The Ethics of Community-Engaged Art

As applied theatre practitioners, Liz Foster-Shaner and Mary C. Parker are invested personally and professionally in working with communities in ways that are ethically responsible. Too often, they find that discussions around community-engaged art focus more on the mechanics of the practices — “How do you facilitate an exercise? How do you secure funding? How do you build partnerships?” — and not enough on the impact of those practices.

This workshop creates space for artists to have these conversations and consider how to develop work that can create sustainable social change, while recognizing that artists and teaching artists might also cause harm, especially to vulnerable and marginalized communities.

We hope to deepen knowledge and understanding of concepts related to personal and social identity and the four I’s of oppression (internalized, interpersonal, institutional, and ideological) and how they affect our impact as community-engaged artists. Our broad goals are to co-create an equitable, just, and compassionate learning community and to begin to craft a code of ethics for community-engaged art that strives for accountability and social justice.