Democracy as Creative Practice

Democracy as Creative Practice: Weaving a Culture of Civic Life offers arts-based solutions to the threats to democracies around the world, practices that can foster more just and equitable societies. Chapter authors are artists, activists, curators, and teachers applying creative and cultural practices in deliberate efforts to build democratic ways of working and interacting in their communities in a range of countries including the United States, Australia, Portugal, Nepal, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The book demonstrates how creativity is integrated in place-based actions, aesthetic strategies, learning environments, and civic processes. As long-time champions and observers of community-based creative and cultural practices, editors Tom Borrup and Andrew Zitcer elucidate work that not only responds to sociopolitical conditions but advances practice. They call on artists, funders, cultural organizations, community groups, educational institutions, government, and others to engage in and support this work that fosters a culture of democracy. This book is intended for undergraduate and graduate students in the humanities and social sciences, activists, funders, and artists who seek to understand and effect change on local and global scales to preserve, extend, and improve practices of democracy.

Tom Borrup is Senior Lecturer and Director of Graduate Studies for the Arts and Cultural Leadership and Civic Engagement Programs at the University of Minnesota and a community and cultural planning consultant. Andrew Zitcer is an associate professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, where he directs the Urban Strategy graduate program.

Introduction: The Unraveling of Democracy and Reweaving Civic Life Part One: Place-Based Actions Introduction to Place-Based Actions: Following the Thread of Place-Based Actions 1. Repurposing Agricultural Infrastructure to Build Cultures of Democracy in Rural Communities: A Case Study from North-West Victoria 2. Lake Street Arts! - Creative Democracy in Practice 3. How "Creative Recovery" Stimulates a Culture of Democracy: Case Studies of Post-Disaster Creativity in Rural Australia 4. Democracy as Demonstration: A Lifelong, Dreamed of, Home Part Two: Aesthetic Strategies Introduction to Aesthetic Strategies: Remaking Worlds and Ourselves: Aesthetic Strategies for a Culture of Democracy 5. Co-Creating Democracy: Aesthetics in Action 6. Braiding Comedy in Precarious Times: The Possibilities and Pitfalls of Research Creation in the Settler Colonial University 7. Mediating Provisional Communities: The Production and Management of Collaborative Arts Projects Part Three: Learning Environments Introduction to Learning Environments: Learning and Practice - Democracty in Action 8. Reflections on Doing Visual Politics: Photography, Collaboration, and Creative Practice as Civil Action 9. All the Relatives: Animating Stories of Democratic Participation Through Speaking Out 10. The Ray of Hope Project and Women Composers Festival: Reframing Narratives 11. The Power of Storytelling: Practicing a Culture of Democracy With Young Students Part Four: Civic Processes Introduction to Civic Processes: Get With It: A Play of Civic Processes 12. Democracy Is in the Making: Just Act's Model for Rehumanizing Community Engagement 13. Creating Our Next LA: Art Animating Powerful Congregation-Based Campaigns for Justice 14. Warm Cookies of the Revolution: A Case Study of Democratic Culture Through the Framework of Civic Health 15. Civic Artists Reimagining Democracy 16. "The Most Optimistic Way I Have of Envisioning Our Collective Future" Editors' Summary and Conclusion