Community art

Community art is artistic activity that takes place in a community setting and is characterised by interaction or dialogue with that community; it often involves a professional artist who collaborates with local residents. The main emphasis falls not on the final object but on the process of shared creation, on involving people, empowering them and strengthening social ties. Here art becomes an instrument of social participation rather than a purely aesthetic product. The community art movement spread in the late 1960s and 1970s, when artists sought to move beyond elite galleries and make creativity accessible to broad sections of society, especially marginalised communities. Typical forms include murals, shared workshops, street festivals, theatrical events and projects in schools, hospitals and residential neighbourhoods. Community art is closely linked with activist and socially engaged art and raises questions about the role of the artist, authorship and participation. It emphasises that art can belong to everyone and be a means of collective self-expression, of solving local problems and of celebrating shared identity.