Overview

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.

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9781032758732

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Reviews

"""Borrup and Zitcer strike a timely proposition for the critical role of creative practices to advance cultures of democracy. In the face of current forces that threaten the foundations of democracies around the world, Democracy as a Creative Practice assembles fresh, inspiring, and instructive stories by frontline creative practitioners responding to these threats in a range of rural, urban, educational, municipal, and community settings and contexts. Field thought leaders introduce thematically organized essays layering in illuminating theory and reflections that lend depth and new insights and reverberate throughout the book."" Pam Korza and Barbara Schaffer Bacon, former Co-directors, Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts ""In a time of deepening gloom about democracy, Tom Borrup and Andrew Zitcer’s edited collection, with examples of cultural organizing from around the world, is a source of hope and inspiration. The book is particularly valuable for its detailed look at cultural workers and citizen artists on the front lines of civic renewal and democracy building."" Harry C. Boyte, Emeritus Senior Scholar, Augsburg University, author, Awakening Democracy through Public Work"

Author Information

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.

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