Arts as Civic Commons

Amplifying the power of art to spark civic inquiry.

Works of art can provoke inquiry into the forces that shape civic life. These forces include the values, social conventions, power dynamics, institutions and systems that shape how we live together—and how we aspire to live together—at every level of community life, from the local to the global. A collaboration with Independent Schools Victoria, the Arts as Civic Commons (ArtC) project offers strategies and resources to help learners explore civic life through looking at and making art. ArtC materials can be used in person or online, and are suitable for use in school, museums, galleries, or anywhere else people of any age gather to explore art together.

Featured artworks created by students from Independent Schools Victoria. Thank you to Josephine Gullan, Amelia Lim, Cara Thomas, David Bennie, Caitlin Preyser, Alexandra Ragg, Jackson Palmer, Yukako Sunaba, Darcy Thomas, Isobelle McGrath, Louise Ying She Lai, Ally Wu, Jackson Bleasby, Madeleine Moraitis.

To support learning experiences at the intersect of art and civic engagement, the ArtC materials aim to help learners:

Explore how art can reveal, interrogate, and even change the systems that shape civic life, including institutional systems, belief systems, and power systems
Engage in thoughtful, inquiry-oriented dialogue that builds knowledge about civic themes and illuminates diverse perspectives
Reflect on their own civic identities, and explore how their own lives are connected to larger systems and stories
Develop a sense of agency with regard to civic life, along with an expansive conception of the civic domain and what counts as civic action

ArtC believes that learning experiences in the ‘civic commons’ of art have a place not just in the art classroom, but in subjects across the curriculum and in contexts outside of school. We hope that educators and learners in any domain who are interested in civic inquiry will find the ArtC materials inviting.