) to Counter Novice Teachers’ Experiences of Intensification.” Australian Journal of Teacher Education 37, no. 8 (2012): n8. Kraehe, Amelia. “Multicultural art education in an era of standardized testing: Changes in knowledge and skill for art teacher certification in Texas.” Studies in Art Education 51, no. 2 (2010): 162–175. Kraehe, Amelia M., Joni B. Acuff, and Sarah Travis. “Equity, the arts, and urban education: A review.” The Urban Review 48, no. 2 (2016): 220–244. Kutcy, Corinne E. Barrett, and Renate Schulz. “Why are beginning teachers frustrated with the teaching profession?.” McGill Journal of Education/Revue des sciences de l’éducation de McGill 41, no. 1 (2006). Lawton, Pamela Harris. “At the Crossroads of Intersecting Ideologies: CommunityBased Art Education, Community Engagement, and Social Practice Art.” Studies in Art Education 60, no. 3 (2019): 203–218. Le Cornu, Rosie. “Building early career teacher resilience: The role of relationships.” Australian Journal of Teacher Education (Online) 38, no. 4 (2013): 1. Lee, NaJuana. “Culturally responsive teaching for 21st-century art education: Examining race in a studio art experience.” Art Education 65, no. 5 (2012): 48–53. Lifschitz-Grant, Naomi. “The family quilt project: The power of culturally relevant pedagogy.” Art Education 73, no. 1 (2020): 32–37. Macdonald, Doune. “Teacher attrition: A review of literature.” Teaching and Teacher Education 15, no. 8 (1999): 835–848. Masten, Ann S., and Marie-Gabrielle J. Reed. “Resilience in development.” Handbook of Positive Psychology 74 (2002): 88. Olsen, Brad, and Lauren Anderson. “Courses of action: A qualitative investigation into urban teacher retention and career development.” Urban Education 42, no. 1 (2007): 5–29. O’Sullivan, Margo C. “Educating the teacher educator—A Ugandan case study.” International Journal of Educational Development 30, no. 4 (2010): 377–387.
190
Justin Makemson
Papatraianou, Lisa H., and Rosie Le Cornu. “Problematising the role of personal and professional relationships in early career teacher resilience.” Australian Journal of Teacher Education 39, no. 1 (2014): 7. Pascoe, R., and R. Sallis. “Perspectives on drama teacher education in Australia.” Asia-Pacific Journal for Arts Education 11, no. 6 (2012): 126–158. Patterson, Nancy C., Gillian H. Roehrig, and Julie A. Luft. “Running the treadmill: Explorations of beginning high school science teacher turnover in Arizona.” The High School Journal 86, no. 4 (2003): 14–22. Schaefer, Lee, and D. Jean Clandinin. “Stories of sustaining: A narrative inquiry into the experiences of two beginning teachers.” Learning Landscapes 4, no. 2 (2011): 275–295. Schaefer, Lee, Julie S. Long, and D. Jean Clandinin. “Questioning the research on early career teacher attrition and retention.” Alberta Journal of Educational Research 58, no. 1 (2012): 106–121. Selig, Lauren. “The aesthetics of style in an urban high school art class.” Art Education 62, no. 2 (2009): 46–51. Simpson, Judith. “Connections to the world: Visual art in urban schools.” Journal of Education 188, no. 1 (2008): 41–53. Steiner, Lasse, and Lucian Schneider. “The happy artist: An empirical application of the work-preference model.” Journal of Cultural Economics 37, no. 2 (2013): 225–246. Sullivan, Anna, and Bruce Johnson. “Questionable practices?: Relying on individual teacher resilience in remote schools.” Australian and International Journal of Rural Education 22, no. 3 (2012): 101. Tait, Joyce. “Teachers’ practical judgement: acting in the face of uncertainty.” PhD diss., University of British Columbia, 2008. Tallack. M. (2004) “Critical studies: Values at the heart of art education.” In R. Hickman [Eds] Art Education 11-18: Meaning, Purpose, and Direction, pp. 105–123. London: Continuum. Tait, Joyce. “Teachers’ practical judgement: acting in the face of uncertainty.” PhD diss., University of British Columbia, 2008. Ungar, Michael. “Social ecologies and their contribution to resilience.” In The Social Ecology of Resilience, pp. 13–31. New York, NY: Springer, 2012. Warren, K. “Who teaches drama and is it worth teaching anyway.” A Review of the Literature. NADIE Journal (1992): 47–50. Wright, P. R., and Rod Gerber. “Competency in Australian drama teachers: Mapping the terrain.” NJ (Drama Australia Journal) 28, no. 2 (2004): 55–67.
Chapter 9
Creating a Welcoming Urban Learning Environment Highlights from a Higher Education Partnership Involving Art Education and a Community Partner Bryna Bobick
This chapter describes a community project which partners art education faculty and university students with the Memphis Public Library and Information Center. The partnership has been in place for four years. The analysis is based on the fourth year of the partnership, giving the opportunity for the partnership to grow and develop. The purpose of this chapter is to contribute to the literature on university-community partnerships. It includes the lessons learned in the stages of developing the partnership, survey results of university students and make suggestions for those who wish to develop and sustain similar partnerships. It should be mentioned, this chapter is written from the side of the university participants. On the side of the university, the community partnership provided educational experiences for both graduate and undergraduate students in a community setting. The Memphis Public Library benefited by being able to expand their community programming and bring additional people into the library. Researchers point out universities are becoming more interested in civic engagement and academic programs that include “real-world” experiences (Ostander 2004; Curwood, Munger, Mitchell, Mackeigan, and Farrar 2011). These can be in the form of university-community partnerships including co-learning models in which universities engage in outreach scholarship for and with communities (Schiffman, Fitzgerald, and DeLuca 2002). Assessing and improving university readiness is essential to the development of strong community-university partnerships. Universities need to make a strong 191
192
Bryna Bobick
commitment to community-engaged scholarship and research through action, not just written in their mission statements (Curwood, Munger, Mitchell, Mackeigan, and Farrar 2011). However, this can be challenging due to scheduling, budgets, and the time required to plan the partnership. There are benefits to partnering with a community organization. The local connection can help advocate for the project, give it reliability, provide resources, and offer expertise to the university. They can help with recruiting and attract a diversity of participants. However, it should be noted working with partners could mean going through administrative hoops to get the partnership established (Lawton, Walker, and Green 2019). OVERVIEW OF PARTNERSHIP The partnership between the University of Memphis art education faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students and the Memphis Public Library and Information Center began 2016 with a focus of developing a community art partnership, the Community Art Academy. It involved university students teaching studio art activities to area youth involving the visual arts and literacy. The participants were youth aged nine to twelve and attended public, private, charter, and home schools. The university students received authentic field experience in a community setting prior to graduation and the participants received supplemental weekly art instruction. The Community Art Academy provided participants a free, high-quality art program that developed literacy development and included visual arts and language arts integration each week (Bobick and Hornby 2017). The library staff shared their knowledge on children’s literature and suggested specific books relating to each studio art activity and country of study. The theme for the 2019 Community Art Academy was Around the World through Literature and Visual Arts. The weekly lessons taught included visual arts, literacy, and geography. Each hands-on studio art project connected to a specific country. They included collage and Nicaragua, painting and Ghana, air-dry clay and contemporary Native American Artists, bookmaking and Mexico, collaborative art and Egypt, and found object sculptures and Australia. A sample lesson plan is included in Appendix A. Schiffman, Fitzgerald, and DeLuca (2002) discuss collaborations take time and successful collaborations have all parties involved from the beginning. Distorted or no communication is a barrier to effective partnerships. It is important to plan the process of communication and to monitor its success (Sigmon 1998). With this in mind, the stakeholders, including library staff and art education faculty, participated in the planning of the Community Art Academy. Several meetings were held to discuss goals, outcomes, processes,
Creating a Welcoming Urban Learning Environment
193
and ways to make the partnership successful. Modifications were made and the final plan was approved. Throughout the entire partnership, the art education faculty and library staff stayed in frequent contact by electronic mail, face-to-face discussions, and telephone. Prior to the start of the Community Art Academy, the library held an informal orientation for the university faculty and students. It was a way to view the teaching space, learn the library’s policies, and procedures, and ask any questions. This orientation put the university students at ease about teaching in a new environment. Recruitment involved contacting area public, private, charter, and home school art educators. Information was included on the library’s website social media accounts and the department of art’s website. The Community Art Academy occurred weekly from 4:00 to 5:30 in the afternoon, this allowed the participants time to reach the library from their schools. The program was limited to twenty participants, so they could receive individual art instruction from the university students. It allowed all parties to work together to build personal relationships. Twenty participants enrolled in the Community Art Academy and the day of final enrollment was a cause for celebration for everyone. The budget included artmaking materials, marketing materials, T-shirts, snacks for the participants, and reception cost. Each group of students was required to make a list of art supplies that would be needed for the projects. The library’s Friends group covered the entire budget. Lawton, Walker, and Green (2019) point out it is a good idea to add additional funds for lastminute materials. At the conclusion of the Community Art Academy, a reception was held to showcase the art created by the participants. Parents, library personal, university administrators, and community members were invited. It was a chance for all parties to see the completed projects and a way to engage the community with the partnership. Also, it allowed the university students insight into how to plan a visual art reception, something they may do as arts educators. Survey of University Participants Research shows there is a need for more demographic research at all levels of art education (Burton 1998; Zimmerman 1997; Milbrandt 2014). Demographic research can be defined as information about a group of people and can be used to compile information from various participants. Also, it can serve as a baseline to guide the direction or focus of art education in the future (Milbrandt 2014). Broome (2013) writes survey research can be used to collect descriptive information on the characteristics, practices, or opinions of a chosen population. In this case, the chosen population was university students who
194
Bryna Bobick
participated in the Community Art Academy. Burton (2013) points out a general principle of constructing a survey is to keep it simple. A six-question survey was administered to eight graduate and seven undergraduate students concerning their thoughts and opinions about the partnership. The presented questions and answers may be used as a guide to strengthen the partnership, offer ways to better prepare all parties, allow the university students voices to be heard, and make adjustments to the partnership. Curwood, Munger, Mitchell, Mackeigna, and Farrar (2011) write it is important to engage in self-assessment throughout the partnership. Assessing and improving university readiness is important in the development of strong community-university partnerships. Both the graduate and undergraduate students wrote weekly reflections concerning the lessons taught and their overall feelings about it. In addition, at the conclusion of the partnership, they completed a six-question survey. The summation of the results are included and the participants provided access to their personal feelings and discuss experiences involved in the Community Art Academy. Survey Question One: I feel this community art collaboration benefited the participants by: A variety of responses were provided and including the collaboration providing the students with the opportunity to come together, meet university students, and allow everyone to be creative. On the side of the university students, it gave theme idea for their classrooms and a chance to teach the visual arts to interested students. For the participants, it was a way for them to express themselves and explore art-making activities. Specifically, everyone could share ideas, learn about art from different cultures, and ways to think about art. Also, the activity introduced them to new cultures and how to create meaningful art. The participants were exposed to a variety of cultures, art forms, and instructional styles. It allowed them to engage with peers from all over the community. The Community Art Academy permitted them to be active in weekly art lessons and expand their knowledge about the visual arts and literature. It provided everyone opportunities to work together, share ideas, and enjoy the visual arts. Finally, the participants were able to learn about different forms of literature, develop new friendships, and have opportunities to create art outside of school. Survey Question Two: I benefited from participating in this program in the following ways: The benefits included giving the university students leadership opportunities and time management. Others included being able to teach the lesson to real students, how to plan a lesson and stick to a schedule when teaching.
Creating a Welcoming Urban Learning Environment
195
Furthermore, it gave the art education students real-world experience working with the participants and fellow art teachers in a community setting. They gained confidence teaching art to groups of young adults and how to help the participants improve their art skills. Participating in the Community Art Academy allowed the university students chances to collaborate, view a variety of teaching styles, and make connections with others interested in the visual arts. It provided opportunities to teach lessons with a variety of art materials, something that is not always found in public school art classrooms. In addition, new techniques as well as ways to incorporate them in art classrooms and having the opportunity to connect with community members was written the responses. They benefited by being able to work with a diverse group of students, interact with participants from a variety of schools, and learn from the other art teachers. By teaching in the program, the university students gained confidence and were provided more opportunities to work with students from a range of educational backgrounds. Survey Question Three: This program benefits the community in the following ways: The Community Art Academy provided the participants opportunities for free art lessons in a safe community setting, chances to create art and encourage their families to become involved in the library. The community learned art educators care about them and want to teach students art. In addition, the Community Art Academy promoted and both art and literacy in the community. The members of the community had opportunities to participate in rich art education experiences, feel accepted, and strengthen the bonds between schools and communities. Community members were allowed to express themselves through art, meet other people, and learn new things together. A survey participant discussed the community was allowed to grow through the arts, learned how to collaborate with the University of Memphis, and make great art. Survey Question Four: If I could participate in the Community Art Academy again, I would: A survey question asked the university students who participated in the Community Art Academy to discuss anything they would change, if they were involved in it again. “Not worry so much” and “giving yourself space to breathe were pointed out.” Other responses included taking more photographs of the art, talking to the parents, and getting to know the families too. Time management, better communication with classmates, and taking greater leadership roles in planning each lesson were discussed. Finally, some respondents suggested the participants sit with different people each week, so
196
Bryna Bobick
they could make new friends. This point could be applied to how the university students engaged with the participants. On the curricula side, emphasizing cultures, artists, adding templates, and providing more individual choices in each lesson was discussed. Also, including additional information concerning both art history and literacy would strengthen the program. Participants also want the projects to be more interactive and have more examples of the completed project. Survey Question Five: This program would be more successful if: Survey participants wrote that increasing the length and time of the program would make it more successful. Others felt better promotion of the program, spending more time planning the curricula, and getting to know their fellow university students would increase the success of the Community Art Academy. The art education students should have talked about their own art with the participants about their art and brought examples of art. Other suggestions included, it should be adapted to be a summer camp at the Memphis Public Library and include guest artists for the hands-on art activities. Survey Question Six: Advice I would give future art education majors participating in this type of art experience: The final question addressed advice to give future art education majors who participate in the Community Art Academy. Those thoughts included, taking notes about the weekly lessons, slowing down and enjoying the time with the participants, and not being able to have similar experiences in a classroom. Additional advice included asking for help, bringing additional art supplies for the participants, and arriving early. Including additional literature can strengthen the experience and reach more participants. Also, three university students wrote about the importance about being ready to teach each week. One mentioned the need to include more examples of literature into the program. While another addressed the importance of being aware that some students will arrive late, leave early, and miss a week of instruction. Finally, being flexible will help everyone involved in the partnership. REFLECTION The survey discussed above was only the viewpoints and insights of the art education graduate and undergraduate students. A more in-depth study would be beneficial and strengthen the partnership. Future research studies should include the library staff and parents of the participants. This would provide a greater
Creating a Welcoming Urban Learning Environment
197
breadth and strengthen the literature on community-university partnerships. These results can offer ways to strengthen the partnership with the Memphis Public Library and make any changes. In addition, it can be shared with stakeholders, community members, and administrators from both the library and university, so everyone can have a greater understanding about the partnership. Moving forward, this can be a baseline and encourage dialogue about the Community Art Academy. In broad terms, the survey can contribute useful information about how community-university partnerships can be implemented. Lessons Learned Art education can take place in a variety of settings, including an urban public library. There are many lessons learned from the university perspective. First, start the planning process early. It took time for each of the partners to consider how the aspects of the partnership would affect each other. As the program matured, the planning process took less time. Patience, flexibility, and being consistent can strengthen the relationship between the university and community partner. The library staff knew ahead of time the focus of the weekly art lesson, who would be leading it, and the literature needed. Being accessible is key to a successful partnership. In this partnership, library staff and art education faculty were present each week at the Community Art Academy. They answered questions, did trouble shooting, and assisted throughout the partnership. However, there were challenges. For example, the graduate students were job embedded, some leaving their teaching position and arriving at the public library late, due to traffic or school duties. Since the Community Art Academy was viewed as being student-led, no substitute instructors were assigned to cover anyone being late or absent. This created a burden on some students, who did not have commitments prior to the Community Art Academy. It is important to remember the groups of students teaching the weekly lessons should include both graduate and undergraduate students. Also, address student leadership and accountability for teaching the lesson. This can ensure both the outcome of the lesson and distribution of the workload. It can be a challenge to make sure all the participants stay involved in the art-making activities. Some arrived late, and others left early. This makes it difficult for them to complete the weekly art activity. Suggestions • When developing partnerships, make sure there is mutual commitment by all parties, everyone is ready for the partnership and address the idea of long-term sustainability.
198
Bryna Bobick
• Prior to the start of the partnership, create a budget and be prepared for unexpected expenses. • University administrators who wish to encourage community partnerships should offer training for all faculty and reach out to community organizations. It should not be assumed faculty have the knowledge and are ready to develop community partnerships. • University curricula should be expanded to highlight community relationships with institutions of higher education. • There is a general consentience that community-university partnerships are hard work and are time-consuming (Nelson et al. 2001; Strand et al. 2003; Wallerstein, Polascek, and Maltrud 2002). Tenure and promotion guidelines for university faculty need to address the time and importance of the partnerships. • In any long-term community-university partnership, there may be a new group of university students each year. It would be helpful to develop a handbook about the partnership and identify key points and requirements. • Be visible and flexible! Spotlight the partnership on both the organization’s and university’s social media platforms, engage with the participants, and invite community members to visit the partnership. When problems occur, work together to find a solution. FINAL THOUGHTS Throughout the semester, the art education students engaged with the participants and library staff. They helped to develop a relationship with the public library and the families involved in the Community Art Academy. Moving forward, university students should be encouraged to engage in self-assessment not only prior to partnership formation but also throughout the partnership. It is important to remember, the more opportunities we have to collaborate with community organizations, the easier it will become to develop trust between universities and those organizations (Lawson 2019). Developing and sustaining community partnerships is hard work and takes commitment. However, when stakeholders point out the positive impact partnerships can have in the community, it is worth it. REFERENCES Bobick, Bryna and Hornby, Jennifer. “Community Art Academy: A Public/University Library Collaboration.” Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children, vol. 15, no. 2, 2017, pp. 1–2.
Creating a Welcoming Urban Learning Environment
199
Broome, Jeffrey. “Survey Research.” Practice Theory: Seeing the Power of Art Teacher Researchers, edited by Melanie Buffington and Sara Wilson McKay, National Art Education Association, 2013, 73–80. Burton, David. “Constructing Surveys.” Practice Theory: Seeing the Power of Art Teacher Researchers, edited by Melanie Buffington and Sara Wilson McKay, National Art Education Association, 2013, 76–79. Burton, David. (1998). “Survey of Current Research in Art Education.” Studies in Art Education: A Journal of Issues and Research, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 183–186. Curwood, Susan, Munger, Felix, Mithell, Terry, Mackeigan, Mary, and Farrar, Ashley. “Building Effective Community-University Partnerships: Are Universities Truly Ready?” Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, Spring 2011, pp. 15–26. Lawton, Pamela Harris. “At the Crossroads of Intersecting Ideologies: CommunityBased Art Education, Community Engagement, and Social Practice Art.” Studies in Art Education: A Journal of Issues and Research, vol. 60, no. 3, 2019, pp. 208–218. Lawton, Pamela Harris, Walker, Margaret, and Green, Melissa. Community-Based Art Education Across the Lifespan: Finding Common Ground. Teachers College Press, 2019. Milbrandt, Melody. “Descriptive Survey Research: Demographics and Beyond.” Inquiry in Action: Paradigms, Methodologies, and Perspectives in Art Education Research, edited by Kathy Marzilli Miraglia and Cathy Smilan, National Art Education Association, 2014, 115–123. Nelson, Geoffrey, Prilleltensky, Isaac., and MacGillivary, Heather. “Value-Based Partnerships: Toward Solidarity with Oppressed Groups.” American Journal of Community Psychology, vol. 29, 2001, pp. 649–678. Ostander, Susan. “Democracy, Civic Participation, and the University: A Comparative Study of Civic Engagement on Five Campuses.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly vol. 33, no. 1, 2004, pp. 74–93. Schiffman, Rachel, Fitzgerald, Hiram, and Cunningham DeLuna, Mary. “Community-University Partnerships: The Best Vintage.” NSHA Dialog: A Research-to-Practice Journal for the Early Childhood Field, vol. 2, 2002, pp. 325–339. Sigmon, Robert. Building Sustainable Partnerships: Linking Communities and Educational Institutions. National Society for Experiential Education, 1998. Strand, Kerry, Marullo, Sam, Cutforth, Nick, Stoecker, Randy, and Donohue, Patrick. “Principles of Best Practice for Community-Based Research.” Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, vol. 9, no. 3, 2003, pp. 5–15. Wallerstein, Nina., Polascek, Michele, and Maltrud, Kristine. “Participatory Evaluation Model for Coalitions: The Development of Systems Indicators.” Health Promotion Practice, vol. 3, no. 3, 2002, pp. 61–373. Zimmerman, Enid. “Whence We Come From? Wither We Go? Demographic Analysis of Art Teacher Education Programs in the United States.” Preparing Teachers of Art, edited by Michael Day, National Art Education Association, 1997, 27–44.
Chapter 10
Conclusion Leigh Nanney Hersey and Bryna Bobick
Through the contributions of the authors to this book, readers can see how the arts are interconnected with their lives and can help facilitate community development. This does not mean that the arts can solve all problems, nor are all arts-based community development initiatives successful. However, it does suggest that such projects do deserve consideration when community leaders are seeking ways to improve the quality of life. When examining the research provided in this book, one can see how the arts support many of the pillars of community development, including cultural, economic and workforce development, physical and mental health, education, and social development. To implement a comprehensive and sustainable community development plan, community leaders need to consider aspects for each of these areas. This section reviews these pillars and how arts can contribute to each aspect of community development. Table 10.1 summarizes these conclusions. ARTS AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT The Louisiana Office of Cultural Development, housed under the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, “promote(s) a Louisiana that values and embraces Louisiana cultural assets as essential in shaping a vibrant future for our communities and citizens” (Louisiana Office of Cultural Development 2020). Many cities are turning to cultural development strategies to revitalize their urban cores. These initiatives will often improve the city’s image and promote tourism (Grodach and Sidaris 2007). These projects will also increase access to and awareness of the arts in the city. Even if people are not able to attend the art exhibition or performance, they will learn about them through 201
202
Leigh Nanney Hersey and Bryna Bobick
Table 10.1 The Contributions of Art to Five Pillars of Community Development Chapter/Pillar
Cultural
Konrath/Kisida—prosocial beh. Moldavanova—arts innovation Shockley/Kotleba—Tilted Arc Lee, et al.—end-of-life discussions Hersey/Foy—iconic public art Gallagher—cultural districts Miraglia—art ed. service-learning Makemson—teacher retention Bobick—Community Art Aca.
x x x
Economic
Health Education Social x x x x x
x x x
x x x x
x x x x x
x x x
Source: Authors’ Calculations.
advertising efforts. Many of these strategies involve building larger institutions such as museums, performing arts centers, and the creation of widescale festivals (Grodach and Sidaris 2007). Many of the projects discussed in the book are of much smaller-scale, but impactful, nevertheless. The arts and its connection to cultural development are the most apparent through each of the chapters presented in the book. However, some authors took a deeper look at the connection and how it led to an improved cultural awareness with an emphasis on the arts in their communities. Gallagher explored the presence of cultural districts which support the arts and promote them as a valuable asset for the designated communities. Hersey and Foy examined how the Herons on the Bayou iconic sculpture project elevated the awareness of public art in the cities of Monroe and West Monroe, Louisiana. Shockley and Kotleba showed how even a controversial piece of public art can bring a deeper awareness of the arts to those who experience it. Moldavanova examined innovative strategies conducted by arts organizations in Detroit in order to improve their public outreach capacity. Each of these examples shows how the projects are engaging their communities with the arts in a more meaningful way. ARTS AND ECONOMICAND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT While many people appreciate the arts purely for the aesthetic properties, others must be convinced that the arts bring economic value to the city before they can support them. The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) considers arts and culture to be “consistent sources of economic growth” (NCSL 2013). The group, which examines legislation across all fifty states and the District of Columbia, notes that arts and cultural policies can contribute to the economy by attracting businesses, creating new jobs, increasing tax revenues, and promoting tourism. They also suggest that “the
Conclusion
203
arts and culture play a key role in urban revitalization and community renewal strategies.” Gallagher’s work on cultural districts presents an example of the arts and economic development. Not only do cultural districts enhance the arts in a community but they can also support the economy through increased tourism and additional jobs for artists. Closely tied to economic development is the idea of workforce development. Jacobs and Hawley (2009) describe workforce development is “the coordination of public and private sector policies and programs that provides individuals with the opportunity for a sustainable livelihood and helps organizations achieve exemplary goals, consistent with the societal context(p. 2597).” Makemson’s work on teacher resiliency is an important aspect of workforce development. As he noted in his chapter, art teacher turnover is high across the country, and particularly in his state of New Mexico. Some of this turnover can be minimized by incorporating resiliency skills into the art education programs, allowing new teachers to be better prepared with the realities of teaching. ARTS AND HEALTH DEVELOPMENT Healthy communities lead to better communities. There are many determinants for a healthy community, including the physical environment, access to health care, and minimizing safety concerns, among others (Lincy Institute 2012). When considering a healthy community, it is important to include both the physical and mental health aspects. Lee et al.’s chapter makes a strong argument that the arts can play a role in creating a healthy communication. In their discussion of how a participatory arts project assists people who are facing death and end-of-life issues demonstrates how the arts can help people talk more openly about difficult topics. The project has helped improve communications between the elders and their healthcare professionals. While fewer chapters in this book have explored the relationship between arts and developing healthy communities, it is an important topic to consider for future research. ARTS AND EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT It is hard to ignore the role education plays in community development. It is through education that so many of the other goals can be met. Education can be linked to higher incomes (Wolla and Sullivan 2017) and better health (Center on Society and Health 2015). Therefore, connecting arts education and community development is key to a comprehensive assessment of strategies. This book is enhanced by three chapters studying the link between arts
204
Leigh Nanney Hersey and Bryna Bobick
education and community development. Bobick’s chapter on a communitybased arts program taught by university art education students demonstrates the power the arts can have on secondary school-age children. It also explored how the art education students were better prepared to teach after earning their degrees. Miragila’s chapter on service-learning through arts education outlines how the students were able to improve their own teaching skills while providing seniors the opportunity to create art. They also connected the arts to environmental learning, another aspect of community development, although beyond the scope of this book. Makemson’s work on the importance of training art education students to be resilient not only support their careers but also the learning of their students. Children benefit from certainty and continuity in their lives. Having consistent teachers who are committed to them and their schools can improve learning outcomes. ARTS AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT The final area of community development explored in the book is the one of social development. In this context, social development considers a wide variety of attributes that make us a community, rather than just individuals living in the same place. It brings into play characteristics such as prosocial behavior, empathy, social capital, and connectivity. Communities can be made stronger through social capital as it creates connections between people. It can serve to bond communities with interests as well as bridge communities who may have had little interaction prior to this connection. For example, the Herons on the Bayou project outlined by Hersey and Foy demonstrated both the bonding and bridging aspects of social capital. The project provided an opportunity for the artist community to bond, strengthening their ties and gaining new members. It also bridged communities as the artists, sponsors, and general community have come together to support and appreciate the project. Konrath and Kisida’s extensive analysis on the impacts of arts experiences suggests that the arts provide a cognitive pathway, opening participants to others’ ideas. Their research also shows that the arts can often take on difficult topics and explain them in ways that “energize and activate” people, thereby motivating them to take a stand on the issue. RECURRING THEMES In addition to demonstrating the ways that the arts can contribute to community development, recurring themes have emerged that seem to lead to
Conclusion
205
successful projects. These themes include a focus on asset-based community development and the importance of cross-sectoral partnerships. This section will outline the book’s contributions to these two areas of study. Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) The research contributed to the book also demonstrates that the arts are rooted in asset-based community development. “Asset-based community development (ABCD) is a strategy for sustainable community-driven development” (Collaborative for Neighborhood Transformation n.d., p 2). It builds on the assets that are already found in the community and mobilizes individuals, associations, and institutions to come together to build on their assets—not concentrate on their needs. When using asset-based community development, there are several guidelines to keep in mind. First, use what you already have in the community. Building on resources already existing in the community, rather than importing something from another region, is particularly important in the arts. In her work on arts development in small cities in the Mississippi River Valley Delta, Hersey (2017) found that these cities found success by capitalizing on the art that was already present. As Brandi Harliss, Mayor of Paducah, Kentucky, home of the National Quilt Museum, stated, “Use what you have to create what you want.” Gallagher’s work on cultural districts demonstrates how communities that implement them recognize the value the arts have on the area and build on this to build a stronger economy. When building on asset-based community development, it is important to remember that assets are inherent in social relationships. This principle brings to light why public art projects can bring so much more than beauty to the site. Shockley and Kotleba’s work shows how Serra’s Tilted Arc contributed to building cultural capital despite the controversies surrounding the piece. This cultural capital serves as a “force of creativity and innovation” in the process. While there was little controversy with the Herons on the Bayou project, the relationships among the project partners led to the success of the project. It is also important for community leaders to step back and let the community members take the lead in asset-based community development. Lee et al. demonstrate this with the participatory art project that helps people discuss end-of-life issues. Although the project is facilitated by trained artists, the participating community members drive the content. This format allows the project to reflect the individual needs of each participant. It also reinforces another asset-based community development principle, to practice active participation and empowerment.
206
Leigh Nanney Hersey and Bryna Bobick
Cross-Sector Collaboration Another recurring theme presented in the research is the cross-sector collaboration that supports successful arts-based community development initiatives. Bryson, Crosby, and Stone (2006) define cross-sector collaboration as “the linking or sharing of information, resources, activities, and capabilities by organizations in two or more sectors to achieve jointly an outcome that could not be achieved by organizations in one sector separately” (p. 44). Too often, projects are rooted in the government, nonprofit, or commercial sector with little collaboration between them. O’Brien, et al. (2012) found that cross-sector collaboration has the potential for higher-quality work when addressing community issues led to improved performance and an increase in the quality of work. Additionally, they found that including private partners in collaborations focused on public issues had a large positive impact on the work quality. One example of this is the diverse revenue streams that supported the Herons on the Bayou project (Hersey and Foy). This project depended on a federal grant for start-up funding, with additional initial support from nonprofit, local government, and quasi-governmental agencies. Corporate sponsorships rounded out the financial support that made the project feasible. Bobick and Miraglia both showed how universities can work with community partners to advance the opportunity and connectiveness. Bobick’s arts education students host a Community Arts Academy for underserved children in the public library. Miraglia’s students worked with the public school system, a nonprofit environmental center, and a local government agency on aging to create meaningful projects. Despite the potential for improved outcomes, cross-sector collaborations can also be difficult to initiate and maintain and are often ineffective (Bryson, Crosby, and Stone 2006). Successful collaborations are built on trust (Worth 2018), resulting in information to be more easily shared and improved relationships between the partners (Yankey and Willen 2005). While trust can be built after groups have worked together (Guo and Acar, 2005), it is not often present during new collaborations. Littlefield et al. (2012) found that the unique approaches the different sectors use to tackle problems and the inexperience of working with other sectors cam make cross-sector collaborations more difficult. Goldsmith and Eggers (2004) maintain that much of collaborative failure can be traced back to its original design. When considering cross-sector collaboration on arts-based community development projects, it is important to spend time planning the collaboration and the partnership expectations. Both Bobick (Community Arts Academy) and Miraglia (environmental center and council on aging) addressedhow their pre-planning contributed to successful service-learning projects. In her chapter, Miraglia provides guidelines that
Conclusion
207
can help those new to creating such partnerships. Bobick stresses the importance of consistent communication with her partners throughout the project. Both of these projects also speak to the value of university-community partnerships. Norris-Tirrell et al. (2010) stresses the benefit of having longterm service-learning and engaged scholarship initiatives between universities and the community and the contribution these partnerships can have on city revitalization projects. Including arts-oriented programs in universitycommunity partnerships encourages a broad spectrum of opportunities for students, faculty, and residents alike. Another example of this universitycommunity interaction is the Herons on the Bayou project (Hersey and Foy), which was led by a faculty member and included art designs by university students. Reinforcing the importance of cross-sector collaboration, the book itself reflects the diverse disciplines that research arts-based community development. Contributing authors represent artists, arts educators, and public and nonprofit scholars. Several chapters feature authors from different disciplines. These various viewpoints demonstrate how important it is to work together for successful community development initiatives, rather than stay in silos that are so prevalent in academic and government institutions. To promote continued interdisciplinary research, university officials should consider its implications on tenure and promotion guidelines. While showing expertise in one’s field by publishing in specific journals certainly adds to the perception of the department, it detracts from interdisciplinary work such as this. Since our communities are interacting with each other, it is valuable for researchers to practice this strategy, too. FINAL THOUGHTS Much of the research presented in this book focuses on the success of the artsbased community development projects. Initial results from the Herons on the Bayou suggest that it will be a successful project, even though improvements can be made with future projects. Shockley and Kotleba argue that even though Serra’s Tilted Arc failed as a public art piece, it succeeded in increasing cultural capital. The success demonstrated in these examples is not to suggest that all projects will be successful. They are presented to demonstrate that such projects can be successful and provide guidelines and inspiration for those who want to pursue similar projects. However, the field could benefit from more scholarship on arts-based community development initiatives that did not meet their expectations. Community leaders can also learn from these failed projects, gaining better knowledge about what not to do and when these projects are not feasible. For scholars, writing about null results can be
208
Leigh Nanney Hersey and Bryna Bobick
difficult, but for practitioners, it can help them see multiple views of an issue and use this information to make the best decision for them. Additional research exploring the relationships between the arts and community development would benefit artists, community leaders, and scholars alike. In some ways, the arts are struggling to survive. For example, public schools in Oklahoma cut 1,110 fine arts classes between 2014 and 2018. Nearly 30 percent of Oklahoma public school students attended a school in 2018 that had no fine arts classes (Wendler 2019). Rural and low-income schools are disproportionately impacted by these cuts, reinforcing existing inequity in the school system. Makemson shows how this gap in turn affects teacher retention, particularly in the arts. Oklahoma is not alone in these cuts. In New York City, a city known for its arts culture, the 2020–2021 budget cut funding to art education in the city’s public schools by about 70 percent and an additional $23 million was cut from the Department of Cultural Affairs budget (Cascone 2020). Despite such budget cuts, cities also want to engage the arts to foster improvement. In 2017, the Delta Regional Authority, a federal agency promoting economic development in the Mississippi River Valley Delta, awarded $309,000, allowing communities to create arts-based projects to stimulate economic and community development. The Herons on the Bayou was one of these projects. The City of Camden, NJ, is initiating a public art project that will turn abandoned homes and lots into works of art (Hendrickson 2020). But with the arts education budget drying up, where will the future pipeline of artists come from? Continuing to research the broad impacts of the arts on individuals and communities could help arts organizations gain the footing they need to explain their benefits and maintain sustainability. Hopefully, the contributions presented in this book will help readers see the potential arts-based community development has for their cities. However, the arts should not be considered the panacea that cures all development issues a city has. Instead, the arts should be included in conversation when discussing possible ways to build a city—whether it is economically, culturally, educationally, healthwise, or socially. The presence of a strong arts community does not eliminate all problems. But it can be an indicator that the residents are open to a variety of ideas that strengthen their neighborhoods. REFERENCES Ashby, Denise T. and Jennifer Pharr. “What Is a Healthy Community?” The Lincy Institute. University of Nevada Las Vegas. January 2012. https://www.unlv.edu/ sites/default/files/24/Health-Community-January2012.pdf. Bryson, John M., Barbara C. Crosby, and Melissa Middleton Stone. “The design and implementation of Cross‐Sector collaborations: Propositions from the literature.” Public Administration Review 66 (2006): 44–55.
Conclusion
209
Cascone, Sarah. “New York City's 2021 Budget Slashes Already Modest Funding for Public-School Arts Education by 70 Percent.” artnet News, July 1, 2020. https://ne ws.artnet.com/art-world/nyc-slashes-art-education-budget-1891325. Center on Society and Health. “Why Education Matters to Health: Exploring the Causes.” Virginia Commonwealth University, February 13, 2015. https://society health.vcu.edu/work/the-projects/why-education-matters-to-health-exploring-the-c auses.html. Delta Regional Authority. Creative Placemaking Initiative. October 17, 2017. https:// dra.gov/initiatives/dra-partnerships/creative-placemaking-initiative/. Goldsmith, Stephen, and William D. Eggers. Governing by Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector. Brookings Institution Press, 2005. Grodach, Carl, and Anastasia Loukaitou‐Sideris. “Cultural development strategies and urban revitalization: A survey of US cities.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 13, no. 4 (2007): 349–370. Jacobs, Ronald L., and Joshua D. Hawley. “The emergence of ‘workforce development’: Definition, conceptual boundaries and implications.” In International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, pp. 2537–2552. Springer, Dordrecht, 2009. Harniss, Brandy. Comments to Delta Leadership Institute Executive Academy. Paducah, KY. August 2017. Hendrickson, Rebeccah. “Camden Project Uses Public Art to Fight Blight.” 6abc Philadelphia. WPVI-TV, September 11, 2020. https://6abc.com/camden-project -uses-public-art-to-fight-blight/6419336/. Littlefield, Jennifer, Julie O’Brien, and Leigh Nanney Hersey. “Participant or Spectator? Nonprofit Engagement in Multi-Sector Collaboratives.” Paper presented at the American Society for Public Administration’s 72nd Annual Conference, Baltimore, MD. March 2011. Louisiana Office of Cultural Development. “Welcome to the Office of Cultural Development!” 2020. https://www.crt.state.la.us/cultural-development/. Mejeur, Jeanne. “NCSL Labor and Economic Development Committee—Policy.” Arts, Culture and Economic Development Policy. National Conference on State Legislatures, 2013. https://www.ncsl.org/ncsl-in-dc/standing-committees/labor-an d-economic-development/arts-culture-and-economic-development-policy.aspx. Norris-Tirrell, Dorothy, Katherine Lambert-Pennington, and Stan Hyland. “Embedding service learning in engaged scholarship at research institutions to revitalize metropolitan neighborhoods.” Journal of Community Practice 18, no. 2–3 (2010): 171–189. Wendler, Emily. “Decline in School Arts Programs Follows Funding Drop, but Cuts Aren’t Equally Felt | StateImpact Oklahoma.” NPR. NPR, January 17, 2019. https ://stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/2019/01/17/decline-in-school-arts-programs-follo ws-funding-drop-but-cuts-arent-equally-felt/. Wolla, Scott A., and Jessica Sullivan. “Education, Income, and Wealth.” Economic Research—Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, January 2017. https://research.stl ouisfed.org/publications/page1-econ/2017/01/03/education-income-and-wealth/.
Appendix A
Lesson Plan L. Schaffler and C. Lamm
FOUND OBJECT SCULPTURE INSPIRED BY ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN DOT PAINTINGS Media: Found objects on canvas board Project Length: Ninety minutes (fifteen-minute presentation + seventy-five minutes for production) Themes: 1. Found Object Sculpture inspired by Australian Aboriginal Dot Paintings 2. “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” 3. The importance of reusing plastic on a global scale to reduce the environmental impact of plastics on the ocean. Standards: National Visual Art Standard VA:Cr1.1.5a: “Combine ideas to generate an innovative idea for art-making” NAEA Visual Art Standards. 2018. http://www.nationalartsstandards.or g/sites/default/files/Visual%20Arts%20at%20a%20Glance%20-%20new%2 0copyright%20info.pdf
211
212
Appendix A
Objectives: Learners will become familiar with Australian Aboriginal Dot Paintings, the Great Barrier Reef, found object sculpture, and the concept of “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.” They will also learn the answers to “Why is recycling important?” and “What can you do to reuse plastic?” Using various sizes and colors of plastic found objects, learners will create an original sculpture on canvas. The learner will apply new knowledge of design principles while looking at Aboriginal Dot Paintings for inspiration. Background Rationale: Students should be aware of the need to “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” in the context of world issues regarding trash in the oceans and, in this lesson, how that trash endangers the Great Barrier Reef in relationship to Australia. Artists Studied: We will look at the artwork of three Aboriginal Australian artists. The first, Loongkoonan, who didn’t start painting until she was 90, is now 109 years old. Tjjapaltjarri Tommy Lowry is from the famous Pupunya region and Clarice Tunkin is a young artist who comes from a well-known family of painters. We will discuss how Aboriginal Australians do not have a written language and therefore use symbols in their artwork to tell the stories of their cultural history. Materials: • Black canvas boards • Pencils for writing names • Aileen’s Tacky Glue in individual dispensers for small objects • Hot glue for large objects (dispensed by teachers at stations) • Large accessible bins of various plastic items including toys, Mardi Gras beads, bottle tops, etc. • Scissors for cutting beads • Plastic trays and cups to gather found objects Resources: • Marshall, James Vance. Stories from the Billabong. Frances Lincoln Ltd, 2010.
Appendix A
213
• Slide presentation that includes images and information to support instruction • Handouts given to students beforehand to generate excitement about the lesson and to give them the opportunity to bring their own materials from home Vocabulary: • Found objects • Focal point objects • Repetition • Radial pattern • Linear pattern • Contrast • Grouping • Overlapping • Varying size • Inspiration Timeline for the Lesson: The presentation and demonstration will be during the first fifteen minutes of the lesson. The rest of the time allowed (seventy-five minutes) will be used for creating artwork. Presentation: Lee and Carson will begin the lesson with a presentation on Found Object Sculpture, Australia, Australian Aboriginal artists, and their dot paintings. Students will gather at the front of the room and Lee will read an Aboriginal folklore tale from the book Stories from the Billabong. Lee and Carson will continue the presentation on “Where is Australia?,” “Where is the Great Barrier Reef?,” a description and the size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the concept of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and tying the concept of “Reusing” found plastic objects into artworks. Demonstration: Learners will be asked to gather at a table and Carson will give a demonstration on choosing a focal point object, asking a teacher to attach objects with hot glue, and using varying sizes and colors of objects to create some of the learners’ desired designs. Learners will be shown the idea of grouping
214
Appendix A
similar objects, as well as repeating patterns around their focal point objects like dot art using beads as linear elements. Learners will be shown examples of the new vocabulary words; found objects, focal point objects, radial pattern, linear pattern, and varying size (throughout the demonstration). At that point, learners will be instructed to select a focal point object, get a canvas, ask a teacher to attach their large objects with hot glue, and start gluing smaller items to their canvasses. Figures A.1 and A.2 show examples of the completed project. Learner Art Creation: Learners will be encouraged to look through the found object table located in the center of the room, choose objects, and move to their tables, which will be arranged in groups of four learners, to create their artworks. Learners will
Figure A.1 C. Lamm, 2019, Found Objects on Canvas, 8 × 10″. Source: Carson Lamm.
Appendix A
215
be encouraged to move back and forth from the found object table as they form their design, allowing them to interact with other learners’ tables for communication, collaboration, and inspiration. Learners will be given time cues throughout the lesson to give them clear-cut deadlines to help them stay on task. Procedures: • Watch the demonstration and listen for new art vocabulary. • Go to the found object table and choose a focal point object and four or five strands of beads to create your border. • Go to your worktable; write your name on the back of your canvas. • Ask a teacher to attach your focal point and bead border with hot glue. • Move back and forth from your worktable to the found object table to find objects to inspire you to create your original design. Use the Tacky
Figure A.2 L. Schaffler, 2019, Found Objects on Canvas, 8 × 10″. Source: Lee Schaffler.
216
Appendix A
Glue on your table to glue the objects onto your canvas as you create your design. • Remember to use the Australian Aboriginal Dot Paintings for inspiration. Closure: At the end of the lesson, ask and encourage other teachers to ask learners about their found object sculptures and if they incorporated any new ideas from the lesson plan. Learners will be reminded about the theme, “What can we do to reduce, reuse and recycle plastic?” and “How can we reuse plastic in everyday applications of artworks?”
Appendix B
Theorizing Cultural Capital and Macro-Micro Alternatives
THROSBY’S ECONOMIC CONCEPTION OF CULTURAL CAPITAL Throsby’s conception of cultural capital is explicitly an economic theory. “Cultural capital in an economic sense,” Throsby (2001) writes, “can provide a means of representing culture which enables both tangible and intangible manifestations of culture to be articulated as long-lasting stores of value and providers of benefits for individuals and groups” (Economics and Culture 44). Serving as a repository of value, that is, as a stock, and facilitating the flow of cultural services are the two primary functions of Throsbian cultural capital. “[Stock] refers to the quantity of such capital in existence at a given time. . . . This capital stock gives rise over time to a flow of services which may be consumed or may be used to produce further goods and services” (Throsby 2001, 46). Throsbian cultural capital thus serves as the means of cultural production and is thus thoroughly economic capital. (See also Throsby 1995; Throsby 1999, 3–7; Throsby 2001, 43–7.) Throsby elaborates on his conception of cultural capital by distinguishing between two types of cultural capital. First, there is tangible cultural capital, such as “buildings, structures, sites and locations endowed with cultural significance, and artworks and artifacts existing as private goods, such as paintings, sculptures, and other objects.” Second, there is intangible cultural capital, which is the “set of ideas, practices, beliefs, traditions and values which serve to identify and bind together a given group of people . . . together with the stock of artworks existing in the public domain as public goods.” Each form of cultural capital Throsby identifies exists in an objectified or embodied form. Even intangible cultural capital is reified to a certain extent in the stock of artworks. Much like the intangible and tangible aspects of nature 217
218
Appendix B
(an analogy Throsby himself repeatedly makes), Throsbian cultural capital is a stock of objects and embodied ideas and the services that flow from them. An important distinction in Throsby’s conception of cultural capital is between “cultural value and economic value.” “Cultural capital gives rise to both cultural and economic value, [while] ‘ordinary’ capital provides only economic value” (2001, 45). In tangible cultural capital, “cultural value may give rise to economic value.” For example, The asset [e.g., heritage building] may have economic value, which derives simply from its physical existence as a building and irrespective of its cultural worth. But the economic value of the asset is likely to be augmented, perhaps significantly so, because of its cultural value. (Throsby 1999, 8)
In contrast to tangible cultural capital, intangible cultural capital cannot be exchanged and thus cannot directly produce to economic value. Rather, the value of intangible cultural capital flows from it (Throsby 1999, 8). The creation of cultural value and economic value together demonstrate the productive function of Throsbian cultural capital as economic capital. THE MACRO-LEVEL: THE STOCK AND FLOW OF CULTURAL CAPITAL Throsby’s conception of cultural capital is consistent with many common notions of the existence of cultural objects and artifacts to a particular society. At the founding of the National Endowment for the Arts in 1965 in the United States, for example, Henry Hyde referred to cultural property as a “commons,” that is, “the ‘creative wealth of the past’ that now ‘exists in the present’ and on which we continue to build artistically and intellectually” (quoted in Campbell 1999, 5). Similarly, in 2001, the Center for Arts and Culture, an arts policy think tank in Washington, DC, conceived of America’s culture as “a national resource, the accumulated capital of America’s ingenuity and creativity” (CAC 2001, 180). Morato’s “culture society” also seems germane to Throsby’s conception of cultural capital: “In this new cultural configuration, culture represents a significant resource within the general economic and political sphere” (2003, 250–51). Other commentators link stocks of cultural capital to the concept of nationhood. Most significantly, Bourdieu in his essay “Manet and the Institutionalization of Anomie” (1993) argues that Academic (i.e., salon) art in nineteenth-century France served a state purpose of establishing juste milieu: “it is quite clear that the valorization of academic art is inscribed in the cultural restoration undertaken after the crises of the Revolution and the
Appendix B
219
Empire, through which political regimes, seeking legitimacy, attempted to recreate a consensus around an eclectic culture of a juste milieu” (1993, 240). “Art, architecture, literature, theatre, dance and music,” Radbourne and Fraser similarly write, “provide some of the most translatable and permanent media for the expression of national identity” (1996, 9). Cultural capital in this usage can contribute to such areas as international prestige, the preservation and reinforcement of cultural identity, education of the young and the “worthy poor,” and the preservation of cultural evidence to foster culture (Shubik 1999). Quinn notices a similar realization in Great Britain: “In the period of European restoration which took place after World War Two, the notion of ‘culture’ assumed new significance [for Great Britain] as the ‘essence of a society’s identity’” (1998, 75). Therefore, insofar as Throsby is referring to a preexisting stock of objects, be they artworks, national heritage, and so on, he is operationalizing his conception of cultural capital at the macro-level of cultural policy and other “systems-level” cultural phenomena. As suggested above in the main body, perhaps a rough index of Throsbian cultural capital is the artwork that is covered within Oxford History of Art (e.g., Hopkins 2000) or the Thames & Hudson World of Art (e.g., Archer 1997). In shorthand, Throsbian cultural capital embodies a macro-conception. BOURDIEU’S SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPTION OF CULTURAL CAPITAL Bourdieu offers a sociological conception of cultural capital. His conception gestures toward economics simply by employing the term “capital,” but ultimately it is incompatible with modern neoclassical or Austrian economic notions of capital as the means of production or a process in time, respectively. “Capital,” Bourdieu writes in “The Forms of Capital” (1986), “is accumulated labor (in its materialized form or its ‘incorporated,’ embodied form) which, when appropriated on private, i.e., exclusive, basis by agents or groups of agents, enables them to appropriate social energy in the form of reified or living labor” (Bourdieu 1986, 241–42). Later in “The Forms of Capital” Bourdieu specifies three types of cultural capital1: (1) embodied cultural capital, which “in the form of what is called culture, cultivation, Bildung, presupposes a process of embodiment incorporation” (1986, 244); (2) objectified cultural capital, which is “defined only in relation with cultural capital in its embodied form”; and (3) institutionalized cultural capital, which is academic qualifications (1986, 246). According to Holt, Bourdieu’s typology of cultural capital allows for both virtual, abstract cultural capital and concrete, particularized cultural capital: “Cultural capital exists both as a single abstracted form that has only a virtual existence, and
220
Appendix B
as many different realized particular forms as the abstracted form becomes instantiated in social life” (1997, 96). Further, cultural value also does not seem to be based strictly on labor. For example, Fowler notes: “Hence Bourdieu argues that the material value only represents the outer husk of art. Its inner kernel is collective veneration of spirituality and genius” (1997, 79; emphasis in the original). Bourdieu’s typology of cultural capital implies the distribution more than production with value independent of labor-power. THE MICRO-LEVEL: INDIVIDUAL ACQUISITION, CONVERSION, AND REPRODUCTION OF CULTURAL CAPITAL “What differences make a difference?” Dyke (1999, 194) asks. What benefits do “distinction through cultural capital” confer? Or, expressed somewhat rhetorically, why does Bourdieu choose to employ a conception of capital if he does not employ it in the sense of modern economics? What does the term “capital” mean to Bourdieu? “Bourdieu’s general answer . . . is that various forms of capital—social, cultural, and economic—make a difference as individuals pursue trajectories and assume positions within a generalized social space” (Dyke 1999, 194). A major theme of Distinction might be summarized as demonstrating that the social interactions in the form of individual acquisition, conversion, and reproduction of cultural capital enable individuals to adjust their position-taking in the social space. Bourdieu’s conception of cultural capital is therefore a micro-level theory of social interaction. First, there are acquisitions of cultural capital. Bourdieuan cultural capital is acquired individually at the micro-level. Individuals are not naturally endowed with cultural capital; rather, they socially acquire the cultural capital of its habitus as “the product of upbringing and education” (Bourdieu 1984, 1) or “domestic transmission and scholarly culture” (Fowler 1997, 47). Artistic competence, the aesthetic disposition, or the individual accumulation of cultural capital “is the result of a long process of inculcation which begins (or not) in the family, often in conformity with its level of economic, academic and cultural capital, and is reinforced by the educational system. It also involves prolonged exposure to works of art” (Johnson 1993, 23). Thus the “two modalities of cultural competence” are “inherited capital,” which comes from individuals’ experience within their family, and “acquired capital,” which comes from individual effort in higher education. From these intrafamily and extrafamilial social interactions individuals acquire cultural capital is the derivative result. Cultural capital is also instrumentally involved in specific social interactions that Bourdieu calls conversions and reproduction strategies in the social space.
Appendix B
221
On the one hand, conversions change capital “held in one form to another, more accessible, more profitable or more legitimate form” and “tends to induce a transformation of asset structure” (Bourdieu 1984, 131). Cultural capital is transformed into economic capital such that “the volume and composition of capital give specific form and value to the determinations which the other factors (age, sex, place of residence etc.) impose on practices” (Bourdieu 1984, 107).2 On the other hand, reproduction strategies are “the set of outwardly very different practices whereby individuals or families tend, unconsciously or consciously, to maintain or improve their position in the class structure” (Bourdieu 1984, 125). Individually acquired cultural capital thus begins to materialize in social life through conversions and reproduction strategies. Conversions and reproduction strategies occur along trajectories in social life. Trajectories are the “volume and structure of capital, defined synchronically and diachronically,” and result from family influences and reflexively the trajectory itself: The correlation between a practice and social origin (measured by the father’s position, the real value of which may have suffered a decline concealed by constant nominal value) is the resultant of two effects (which may either reinforce or offset each other): on the one hand, the inclusion effect of directly exerted by the family or the original conditions of existence; on the other hand, the specific effect of social trajectory, that is, the effects of social rise or decline on dispositions and opinions, position of origin being, in this logic, merely the starting point of a trajectory, the reference whereby the slope of the social career is defined. (Bourdieu, 111)
The result is a three-dimensional space for the conditions of production of habitus consisting of “(1) the volume of capital, (2) composition of capital, and (3) change in these two properties over time (manifested by past and potential trajectory in social space)” (Bourdieu 1984, 114). Bourdieu thus attempts to hypostatize cultural capital through the conversion and reproduction strategies of cultural capital along trajectories in the social space. Bourdieu, then, is using cultural capital in a Marxian sense: capital as a social relation. For Marx, “capital is not a thing, but rather a definite set of social relations which belong to a definite historical period in human development, and which give the things enmeshed within these social relations their specific content” (Shaikh 1990, 73). Marxian capital in this sense is the objectification of the relations between the capitalists and laborers, or what Bourdieu terms “objectified cultural capital” in his tripartite typology. Marx writes in the Manifesto of the Communist Party ([1888]): In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, in the same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working class, develop—a class of labourers,
222
Appendix B
who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital. (p. 60; [sic])
Syllogistically, Marx concludes: “Capital, therefore, is not a personal, it is a social power” (68). Further, just as cultural habitus and cultural capital are intimately related in Bourdieu through conversions and reproduction strategies, class and capital relate to each in Marx’s conceptualization of the capitalist epoch: “The reproduction of any given society in turn requires not only the reproduction of its people, but also of the things they need for their existence, and of the social relations which surround both people and things” (Shaikh 1990, 73). Individual power, legitimacy, domination through social relations—these are the objectification of Bourdieuan cultural capital via a Marxian maieutic. Bourdieu’s economistic conception of cultural capital refers not to the means of production or a process in time; rather, it refers to social interaction. Thus, Bourdieuan cultural capital serves as a micro-level conception. MACRO-MICRO LINKAGES: CULTURAL CAPITAL, ART CONTROVERSIES, AND ABCD The models of macro-micro linkages of cultural capital provide a descriptive framework for understanding the operation of the cultural capital—art controversies—ABCD complex. Theoretical work in sociology has developed macro-micro linkages to bidirectionally connect micro-level phenomena to macro-level phenomena. Previously, reductionism was the most common theoretical move between multilevel phenomena, and it still remains popular. Reductionism, specifically economic reductionism, has always been controversial. But now, Alexander and Giesen assert, “the conflict over reduction is replaced by the search for linkage” (1987, 3). While macro-micro linkages have not completely replaced reductionism, they offer a tempting theoretical alternative. And, more to the point, macro-micro linkages might provide a useful theoretical device for connecting Bourdieu’s micro-level conception of cultural capital to Throsby’s macro-level conception of cultural capital. Three distinct macro-micro linkages hold particular promise for connecting Throsby’s and Bourdieu’s conceptions of cultural capital. The first is the macro-micro linkage that emerges from integrating Giddens’ theory of structuration (Giddens 1984) and Collins’ “microfoundations of macrosociology” (1987; 1981). Both models are grouped together because they attempt to link micro-level social phenomena and interactions to larger macro-level structures in similar ways. Briefly, Giddens’ theory of structuration employs a “duality of structure” in which “the structural properties of social systems
Appendix B
223
exist only in so far as forms of social conduct are reproduced chronically across time and space” (1984, xxi). In structuration, “the position between ‘micro’ and ‘macro’ is best reconceptualized as concerning how interaction in contexts of co-presence is structurally implicated in systems of broad timespace distanciation” (xxvi). Collins, then, proposes a theory of “multi-level determinism” (1987) based on “interaction ritual chains” (1981) that fits quite nicely with Giddens’ theory. Collins (1987) provides the fascinating case of the development of German Idealism to illustrate the “microfoundations of macrosociology.” [Becker’s (1982) “art worlds” might also complement and refine the Giddens-Collins macro-micro linkage specifically in relation to tangible cultural capital.] Thus, the Giddens-Collins macro-micro linkage might be able to facilitate the connection between micro-level social phenomena and interactions, such as Bourdieuan cultural capital, and larger macro-level structures, such as Throsbian cultural capital. Another potential macro-micro linkage to connect Throsbian and Bourdieuan cultural capital can be found in Marx himself. Attempting this macro-micro linkage in many ways might be the most challenging of the three because the early-Marx/late-Marx bifurcation seems to apply even to his macro-micro linkage. Nonetheless, Alexander and Giesen observe: “[Marx’s] focus earlier was on emergent properties located at the empirical level of the individual; his focus later is on the emergent properties located at the empirical level of the group, collectivity of the system” (1987, 6). Marx, then, moves from an individual unit of analysis in his early work to the human species unit of analysis in his later work (also see Tucker 1969, 11). Nevertheless, Marx bases much of his collective work on “the social nature of man”: “Marx (1) rejected positing society as a separate entity partaking of any reality over and beyond the summation of its individual human components, and yet (2) still insisted upon the specifically social nature of man” (McQuarie 178, 17). The premise of the Marxian “social nature of man” links the individual parts to the whole and thus might provide a sound basis for a macro-micro linkage to connect Throsby’s and Bourdieu’s conceptions of cultural capital. A third candidate to connect Bourdieu’s and Throsby’s conceptions of cultural capital is Coleman’s macro-micro interpretation of Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Foundations of Social Theory; 1981).
NOTES 1. The definitional problems of Bourdieuan cultural capital are manifold. Some commentators on Bourdieu distinguish between cultural capital and symbolic capital.
224
Appendix B
Johnson (1993), for example, defines symbolic capital as the “degree of accumulated prestige, celebrity, consecration or honour and is founded on a dialectic of knowledge (conaissance) and recognition (reconnaissance)” and cultural capital as “forms of cultural knowledge, competences or dispositions.” (7). Others do not distinguish between cultural and symbolic capital (e.g., Frow, 1995 footnote 12). Still others define cultural capital for Bourdieu: “We propose to define cultural capital as institutionalized, i.e., widely shared, high status cultural signals (attitudes, preferences, formal knowledge, behaviors, goods and credentials) used for social and cultural exclusion” (Lamont and Lareau 1998, 156; emphasis in the original). Here we attempt to work through only Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital as he expressed in Distinction (1984) as “the aesthetic disposition.” 2. Frow (1995) argues that Bourdieu’s conversion argument is “incomplete”: “In the first place because the conversion of capitals can take place only under certain conditions and at certain restricted levels of the market, and in the second place because conversion is not reciprocal (it is possible to convert cultural into economic capital, but not vice versa)” (40). Bourdieu anticipated such a criticism and offers the following rebuttal: “‘Economic’ capital cannot guarantee the specific profits offered by the field—and by the same token the ‘economic’ profits that they will often bring in time—unless it is reconverted into symbolic capital” (Bourdieu 1992, 148).
Index
Note: Page references for figures/tables are italicized. acquisitions, cultural capital, 67, 220 Acuff, Joni Boyd, 144 Advance Care Planning (ACP), 88 Advance Medical Directives (AMD), 88 affective pathway, 11 aging population in Singapore, 88 amenities, and cultural districts, 125–29 Americans for the Arts, 107 American Sign Language program, 175 Appleman, Deborah, 165, 173 Argiro, C., 117 Arizona Commission on the Arts, 1 Arkansas, 129 “Art and Objecthood” (Fried), 72 “Art Can Fail” (JR), 80–81 art controversies, 63–65; cultural capital and ABCD, 68–71; Tilted Arc (Serra), 63–65, 71–75; trapezoidal model, 65, 66, 68–70 Artist’s for Humanity (AFH), 77–78 arts, 1; as a tool for community organizing, 75–78; diverse benefits, 123; prosocial behaviors and traits, 1, 7–31; struggling to survive, 208; unique value of, 87–101 arts education, 4–5. See also community-based arts partnerships;
teacher/teaching resiliency; university-community partnerships arts institutions in Detroit, 2 ArtsWok Collaborative, 87, 91–93, 99, 101 asset-based community development (ABCD), 63–82, 205; art controversies and, 68–71; public art and, 75–81 Association for Public Art (aPA), 105 attrition of early-career teacher, 163, 165–69, 167–68 audience engagement, language for, 78–81 Belle Isle Aquarium, 53 Big Reveal Celebration, 112 Black Lives Matter, 82 Boal, Augusto, 99 Booker, Bob, 1 Both Sides, Now (BSN), 87, 93–95 Bourdieu, Pierre, 65, 67–69, 76, 219–23 Brack, 92 Broome, Jeffrey, 193–94 Bryson, John M., 206 Buffington, Melanie L., 117 225
226
Index
“Building Arts Participation through Transactions, Relationships, or Both” (Grams), 70 Bullough, Robert V., Jr., 182 Burton, David, 194 Calder, Alexander, 105 California, 129 Carlisle, Katie, 159 Carter, Audrey, 178 Carver-Thomas, Desiree, 165, 166, 174, 184 Catarina, Addi, 151 Cavioni, Valeria, 178 Cefai, Carmel, 178 Chambers, Robert, 99 Charland, William, 176 City of Camden, NJ, 208 City of Chicago Public Art Program, 107–8 civic competition, 125 civic engagement, 3, 87–101; arts-based approaches to, 96–101; building relationship, 99–100; interrelated features, 93; participatory theater process, 98–99 Clandinin, D. Jean, 172 classroom teaching, realities of, 177–79 cognitive pathway, 10–11 Cole, Bruce, 73 Coleman, James, 65–66, 68–70 Coleman-Weber trapezoidal model, 66, 68–70 collaboration, 139 Community Art Academy, 192–98; benefits, 194–95; budget, 193; challenges, 197; overview, 192–93; participants survey, 193–96; recruitment, 193; stakeholders, 192 community arts, 76 community-based art education (CBAE), 140 community-based arts partnerships, 142–60; culturally based partnership, 144, 156–59; integrated literacies
partnership, 142, 151–54; service learning, 4, 141–42, 143, 154–56; student case studies, 151–59 Community Chest, 91 community development, 1, 2 community learning, 140 community organizing, 75–78 community-university partnerships. See university-community partnerships Congdon, Kristin, 140–41, 144 Connecticut, 129, 130 content, 12–13 conversions, cultural capital, 67, 221 correlational studies, 8 Cotter, Holland, 82 Council on Aging, 154–56 Coutts, Glen, 117 Covid-19 pandemic, 129, 175 creative industries: economic impact, 123–24 creative placemaking, 108–9 Crimp, Douglas, 63, 72, 75 Crosby, Barbara C., 206 cross-sector collaboration, 206–7 cultural capital, 64–71, 220–22; acquisitions, 67, 220; art controversies and, 68–71; Bourdieu’s conception of, 65, 67– 68, 69, 76, 219–23; conversions, 67, 221; economic theory, 65, 66, 69, 217–18, 219, 222; macro-micro linkages of, 68–71, 222–23; Marx on, 221–22; reproduction strategies, 67–68, 221; sociological conception of, 65, 67–68, 69, 76, 219–23; Throsby’s conception of, 65, 66, 69, 217–18, 219, 222; trajectories, 221 Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, 2 cultural development strategies, 201–2 cultural districts, 3–4, 123–34; adaptation to local landscapes, 127– 28; amenities and, 125–29; defined, 124, 127; development of, 134;
Index
as scalable initiatives, 124; statecertified, 124–25, 129–33 culturally based partnership, 144, 156–59 culturally relevant pedagogies, 176–77 cultural organizations, 39 cultural tourism, 126. See also tourism Curry, Jennifer R., 178 Curwood, Susan, 194 dance and prosocial behaviors, 19–20, 26–27 Darling-Hammond, Linda, 165, 166, 174, 184 death in Singapore, 87–90. See also end-of-life dialogue Dee, Thomas S., 176 Delta Regional Authority, 208 DeLuna, Mary Cunningham, 192 Detroit Institute of the Arts (DIA), 2, 41, 53–54 Detroit metropolitan area: arts and culture sector, 41–42; nonprofit organizations, 41 Detroit Symphony Orchestra, 41 Detroit Zoological Society, 41 Discipline Based Arts Education (DBAE), 140 Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (Bourdieu), 65, 67, 220 Dowd, Timothy J., 169 Downtown Gallery Crawl, 114 Drama Box, 87, 93–95 Draper, Roni Jo, 182 economic development, 202–3 economic reductionism, 222 economic theory of cultural capital, 65, 66, 69, 217–19, 222 Ehlman, Matthew P., 128–29 8 Drawings: Weights and Measures (Serra), 73–74 Elizabeth Hastings Middle School (EHMS), 154
227
embeddedness, 9 embodied cultural capital, 67, 219 empathy, 7–8. See also prosocial behaviors and traits end-of-life care options, 89 end-of-life dialogue, 88, 89–90, 93–96; family members, 89; physicians and health-care professionals, 89; reasons for avoiding, 89 EPA Regional Environmental Sustainability Environmental Sciences, 115 Erhlich, Thomas, 92 Exit, 95 experimental studies, 9 Eyler, Janet, 142–43 Facebook, 116. See also social media Fairhaven Council on Aging, 154 Fairmont Park Art Association, 105. See also Association for Public Art (aPA) Farrar, Ashley, 194 Ferrario, Erika, 178 Fitzgerald, Hiram, 192 Florida, Richard, 126 forms of art, 12 “The Forms of Capital” (Bourdieu), 219 Fort Phoenix, Fairhaven, 154 Foundations of Social Theory (Coleman), 68 Foushee, Danielle, 116 Fowler, Bridget, 220 Freedman, Sarah Warshauer, 165, 173 Freire, Paulo, 99, 141 Frenette, Alexandre, 169 Fried, Michael, 72 A Frolic of One’s Own (Gaddis), 63 Frost-Kumpf, H. A., 124, 127 Gaddis, William, 63 Gadwa, Anne, 109, 127 Gadwa Nicodemus, A., 127 Gallagher, B. Kathleen, 128–29 General Arts Engagement Model (GAEM), 10, 10
228
Index
General Learning Model (GLM), 10 General Services Administration (GSA), 71 genre of art. See forms of art Getty Center, 140 Giacometti, Alberto, 72 Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate About the Benefits of the Arts (McCarthy and Ondaatje), 29 Giles, Dwight E., Jr., 142–43 globalization, 124 Goldstein, Lisa S., 177 Grams, Diane, 70–71 Gray, Christina C., 178 Great Recession, 41 The Great Wall of Los Angeles (Baca), 77 Grech, Tracy, 178 Grota, Jennifer, 151 grow-your-own teacher program, 174–75 Guo, Chao, 115 Harliss, Brandi, 205 Harris, Inique, 111 Hawley, Joshua D., 203 health development, 203 Helguera, Pablo, 78 Herons on the Bayou, 109–13, 206, 207, 208; accessibility, 114–15; arts awareness, 114; educational component, 117–18; social media, 116–17; sponsorship, 111–12, 114–15 Hickman, Richard, 178 Holocaust museum, 12 Holt, Douglas B., 219–20 Hunting, Dan, 107, 112 Ingersoll, Richard, 173 innovation: defined, 43; social, 43. See also public outreach innovation Inside Out (JR), 80 Instagram, 116. See also social media institutionalized cultural capital, 67, 219
intangible cultural capital, 66 integrated literacies partnership, 142, 151–54 intermediary organizations, 92 Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in Manhattan, 63 Jacobs, Jane, 123 Jacobs, Ronald L., 203 Javits Federal Building in Manhattan, 81 Jordan, Barbara, 7 JR (French street artist), 65, 75, 76, 78–81; “Art Can Fail,” 80–81; Inside Out, 80; Women Are Heroes, 79–80 Kammen, Michael, 70 Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, 93 Kramer, Hilton, 63, 72–73 Krauss, Rosalind, 72 Lacy, Suzanne, 76, 78 La Grande Vitesse (Calder), 105 language for audience engagement, 78–81 Last Dance, 95–96 liberatory learning, 141–42 libraries, 128–29 Life Journey: Up and Down, 94 literature and prosocial behaviors, 24–25, 28–29 Livingston Community College, 54 Lloyd Center, 151–54 Loewen, James W., 117 Long, Julie S., 172 longitudinal studies, 8 López, Yolanda, 76 Louisiana Office of Cultural Development, 201 Lowe, Geoffrey M., 178 Mackeigan, Mary, 194 Madonna University, 54 Manchester Bidwell Corporation (MBC), 77
Index
Manifesto of the Communist Party (Marx), 221–22 “Mapping Identity Project,” 179 Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art (Lacy), 76 Mapplethorpe, Robert, 81 market aggregators, 92 Markusen, Ann, 109, 127 May, Henry, 173 media platforms, 92 Memphis Public Library and Information Center, 191 Merrill, Lisa, 173 Miles, Malcolm, 107 Mississippi River Valley Delta, 208 Mithell, Terry, 194 modes of engagement, 9 Monroe and West Monroe, Louisiana, 109–10. See also Herons on the Bayou Monument Avenue in Richmond, VA, 105 Munger, Felix, 194 music and prosocial behaviors, 21–23, 27–28 National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993, 4 National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, 129 National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), 202 National Council of Social Service, 91, 92 National Endowment for the Humanities, 73 National Endowment of the Arts (NEA), 105 National Quilt Museum, 106 New Mexico: as majority-minority state, 164; population, 164; public school system, 164–65; Title I schools, 164 New Mexico Art Education Association, 183–84 New York City, 208
229
New York Times, 82 nonprofit arts and culture organizations (NPACO), 128 nonprofit arts organizations, 1 nonprofit innovation. See public outreach innovation Norris-Tirrell, Dorothy, 207 Oakland University, 54 objectified cultural capital, 67, 219 O’Brien, Elizabeth R., 178 online platform, 92 organizational innovation, 42. See also public outreach innovation organizational legitimacy, 46–47 organizational types, 55–57 Osgood, 108, 115 Our Better World, 92 Oxford History of Art, 66 Paducah, KY, 105–6 participatory theater process, 98–99 Penner, Emily K., 176 People’s Association (PA), 90–91 performing arts and prosocial behaviors, 14 Phills, James A., 43 physiological arousal/pathway, 11 Piss Christ? (Serrano), 81 place-based cultural policies, 124 professional support networks, 182–85 prosocial behaviors and traits, 1, 7–31; content and, 12–13; dance and, 19–20, 26–27; literature and, 24–25, 28–29; music and, 21–23, 27–28; performing arts and, 14; theater and, 17–18, 26; visual arts and, 14, 15–16 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber), 68 public art, 2, 105–18; ABCD and, 75–81; accessibility, 114–15, 117– 18; creative placemaking, 108–9; defined, 107; education and, 117–18; expanding artists networks, 113–14;
230
Index
sense of community, 115; social media and, 115–17 public outreach innovation, 39–59; assess/accessibility, 54–55; conceptual mapping, 51–52; differences among organizational types, 55–57; growing demand and interest, 42–43; literature review and theory, 42–47; research framework, 48–50 public schools in Oklahoma, 208 randomized control trials. See experimental studies realities of classroom teaching, 177–79 reductionism, 222 reflectiveness, 9 relational practices, 70–71 repeated use as progress and effectiveness tool, 150 reproduction strategies, cultural capital, 67–68, 221 resiliency, 169. See also teacher/ teaching resiliency resource dependency theory, 46 Rhode Island, 129 rural libraries, 128–29 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes, 128 Russell, Robert, 107, 117 safe space, 96, 100 Saxton, Gregory D., 115 Schaefer, Lee, 172 Schiffman, Rachel, 192 Science Saturday Program of Belle Isle Aquarium, 53 Scottsdale (AZ) Public Art program, 107 Senie, Harriet, 64, 81 Serra, Richard, 2, 63, 76; 8 Drawings: Weights and Measures, 73–74; Tilted Arc, 2, 63–65, 71–75, 205 Serrano, Andres, 81 service learning, 4; benefits of, 141–42; curriculum, 143; intergenerational
partnership, 154–56; requisite and basic tenets, 143 shared space, 96 Silvia, Ann, 154 Singapore: aging population, 88; community arts ecosystem, 90–92; death in, 87, 88–90; end-of-life dialogue in, 88, 89–90, 93–96; socially engaged arts in, 90–93; social service agencies, 91 Sladewski, John, 154, 159 Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), 77 social development, 204 social innovation, 43 socialization, 9 socially engaged artists, 90–93 social media, 115–17 social media capital, 115 social service agencies (SSA), 91 sociological conception of cultural capital, 65, 67–69, 76, 219–23 state-certified cultural districts, 124–25, 129–33; clusters, 130; demography, 130, 131; distribution, 132; geographic/density codes, 131; mission statements, 130–31, 131 Stone, Melissa Middleton, 206 Strickland, Bill, 77 structuration, 222–23 support networks, 182–85 tangible cultural capital, 66 teacher/teaching resiliency, 163–86; approaches to promoting, 169–74; attrition, 163, 165–69, 167–68; contextual factors, 169, 170, 171–72; culturally relevant pedagogies, 176– 77; evidence-based philosophies and practices, 174–85; future of, 185–86; listening to stories of experience and success, 181–82; personal factors, 169, 170–71; practical in-situation experience, 179–81; realities of
Index
classroom teaching, 177–79; support networks, 182–85 teacher wellness plans, 178 TerpTheatre!, 54 Thames and Hudson World of Art, 66 theater and prosocial behaviors, 17–18, 26 Throsby, David, 65, 66, 69, 217–19, 222 Tilted Arc (Serra), 2, 63–65, 71–75, 205 Tilted Arc Controversy: Dangerous Precedent? (Senie), 81 Tolstoy, Leo, 7 tourism, 124, 126, 127, 134 Trafalgar Square in London, 105 transaction practices, 70, 71 university-community partnerships, 5, 191–98; benefits, 194–95; lessons learned, 197; participants survey, 193–96; suggestions, 197–98 University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM), 111 University of New Mexico, 174–75; grow-your-own teacher program, 174– 75; pre-service art teachers at, 177 value of accountability, 55 value of diversity, 54–55 value of transparency, 55
231
vendor management, 130–31, 133–35. See also procurement and vendor management Venturi, Robert, 74 visual arts and prosocial behaviors, 14, 15–16 visual culture, 108 Vreeland, Susan, 7 Waldner, Erin, 117 Washington, 129 Weber, Max, 68 “We Don’t Have to Like Them. We Just Need to Understand Them” (Cotter), 82 What is art? (Tolstoy), 7 Wild Swan Theater, 54 The Wind Came Home, 94, 98 Women Are Heroes (JR), 79–80 wordclouds.com, 131 workforce development, 203 X Portfolio (Mapplethorpe), 81 Young Aspirations Young Artists (YAYA), 77 youth-focused art programs, 77 Zottarelli, Lisa K., 108
About the Editors and Contributors
Leigh Nanney Hersey, PhD, is an assistant professor and MPA coordinator at the University of Louisiana Monroe. She researches the many different aspects of community development including arts-based, parks and recreation, philanthropy, and volunteerism. She has more than a dozen years fundraising experience, including with the Scottsdale (AZ) Museum of Contemporary Art. Bryna Bobick, EdD, is an associate professor of Art Education at the University of Memphis. She earned a doctorate of education in Art Education and a BFA in Art Education from the University of Georgia and an MEd in Art Education from the University of West Georgia. Her research aims to explore civic engagement and urban art education. She enjoys writing collaboratively and creating mixed-media works of art. Dr. Hana Alhadad has extensive international experience working with vulnerable groups using the arts as a tool for positive change and conflict transformation. Past projects include working with populations affected by ethnic conflict and tsunami in Sri Lanka (supported by Plan International), with Aboriginal communities in Queensland (supported by Access Arts Australia), and a UNESCO-supported project with young people involved in gang conflict in Brazil. Hana has been involved in several research projects exploring the arts and community development. She also studies the relationship between people, place, and power within community work practices. Her current research focuses on the role of the arts in community and civic engagement, and building communities of practice among urban refugees.
233
234
About the Editors and Contributors
Brooke Foy, MFA, is an assistant professor of art at the University of Louisiana Monroe. She earned her MFA from the University of Memphis and her BFA from the University of Louisiana Monroe, which she currently calls home. Brooke focuses on a better understanding of the balance between creating personal mixed media sculptures and creating public works of art. B. Kathleen Gallagher is an assistant professor in the division of Arts Management and Arts Entrepreneurship at Southern Methodist University, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate-level courses in cultural policy and arts management. Dr. Gallagher’s work advances understanding of the function and benefits of the arts as community assets. Her work has analyzed the impact of ecological conditions and public policies on sustainability of arts and culture organizations in different settings. She is currently conducting research focused on arts organizations located in small cities and rural settings. Her work is published or forthcoming in Policy Studies Journal, Public Performance and Management Review, Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society, International Journal of Arts Management, Journal of Rural and Community Development, Film Finance: Theories—Practices—Futures, and The Routledge Companion to Arts Marketing. Brian Kisida is an assistant professor in the Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri. The dominant theme of his research focuses on identifying effective educational options and experiences for at-risk students that can close the achievement gap, the experience gap, and the attainment gap. His research has examined the broad educational benefits of school partnerships with cultural institutions and community arts organizations, teacher diversity, and school integration. Sara Konrath has a PhD in social psychology, with expertise on empathy and prosocial behavior and has written recent papers on the relationship between arts and prosociality. She directs the Interdisciplinary Program for Empathy and Altruism Research (iPEAR) at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and serves on the board of Minneapolis Institute of Art’s Center for Empathy and Visual Arts (CEVA). Anne Kotleba is building a more just world as an artist and educator. Her passion for socially engaged art was forged in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and strengthened on the streets of East Baltimore. Anne is a lecturer at Arizona State University in the School of Community Resources and Development teaching nonprofit leadership and management. She has degrees from Augustana College and an MA and MFA in Community Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art.
About the Editors and Contributors
235
Justin Lee is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies. He is interested in issues related to disability, community development, and social services. He has created a wiki platform that allows mass participation in the mapping of social needs (wiki.socialcollab.sg) and currently coleading the design of a gamified volunteer matching platform (serve.sg). He has a PhD in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Lim Tze Ming Jae Andrew is a research assistant with the Institute of Policy Studies at the National University of Singapore. He holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences with Honours (Highest Distinction) from the National University of Singapore, where he majored in sociology and psychology. Andrew’s research interests include disability, the social services, and social policy. He also holds a keen interest in psychiatric anthropology, in particular anthropological approaches to understanding and treating mental illness. Dr. Justin Makemson is an assistant professor of art education and teaching practicum coordinator at the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM). Prior to working in higher education, Makemson taught fifteen years in community art programs and public schools in Missouri and Indiana. Makemson received his doctorate from Indiana University in 2014. Makemson’s research interests include student-artist identities, teacher resiliency, folklorebased creative traditions, and technologies of place. Kathy Mirzilli Miraglia, EdD, is a professor of art education at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. She was awarded the Kathy Connor’s Teaching award by the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Women’s Caucus, the Massachusetts Higher Education Art Educator of the Year by the Council of the Massachusetts Art Education Association (MAEA), and the Outstanding Arts Educator Award from the Massachusetts Alliance for the Arts. She is a published author of book chapters and journal articles, coedited the book Inquiry in Action: Paradigms, Methodologies and Perspectives in Art Education Research, co-presented NAEA national webinars, and presented at national and international venues. She served as Higher Education Eastern Division Director for NAEA, secretary on the board directors for the New England Educational Research Organization, reviewer for Art Education the Journal for NAEA, and as the Preservice Division representative to the NAEA Research Commission. She is a practicing and exhibiting artist of paintings, pastels, and icons. Alisa V. Moldavanova (PhD, University of Kansas) is an associate professor of public administration in the Political Science Department at Wayne State University. Her current research investigates organizational sustainability in
236
About the Editors and Contributors
the context of public service organizations, the role of interorganizational networks and other forms of social connectedness in enabling sustainable organizations, as well as how nonprofits and other public service organizations foster sustainable development in their local communities. She is also a coeditor of the 2018 volume The Nonprofit Sector in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia: Civil Society Advances and Challenges, by Brill Publishers. Gordon E. Shockley, PhD, MM, MA, is an associate professor of social entrepreneurship in the School of Community Resources and Development at Arizona State University. He publishes his research in many social-science journals, including Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Journal of Arts Management, Law & Society, Public Administration Review, and Journal of Social Entrepreneurship. He also has produced many book chapters and an edited book, Non-market Entrepreneurship: Interdisciplinary Approaches (2008, Edward Elgar), and is currently collaborating on a new peer-reviewed book project with Routledge. He has served as the chair and a board member for several terms of the Social Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Section of ARNOVA as well as a board member of the Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations Section of APSA. He currently serves on the board of Social Theory, Politics, and the Arts annual conference as well as on the editorial boards of Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts and Journal of Social Entrepreneurship. Ngiam Su-Lin has been active in the Singapore arts scene for close to two decades, specifically in the areas of education, community, creative producing, and company management. She has produced community theater and festivals in collaboration with the public and private sectors, and worked with numerous social service organizations to incorporate drama into their programs. As executive director of ArtsWok, which she cofounded in 2012, she has facilitated numerous collaborations across multiple sectors, resulting in projects and platforms such as Both Sides. Now, a long-term community engagement project on having end-of-life conversations; M1 Peer Pleasure Youth Theatre Festival, an annual youth theater festival with a social conscience; The Greenhouse Lab and Sessions, an action-learning lab and community of practice respectively for multidisciplinary practitioners, researchers, funders, and policymakers working at the intersection of arts and communities, among others.