Community art

Community art, also known as "dialogical art" or "community-based art," is an art form based in a community setting. Works from this genre can be of any art forms and is characterized by interaction or dialogue with the community. The term was defined in the late-1960s and spawned a movement which grew in the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, and Australia.

Often community art is based in deprived areas, with a community oriented, grassroots approach. Members of a local community will come together to express concerns or issues through an artistic process, sometimes this may involve professional artists or actors. These communal artistic processes act as a catalyst to trigger events or changes within a community or even at a national or international level.

In English-speaking countries community art is often seen as the work of community arts centre. Visual arts (fine art, video, new media art), music, and theater are common mediums in community art centers. Many arts companies in the UK do some community-based work, which typically involves developing participation by non-professional members of local communities.

Community art and public art

The term "community art" refers also to field of community, neighborhood and public art practice with roots in social justice and popular and informal education methods. In the art world, community art signifies a particular art making practice, emphasizing community involvement and collaboration. Community art is most often art for social change and involves some empowerment of the community members who come together to create artwork/s with artists. This is a growing national, international, regional and local field. Recently community arts and sustainability work or environmental action have begun to interface, including urban revitalization projects creating artwork at a neighborhood level.

In Scandinavia, the term "community art" means more often contemporary art project.

Online community art

A community can be seen in many ways, it can refer to different kind of groups. There are also virtual communities or online communities. Internet art has many different forms, but often there is some kind of community that is created for a project or it is an effect of an art project.

Key artists

* Judith F. Baca
* Adam Benjamin
* Josef Beuys
* Lowell Darling
* Betsy Damon
* Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler
* Sue Gill
* Katy Grannan
* Kurt Gohde
*Harrell Fletcher
* John Fox
* Free Style Arts Association
* Louis Hock
* Suzanne Lacy
* Loraine Leeson
*Liz Lerman
* Paper Tiger
* Adrian Piper
* Temporary Services
* Mierle Laderman Ukeles
* WochenKlausur
* Your Art Here
* Reg Bolton
* Neil Cameron
* Helen Crummy
* Ruth Howard

Further reading

*Fox, John. "Eyes on Stalks". London: Methuen, 2002.
*Goldbard, Arlene. "New Creative Community: the art of cultural development". Oakland, CA: New Village Press, 2006.
*Hirschkop, Ken. "Mikhail Bakhtin: An Aesthetic for Democracy". New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
*Kester, Grant. "Conversation Pieces: Community + Communication in Modern Art". Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
*Kwon, Miwon. "One Place after Another Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity". Boston: MIT Press. 2004.
*Lacy, Suzanne. "Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art". Seattle: Bay Press, 1995.
* Pete Moser and George McKay, eds. (2005) "Community Music: A Handbook". Russell House Publishing.
* Helen Crummy (1992) "Let The People Sing". Craigmillar Communiversity

ee also

*Arts district
*Arts centres
*Citizen media
*City Arts Centre, Dublin
*Community Arts Project, Cape Town
*Community radio
*Community theatre
*Craigmillar Festival Society
*Festival
*Murals
*net.art
*Not-for-profit arts organization
*Participatory Art
*Post-autonomous art
*Public art
*Site-specific art

External links

* [http://www.communityarts.net/]
* [http://www.actionfactory.org Action Factory Community Arts, UK]
* [http://www.areachicago.org/index.php Area|Chicago]
* [http://www.can.uk.com Community Arts North West, Manchester, UK]
* [http://www.cittadellarte.it/citta2005/eng/home/home.htm Cittadelarte, Biella, Italy]
* [http://www.colum.edu/ccap/ Center for Community Arts Partnerships, Chicago]
* [http://www.community-arts.org.uk/ Centre for Community Arts Research and Practice, Edinburgh]
* [http://www.creativecommunities.org.uk/ Centre for Creative Communities, UK]
* [http://www.communityarts.net/ Community Arts Network]
* [http://www.communiversity.org.uk/ Communiversity: Craigmillar]
* [http://www.ekac.org/dialogicimag.html Eduardo Kac: Negotiating Meaning: The Dialogic Imagination in Electronic Art]
* [http://www.communitydance.org.uk Foundation for Community Dance, UK]
* [http://www.eea.org.uk Emergency Exit Arts, London]
* [http://www.forteproject.org/eng FORTE project]
* [http://generalpraxis.blogspot.com General Praxis]
* [http://headfirstslide.com headfirstslide.com]
* [http://www.lanternhouse.org Lanternhouse International, the successor organisation to Welfare State International]
* [http://www.uel.ac.uk/ipad Institute for Performing Arts Development, London]
* [http://www.e-mailout.org Mailout - the network for developing pARTicipation]
* [http://www.soundsense.org Sound Sense - the UK development agency for community music]
* [http://www.wanae.com Online Art Community]
* [http://www.vca.unimelb.edu.au/ccd Community Cultural Development program, University of Melbourne]
* [http://www.museums.org.za/cap/index.html Community Arts Project, Cape Town]