click on map for larger view
This week finds me narrowing my field of interest. I have chosen to research and investigate:
Transforming Society Through the Arts.
Research questions:
- How do the arts aid in the recovery of struggling communities?
- How do the arts affect the health and well being of a community?
- How do the arts help in bringing societies(communities?) back from the depths of poverty?
- How can peace, unity, and harmony be restored through arts-based community projects?
- How can arts-based community projects remain sustainable in rural and impoverished communities?
- How can the Arts rebuild community?
Resources :
Cleveland, W. (2008). Art and Upheaval. Oakland: New Village Press.
(2008). T. Eca & R. Mason (Eds.), International dialogues about visual culture, education and art (pp. 9-275). Bristol
(2006). L. Elizabeth & S. Young (Eds.),Works of Heart: building village through the arts (pp. 8-139). Oakland: New Village Press.
Kay, A. (2000). Art and Community Development: the role the arts have in regenerating community. Community Development Journal, 35(4), 414-424. doi: 10.1093/cdj/35.4.414
Newman, T., Curtis, K., & Stephens, J. (2003). Do community-based arts projects result in social gains? A review of literature. Community Development Journal, 38(4), 310-322. doi: 10.1093/cdj/bsg005
Hi Sandra,
ReplyDeleteI just read your posts and have a few thoughts:
1 - You have many questions. Which do you care most about or seems most urgent to you?
2 - These are questions you could study for years. How might you narrow the scope of the question so that you could produce an answer in a short semester-long-ish time frame? For instance:
You might narrow the question based on the community in which you intend to study your question (e.g., How does (insert arts-based community project of choice here) remain sustainable in (insert name of impoverished community here)?;
and/or narrow by simplifying the question, (e.g., How can visual art...rather than all the art forms);
and/or asking a related question that may need to be answered prior to asking one of your posed questions (e.g., before asking "How can peace, unity, and harmony be restored through arts-based community projects?" we might need to know about possible outcomes from arts-based community projects. Do we already know in the research that arts-based community projects restore peace, unity and harmony?)
Hope those ideas help you get to one main research question that is both do-able and about which you are excited.
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ReplyDeleteHi Leslie! Thank you for your most helpful thoughts!
ReplyDeleteHi Sandra! Please check out one of my favorite contemporary artists, Vik Muniz.He is amazing with innovation, collaboration and art making a difference for a community. He has done an amazing collaboration creating art to help a poor community and recently he collaborated with student artists to create create peace cranes for the recovery of the tsunami in Japan.
ReplyDeletewww.wastelandmovie.com/vik-muniz.html
http://tinyurl.com/7k6hw4a
I always place great value with themes connecting peace, unity and harmony. It is so important to establish these virtues within students identities as they implement them to local and global communities.
ReplyDeleteThank you Kim! I will certainly look at Vik Muniz work. i am only familiar with some map related works which I love. Thanks for the FYI! Thanks for your thoughts on Peace and Unity as well. I appreciate the encouragement!!!!!
ReplyDeleteSandra, Are you interested in the "utility" and connecting the community through an art project or studying how art has worked in building bridges and making connections in a community? The projects are nice, but I find they can be temporary community enjoyment. Maybe, you can find or create a situation that is sustained. Can the visual arts be a sustainable community network? I am thinking (for my final thesis) of how the arts can network the community. Artwalks and sponsors of art exhibits are a few examples of bringing "value" to the arts community.
ReplyDelete