Issue #15

As guest editor Joan Hocky writes: “the contributors to this issue come from many places. They are pioneers who have been mining the field for years, novices who are making their first forays outside of the box, artists working in quiet, unheralded ways, and others with curriculum vitae nearly as long as this Journal. As someone who has been working for over fifteen years to combine interests in the arts, community develop­ment, and the urban infrastructure, I'm bemused by the odyssey– from the time I had the weirdest resume anyone had ever seen to now, when every artist, arts administrator and funder I speak to is (or claims to be) involved in community-based or educational art. I have been moved and inspired by the commit­ment and creativity people bring to this work…[and] wrestle with the assumptions, naivete, subtle but per­vasively patronizing tones,  or an "I" that overwhelms and overshadows this amorphous beast we call “community.” I grow frustrated by romanticized, convoluted notions of good public citizenship, as if teaching or community-organizing is inherently more generous an act than “pure” art-making. Can we admit that the same dualistic tendencies—aspiring to teach outside ourselves and wanting to be the center of the universe—co-exist whether locked in the studio or teaching hip-hop dance on a rooftop?”