Judith Marcuse
Judith Marcuse - Artistic Producer, Judith Marcuse Projects
Founder/Co-Director, International Centre of Art for Social Change (ICASC)
Artists can be shamans, connectors of communities, prophets and historians, healers, clarifiers and voices of conscience, galvanizers and revealers of choice.
In the context of art for social change or community-engaged arts, we act as catalysts and facilitators with groups of people (who may not self-identify as artists) to create art together about what matters to them.
These forms of participatory artmaking, whether in performance, visual, literary or urban arts, take place in communities all over the world. In work for social and environmental justice, in many health sectors and intercultural work, in peacebuilding and education, our goals are as many and varied as people who engage with it. Often, there is as much emphasis on collaborative process as there is on art product. Dialogue is often at its core. It is a form of cultural democracy.