Art and/as open education: A collaborative action with refugee artists

Abstract

The article illustrates the potential of engaged arts-based pedagogies in higher education with respect to integration interventions for young refugees in Europe. It discusses the conception and implementation of the collaborative initiative “Find Refuge in Art”, which was part of the research Project PRESS at the Hellenic Open University. This example shows how artistic synergy may become an integral part of research design, framing both awareness raising and open education in the backdrop of intercultural exchange. The initiative encouraged the co-production of artistic work from pairs of artists with refugee and non-refugee background and culminated in an exhibition with over 75 participating artists. Challenging the victimizing conceptualizations of refugee art as a primarily trauma-centered representation of displacement, the article invites us to consider questions of agency and inclusion in terms of mutual recognition and to widen participation as a means of fostering transformative intercultural learning and epistemic justice in universities.

Art Teaching: Inclusive Factor and Attention to Diversity

“…Furthermore, according to Sigüenza Orellana and Guevara Vizcaíno (2022), through the teaching of art, emotions, feelings, and affections can be connected, humanizing individual development by enabling the communication of critical and reflective thinking through imagination and creativity. Moreover, it sensitizes on matters of inclusion to achieve mutual recognition and expand participation as a means of strengthening intercultural learning (Apostolidou, 2023).…”