Aesthetic Evangelists Reflection- Sophia Pietrkowski

Sophia Pietrkowski

4/5/16

Arts and Community Engagement

 

Aesthetic Evangelists: Reflection

 

            Community Engagement is a sufficient platform for social change. It starts with artists engaging in a social issue with a specific group of people. Grant Kester's Aesthetic Evangelists defines a community in relation to "special or institutional boundaries." Another note is that community is in relation to "specific issues" or "in connection to specific identities." The term of community is broad, however, the term itself carries a lot of weight. When one thinks of a community, it is thought of as a group of people that identify themselves in relation to each other, it is empowering to be part of a larger association. Group engagement collectively relates members of a community together in the direction of a common interest. So how do artists go into a community and use their privilege to artistically morph social issues into an art piece?

            The real question to explore is what is an artist's relationship to these communities?  Grant brings up that an "artist is distanced from the community as a catalyst." So what gives artists a right to speak on behalf of people that they have no relationship with? Artist's hold a "representational relationship of speaking 'for,' 'through,' 'with,' 'about,' or 'on behalf of' other subjects." These "other subjects" are usually what unites a specific community together in the first place. The artist's role is not to identify what already unites these people. The artist's role is to start a conversation of empowerment for the people.

            However, the line is blurred between empowering a community versus empowering oneself for personal gain. This is what Bourdieu says is "embezzlement, in which the [artist] claims the authority to speak for the community." This is a charged issue. The line that is blurred is when an artist is doing this work "in order to empower [themselves] politically, professionally, and morally." Politically and professionally are two areas that are somewhat self-explanatory. However how do artists empower themselves morally? If their work is purely for moral gain, does this idea play into their development professionally, or is it the ignorance of thinking they are doing the right thing? Is personal moral empowerment a bad thing? I believe it is if it is at the cost of not communicating with the community that is supposed to be engaged by an array of artwork.

             Kester's work discusses John Malpede's work on Skid Row. I believe that this work is an exemplary form of community and moral engagement. According to the Los Angeles Poverty Department journal Making the Case for Skid Row, LAPD states the case that "for many years, a host of public and private agencies directed the poor—and services for them—to [Skid Row] and away from other areas." This group of homeless people created a grass roots community. John Malpede is the artistic director and founder of this theater company involving people that are homeless and formerly homeless since 1985. Malpede takes credit and stands by his work while keeping in mind personal and communal morality in the community engaged work. In an interview that I conducted he said that: "the most important piece of [his] work is in building relationships." Malpede is a leader in work with the homeless and has provided opportunities for personal growth, passions to emerge, and giving the people of the community a chance to be heard. The key thing here is to realize that the art is for the community. According to Doug Borwick's article, Engaging Matters, "Community engagement is focused on developing partnerships, deep ones; its end result is trust and understanding from which expanded reach can be pursued" (artsjournal.com). Being informed and building conscious relationships with the community is key to successful social change through community-engaged partnerships with artists.

Works Cited

"Aesthetic Evangelists" Grant Kessler. 1. Afterimage 22 (January 1995) (n.d.): n. pag.

"Audience Engagement-Community Engagement." Engaging Matters. N.p., 13 May 2012. Web. 05 Apr. 2016. <http://www.artsjournal.com/engage/2012/05/audience-engagement-community-engagement/>.

 

Introduction. MAKING THE CASE FOR SKID ROW CULTURE Findings from a Collaborative Inquiry by the Los Angeles Poverty Department and the Urban Institute (n.d.): n. pag. Web.