Critical Perspectives: Writings on Art and Civic Dialogue is a collection of essays that explore art, civic dialogue, and reflective critical writing. Twelve essays focus on three compelling and very different projects supported by Animating Democracy that employed the unique capacities of theater, visual art, and historic preservation to stimulate people to talk together in new ways about issues that matter in their communities: Dell’Arte theater’s Dentalium Project, about the impact of a Native American casino on the small town of Blue Lake, CA; MACLA’s Ties That Bind, about intermarriage between Asian and Latino Americans in Silicon Valley, CA; and The Slave Galleries Restoration Project, a collaborative project of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, about issues of marginalization on the Lower East Side. Critical Perspectives deepens understanding of arts-based civic dialogue work through the engagement of multiple writers—arts writers, a journalist, community participants, anthropologists, a sociologist, a storyteller, historians, and project directors—as they approach each project from their unique vantage points. In so doing, Critical Perspectives expands who has voice and authority in critical writing about civically engaged art. The collection is introduced with an essay by noted cultural writer Lucy Lippard.
Critical Perspectives: Writings on Art and Civic Dialogue is a collection of essays that explore art, civic dialogue, and reflective critical writing. Twelve essays focus on three compelling and very different projects supported by Animating Democracy that employed the unique capacities of theater, visual art, and historic preservation to initiate crucial conversations within communities.
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