ARED 2110: Community and Social Justice Art

After reading the prompt and articles for this blog response I was trying to think of public art already in Athens, instantly I thought of the Before I Die installation on North Jackson St. I think Before I Die, which was originally introduced by Catherine Chang, encourages thought about life and death. It also successfully fits the description provided by Stevens of participatory art "as an invitation to the creative and expressive natures of people to explore together." (Stephens 2006). Even if you do not participate in writing on the Before I Die wall, you can participate by reading the wall and learning about the goals of fellow community members.

After reading Engaging Public Space, I think that critiquing public space would be very successful especially in the city of Athens. Critiquing public space allows artists and the community to "act within a public space while also acting upon it." (Duncan, 2011). An issue in downtown Athens that could be addressed is littering. Though there are trashcans every where, without a doubt I always see trash on the ground and sidewalks. A wall on a small one way street would suffice to do an installation using littered trash to describe those who litter. The city of Toronto and Livegreen Toronto also did a similar initiative but shared the results virtually instead of physically.

I believe activist and issue-based word art yields powerful results. If wrapper collages like these could be up-cycled and pasted onto a wall I think it would make an impact on many people who litter as well as influence the public opinion of littering. The installation could start with some wrapper descriptions but leaving room and supplies for public participation could really create a vocal piece for the city of Athens.

Other ideas I think worth exploring are the environmental friendliness of our favorite local coffee shops and how they compare with each other. Like critiquing private, corporate spaces I think critiquing and questioning our favorite businesses can have a big impact. After all our favorite businesses reflect who we are.

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References:

Duncan, P. (2011). Engaging public space: Art education pedagogies for social justice. Equity and Excellence in Education, 44(3), 348-363.

Starr, B. (2014, Aug. 26) Littering Says A lot About You, A Smart Ad Campaign From Toronto. Retrieved from www.visualnews.com.

Stephens, P. (2006). A real community bridge: Informing community-based learning through a model of participatory public art. Art Education, 40-46.