Conference Proceedings 2010 [pdf] - Art & Design Symposium ...

Filtering Access through Social Engagement: Artists, Community, and Curriculum
Cory Arcak, Marissa Munoz, Angela Cornelius, B. Stephen Carpenter III
College of Education, Texas A & M University
Cory Arcak & Angela Cornelius (l) Presenting their Poster
The pursuit for social justice should not be a theoretical process alone. Ideally, the pursuit for and the
engagement of social justice should move people to action. In what follows, we reflect on our current
investigation and engagement of social justice by presenting (1) a conceptual and theoretical overview of
engaged social justice; (2) examples of artists whose work exemplifies engaged social justice; (3) our own
experiences with engaged social justice in action through the global example of Potters for Peace and the local
example of the TAMU Water Project, and; (4) recommendations for pedagogical extensions of these examples
for application of engaged social justice within an interdisciplinary visual art curriculum.
Social Justice: A Conceptual and Theoretical Overview
Our theoretical framework is grounded in place-based education, public pedagogy, art education, and
curriculum theory (Collins, 1998; Greene, 1998; Gruenewald, 2008; Slattery, 2006; Sobel, 2005). More
specifically, our vision of engaged social justice parallels Slattery (2006) in support of curriculum that serves as
"analysis that explores the external and internal chaos in order to create healing and compassionate
environments in classrooms, which in turn will move outward to local communities and ultimately effect global
ecological transformations" (p. 223). In the words of Maxine Greene (1998), “to teach for social justice…is to
teach so that the young may be awakened to the joy of working for transformation in the smallest places, so
that they may become healers and change their worlds” (p. xlv).
Artists and Artistic Work as Engaged Social Justice
Donaldo Macedo (1998) noted, "The inability to link research with larger critical and social issues often
prevents educators not only from engaging in a general critique of the social mission of their own educational
enterprise, but also from acknowledging their roles as gatekeepers in reproducing the values of the dominant
social order" (p. xxvi). We find such analysis, exploration and ecological transformations in the work of
contemporary visual artists and cultural workers who employ artistic and creative responses to social issues,
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