Six artists, scholars, and activists from a wide range of disciplines recently gathered for a panel broadcast over Zoom where they discussed the interplay between democracy and the arts. The panel, “Cultural Practices, the Arts, and Democracy,” marked the first presentation on the recent book, Democracy as Creative Practice: Weaving a Culture of Civic Life, which was edited by two of the panelists, Tom Borrup and Andrew Zitcer. Borrup is an alum of Antioch’s PhD in Leadership and Change program. The other panelists included Bob Lake, who moderated the discussion, Karen Mack, Jeremy Liu and Lisa Jo Epstein. The panel was held on Thursday September 19th.
The event (a recording of which is available on Antioch’s YouTube channel) was organized by Borrup and the Graduate School of Leadership and Change as part of the Antioch Works for Democracy initiative, the university-wide effort to promote democratic education and engagement in the run-up to the 2024 election. The event resulted in a fascinating discussion of topics within urban planning and culture making. As Borrup says, the panel “helped push us to think about how to address the topic and frame the book while bringing some of the writers together in the discussion.”
Democracy as Creative Practice includes contributions from 36 different writers and thinkers. Three of them appeared in the evening’s panel: Karen Mack, the founder and CEO of LA Commons; Jeremy Liu, a community builder and the co-founder of Creative Development Partners; and Lisa Jo Epstein, the founder and executive/artistic director of Just Act. The moderator, Bob Lake, is a professor emeritus of geography and urban planning at Rutgers University.
Each of the three writer-panelists brought their own perspectives, professional expertise, and life experience to the questions at hand. Lake guided the discussion by asking questions about art as a democratic process in and of itself, and he asked how art and culture can respond to polarization and hate. Despite the wide variety of organizations and art-making endeavors each of the participants engage in, they all echoed similar sentiments. Central themes included getting local, talking and listening to one other, and building community with neighbors.
Themes of connection and community remained consistent throughout the panel, and each writer shared different ways to bolster community and democratic engagement. Mack’s focus is on young people and the creation of public art projects throughout the greater Los Angeles area. Of particular importance to Mack, as she explained, is helping “young people to feel heard and affirmed [and] to participate in the civic conversation.” She often does this by means of public murals collaboratively created with the help of young community members. In one example, Mack described Yo-Yo Ma’s participation and attendance in a 2021 Day of Action. Young community members gathered for art, music, and conversation around the initiative of “Creating Our Next LA.”
For Liu, the intersection of art and democracy comes in the form of an arts-based approach to addressing housing equity issues across communities. He especially talked about the creation of a community garden in South Boston and the “clash of cultures” between elderly Chinese gardeners and their younger neighbors. To Liu, the conversations that resulted, circling around shared decision making, responsibility, and collaboration, are all the very essence of what it means to have civically-minded urban planning. To this end, he says, “Culture and arts play a role in places and the environment around them.” He added, “Community’s influence is really the thing we’re all after.”
Epstein spoke about how community building comes in the form of ensuring all voices are heard and respected, which she cultivates by means of live theatre. Through interactive productions and workshops, many of which are inspired by the pedagogy of “Theatre of the Oppressed,” an interactive theatre curriculum originally developed in Brazil as an outgrowth of the ideas the theorist Paolo Freire enumerated in his classic book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In the workshops, participants have the opportunity to experience interacting with others and engage in often vulnerable or difficult conversations through acting. These productions are particularly powerful because, as Epstein says, “Everyone in the room matters.”
This greater, ongoing conversation on art and democracy contributed to the broader Antioch Works for Democracy campaign (AW4D). Laurien Alexandre, Dean Emeritus of Antioch’s Graduate School of Leadership and Change and the lead organizer of AW4D, said she especially appreciated how the “three panelists shared fabulous insights about their experiences shining light on the role of creative workers in building democratic communities with creativity, compassion and dedication.” For Alexandre, the panel made a connection about just how vital the role of artmaking as a vehicle for change within democracy is. To this end, she said she appreciated how tightly the panel “focused on the role of the arts in building community, how storytelling can bring us together, and how creative works can build empathy and understanding.”
Borrup, a former advisee of Alexandre, shared similar sentiments. He said, “The exchange between the writers was incredible. Not only did they describe some of their powerful work but they built on each other’s thinking and really got into some rich and exciting ideas about the nature of democracy and the role of artists in activating communities.” He continued, “The conversation went the full 90 minutes and, for the writers, it was clearly just the beginning of what we hope will be an ongoing constructive dialogue about how we contribute to building a culture of democracy in our individual communities and daily lives.”
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You can watch a full recording of the event on Antioch’s YouTube page.
