Art Activism Through a Critical Approach to Place: Charity White's Prescriptive Space

Socially engaged artwork challenges viewers to ask critical questions about society, to dialogue about issues that affect quality of life, and to question how art is considered. Art educators can provide opportunity to discuss and respond artistically to issues within their communities. One way to a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Art education (Reston) 2018-11, Vol.71 (6), p.45-50
Main Author: Danker, Stephanie Harvey
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activism
Activist art
Architecture
Art Education
Art Teachers
Artists
Attitude Change
Ceramics
Charities
Community
Community Relations
Critical Theory
Curricula
Curriculum Research
Educational Strategies
Environmental education
Fused Curriculum
Homeless People
Instructional Design
Pedagogy
Place Based Education
Public policy
Public spaces
Site-specific works
Social Action
Social Change
Social Justice
Teachers
Teaching
Teaching Methods
Urban Areas
Urban planning
Visual artists
Visual arts
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Summary:Socially engaged artwork challenges viewers to ask critical questions about society, to dialogue about issues that affect quality of life, and to question how art is considered. Art educators can provide opportunity to discuss and respond artistically to issues within their communities. One way to approach this is through place-based educational experiences that emphasize social justice and promote art activism. Place-based learning connects learning and problem solving to the local area and helps students see themselves as "actors and creators rather than observers and consumers" (Smith & Sobel, 2010, p. viii). Artist Charity White's "Prescriptive Space" was a temporary public installation of three ceramic figures on city benches in Gainesville, Florida. The installation was a comment on how the city controls space for the homeless through the recent implementation of benches that use a dividing handrail to deter people from sleeping on them. The figures were bisected not only to emphasize the dividing handrail, but also to contain information related to the city's history of public policy and the movement of marginalized people. Art activism such as "Prescriptive Space" is not centered around changing policy so much as it is on understanding alternative perspectives and counter cultural ideas. By pushing students to question their assumed environment, teachers increase the likelihood of them desiring alternative outcomes. The end result of art activism is to make students active instead of passive citizens.
ISSN:0004-3125
2325-5161
DOI:10.1080/00043125.2018.1505390