Riet Steel

Positioning community art practices in urban cracks

This article addresses the position of community art practices and the role of practitioners in urban cracks. Community art practices raise possibilities for a reconceptualisation of the concept of community and an extension of the concept of art in public space. Urban cracks are conceptualised as spatial, temporal and relational manifestations of changing dynamics in the city, in which different logics and needs conflict. Urban cracks can be seen as tempting urban spaces for adult educators and artists because they have the possibility to challenge the consensus over living together in the city, to fuel collective learning processes and democratic moments and to make urban spaces more ‘public’. Therefore practitioners in community art need to make an investment in reading and analysing the social and spatial context of their work. In this view, community art practices position themselves as a contextualised praxis in the community: not only working in but also working with this context.