The social art of engagement

This chapter focuses on class and gender as two key fault lines of social inequality that shape differential access to, and experiences of, the arts. Highlighting the need to address inequality by addressing the structure and operation of the sector, reveals that it is also important to consider the role that cultural policy can play to support disadvantaged groups. In this context, the idea of community is relevant as community arts was formed both to empower groups categorized as culturally disadvantaged, and in response to the social agenda of many positioned as being outside the dominant frames of the art world complex. The chapter also examines the development of more overtly political forms of collective practice notably those often clustered under the broad label of participatory practice.