Art Education: Curriculum & Pedagogy, Secondary Level

Steam as Social Practice: Cultivating Creativity in Transdisciplinary Spaces

‘Steam as Social Practice: Cultivating Creativity in Transdisciplinary Spaces‘, by Kelly W. Guyotte, Nicki W. Sochacka, Tracie E. Costantino, Joachim Walther & Nadia N. Kellam (2014) is a fascinating article that reflects on the interdisciplinary artwork that is created collaboratively by undergraduates & graduates in art, education, engineering, and environmental programs. I appreciated that the artwork contained environmental messages within it because this topic of social justice I feel is not talked about enough. It is clear that the students took great efforts to create art projects that were thought-provoking and visually engaging.

Is it enough to create art that raises awareness about environmental issues if there is no call to action? I do think that we should be made aware of environmental issues and I do believe creating art for environmental issues is valuable. However, if we don’t create art that involves the community in taking action to help alleviate the environmental crisis in some way, does it even help at all? My issue with art for the purpose social justice is that is rarely does anything but make the viewer feel helpless and depressed about the injustices of this world. I believe that if we make social justice art we should design it so that there is an active community component embedded into it from the start.

~ One group’s visual exploration of Project Zero Waste