Community Arts Education

This edited collection offers global perspectives on the transverse, boundary-blurring possibilities of community arts education. Invoking ‿transversality‿ as an overarching theoretical framework and a methodological structure, 55 contributors ‿ community professionals, scholars, artists, educators and activists from sixteen countries ‿ offer studies and practical cases exploring the complexities of community arts education at all levels. Such complexities include challenges created by globalizing phenomena such as the COVID-19 pandemic; ongoing efforts to achieve justice for Indigenous peoples; continuing movement of immigrants and refugees; growing recognition of issues related to equity, diversity and inclusion in the workplace; and the increasing impact of grassroot movements and organizations. Chapters are grouped into four thematic clusters ‿ Connections, Practices, Spaces and Relations ‿ that map these and other intersecting assemblages of transversality. Thinking transversally about community art education not only shifts our understanding of knowledge from a passive construct to an active component of social life but redefines art education as a distinctive practice emerging from the complex relationships that form community.