Side by Side? : Community Art and the Challenge of Co-Creativity

A new wave of community arts projects has opened up exciting areas of cross-cultural creativity. Often focusing on social and cultural agendas, these collaborations of local people, arts facilitators, anthropologists and others represent a flourishing new form of collaborative anthropology. This book investigates these projects as sites of significant cultural creation and potential social change. Through the exploration of a wide range of collaborations, the common threads and historical contexts are examined. The role such collaborations can have in disrupting existing social hierarchies and knowledge creation is analysed, as are other potential cultural implications.

A new wave of community arts projects has opened up exciting areas of cross-cultural creativity in recent years. These collaborations of local people, arts facilitators, anthropologists and supporting organisations represent a flourishing new form of arts-based collaborative anthropology that aims to document the stories and cultures of local people using creative art forms. Often focusing on social and cultural agendas, from education and health promotion to advocacy and cultural heritage preservation, participants bring together methods historically linked to anthropology with those from the arts and community development.

Side by Side? – The Challenge of Co-creativity investigates these creative projects as sites of significant cultural creation and potential social change. Through the exploration of a range of diverse collaborations, the common threads and historical contexts in this domain of cultural creativity are examined. The role that creative arts collaborations can have in disrupting existing hierarchies of social power and knowledge creation is analysed, as are the potential futures, historical and cultural implications of these co-creative practices.

Drawing on the experiences and reflections of over 30 facilitators from more than 7 countries, and written by an experienced collaborative arts practitioner and researcher, this exciting forthcoming book will play a defining role in the emerging critical discourse on collaborative art and collaborative anthropology. It is essential reading for collaborative anthropologists, arts facilitators and others who aim to collaborate cross-culturally, as well as students of Art, Anthropology, and related subjects.