Enabling the 'Other' community through creative pedagogies for urban renewal

This article draws on an art in education project in the UK to explore the value of creative pedagogy in the process of urban renewal. In this article community engagement is not simply about learning as an instrument to produce a person who is ready for active citizenship within a democracy, but rather to enable newly configured communities where an individual’s uniqueness is savoured. Biesta refers to this as the ‘other community’ (2006), which contrasts with the idea of a social group in which existing structures are rationalised according to pre-existing rules or values, it does not attempt to replicate same-ness. I focus on ArtScapers, an art in education project that uses practice research to explore the implications of creative pedagogy on community formation. The exploration of this art project, with three UK Primary Schools, employs cultural theory to investigate strategies for arts engagement with a particular interest on inclusion. Community consultation is commonplace in urban centres undergoing regeneration and the potency of public voice can be variable, this article explores ArtScapers as a consultation model in which there has been a process of genuine engagement. Using cultural theory to analyse pedagogy I assert that creative practices can purposefully draw communities together into mini democracies.