The creative citizen: citizenship building in urban areas

The current work explores the significance of citizenship in the contemporary world, suggesting a new approach to its realization, where artistic practice and the development of cultural awareness combine to produce the creative citizen. This research uses case studies from three Boston metropolitan area neighbourhoods in Massachusetts, USA, to reflect on arts and culture as platforms to re-address citizenship at the community level. The case studies address examples where citizenship is explored through the development of inter-ethnic and face-to-face connections as platforms of artistic inclusion, the creation of a local identity associated with an Arts District, and through physical space appropriation and reinforcement of cultural identity. The relationship between urban public space, community, and culture is understood as a platform that may offer new strategies for urban space revivification, and specific strategies of civic engagement and leadership in these communities, providing impetus for the development of creative citizens

Arteria – A Regional Cultural Mapping Project in Portugal

This paper discusses the relation between cultural mapping and participatory community cultural mapping, proposing the integration of a mobile device application (app) in the cultural mapping process of the Arteria project. This application aims to expand the notion of cultural appropriation by exploring how citizens can make crucial contributions to the cultural mapping process. This technology will evolve from and improve Arteria’s digital platform/website by boosting the processes of collection and registration of tangible and intangible cultural assets and the dissemination of registered cultural assets. The app will also enhance the connection among socio-cultural actors and improve the quality of community involvement in the cultural, social, and political dynamics of this cultural mapping project. To justify the need for such a tool, an overview of the project’s intent, objectives, and activities is presented, as well as its philosophy of intervention in local communities.Cet article discute de l’introduction d’une application mobile dans le processus de cartographie culturelle du projet Arteria et met en évidence les liens entre planification culturelle et participation. L’application mobile vise à approfondir le sens de l’appropriation culturelle en explorant en quoi la participation citoyenne peut enrichir les processus de cartographie culturelle. La participation en ligne permettra d’enrichir les données et la plateforme d’Arteria en y ajoutant des références aux propriétés tangibles et intangibles de la culture urbaine. Cet article discute en quoi cette application mobile permettra d’enrichir les liens entre les acteurs socio-culturels et en quoi elle permettra également d’ajouter à la qualité de la participation et de l’implication citoyenne en tenant compte des dynamiques politiques de ces formes de planification

“Desenvolvimento Regional através da Cultura”. Curso de Verão Europeu sobre Desenvolvimento Regional Sustentável, Germerode (Alemanha), 23 a 28 de Junho de 2002

Este Curso de Verão, organizado pelo Departamento de Planeamento Urbano e Paisagístico da Universidade de Kassel, teve como objectivo principal reunir gestores, responsáveis pelo planeamento, administradores públicos, cientistas, investigadores e políticos, promovendo um processo de aprendizagem activa e criativa. A relação entre cultura e desenvolvimento regional foi o tema do curso, proporcionando um estimulante debate que, apoiando‑se no confronto entre a reflexão teórica e a abordagem de ..

Cohen-Cruz, Jan (org.), Radical Street Performance: An International Anthology

Jan Cohen-Cruz foi membro do New York City Street Theatre/Jonah Project entre 1971 e 1972. Organizou workshops de teatro em prisões, hospitais psiquiátricos e centros comunitários. É co-organizadora de Playing Boal: Theatre, Therapy, Activism e os seus artigos, baseados na performance activista e performance comunitária, foram publicados nas revistas TDR, High Performance, American Theatre, Urban Resources, Women and Performance, The Mime Journal e na antologia But Is It Art?. Jan é também pr..

Biographies for Artistic and Social Intervention: A Youth-Driven Project

This article discusses how biographical materials may be used in youth arts education projects to develop new methodologies and approaches that can stimulate artistic and social intervention in contemporary urban communities, thus changing the field of arts education policy at the community level. Through their creation of Artistic Society Projects, a group of young people from the arts education project Bando à Parte: Youth Cultures, Arts and Social Inclusion (O Teatrão, Coimbra, Portugal) have created a voice that may be used to transform their own communities. The starting points for this transformation are the young peoples’ biographical paths. The influence of youth on education policy may be strategically understood in the context of formal and nonformal school curricula. How can youth use their biographies to develop specific contributions both to change in individual behaviors and to social change in urban communities, influencing arts education policies to instigate action? The exploration of these processes through the work of artistic creation, inspired by collected biographical materials, represents a contribution to ongoing reflection on the issues of memory, identity, youth resistance, and community change in urban settings, influencing the ways in which arts education policy is understood and implemented

Community Engaged Research in an UNESCO World Heritage Site

With this paper, we wish to share the experience of an arts-based action research intervention in the Sofia Street, in Coimbra (Portugal), a city street that was inscribed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013. This intervention is part of the bigger action-research project named Arteria (2018-2020), where we wish to explore the possible connections between the artistic practice and the field of social science. In this paper, we describe how the field research, which took place in this street (the preparation of community workshops and their implementation), offers a process of methodological exploration on how social science methodologies may be articulated with the processes of artistic creation. We show how this can be done by developing innovative approaches to cultural participation through the process of immaterial co-creation of knowledge. At the same time, we share reflections on how the artistic intervention may have an impact on the social and cultural transformation of Sofia Street

Biographies for Artistic and Social Intervention

This paper discusses the theme biographies for artistic and social intervention through an analysis of artistic work conducted with a group of young people from the arts education project Bando à Parte: Youth Cultures, Arts and Social Inclusion (O Teatrão, Coimbra). How do young people create a voice which may be potentially used to transform their own communities, having as a starting point their biographical path(s)? How can each of us find on biographical courses specific contributions that may interfere with change, and how may these be translated into concrete policies and actions in society? The exploration of these processes through a work of artistic creation, inspired in biographical collected materials, represents a possible contribution to reflect on the issues of memory, identity and community change