Evaluating community art through the lens of critical citizenship: a case study exploring how community art can enable young people to become critical citizens

This thesis explores claims that contemporary community arts projects have the power to bring about social change and challenges existing critical frameworks that argue such projects perpetuate the status quo. I argue that this is too simplistic an assertion and that a more nuanced account of community art is required. Drawing on Paulo Freire’s concept of critical pedagogy, I propose that critical citizenship is a prerequisite for change which can capitalise on the synthesis that already exists between the processes of community art and critical pedagogy. Citizenship education in England has attempted to address the perceived problem that young people were disinterested in and thus disengaged from the political processes. However, the curriculum has been found to be lacking and, over the past ten years, it has been significantly reduced revealing a form of citizenship which promotes economic self-sufficiency, civic obedience, and voluntary action meaning there is no room for the development of critical engagement with society in schools. Thus, different opportunities are required. Therefore, I suggest that there is a synergy between these three pillars of enquiry relating to young people, community art, and critical citizenship.

Following detailed engagement with the literature pertaining to these three pillars of enquiry, the focus of this thesis is a case study. Utilising the framework for critical citizenship education, developed by Laura Johnson and Paul Morris (2010) I conduct an in-depth analysis of a community art project entitled, Postcode Criminals (2011-12), based in Liverpool. Initiated by artist, Joann Kushner, the project sought to challenge the negative stereotyping of urban youth, perpetuated by the zero tolerance policing strategies employed in the city. I examine how the processes employed within the project can provide the space where young people can develop the skills necessary to become critical citizens and how the artwork produced can provide evidence of this.  This thesis makes an original contribution to the debates around the role and impact of community arts. I assert that in developing an understanding of community arts projects through the lens of critical citizenship a more nuanced account of their impacts on social change can be developed. Thus, the critical citizenship framework should be added to the community artists’ toolkit.