Fighting exclusion with culture and art Examples from Brazil

Abstract

English This article demonstrates that artistic activity is an important tool for deepening democracy, because it provides a vehicle for the excluded to reach the public sphere, thus making it more heterogeneous. As artists, they become active citizens and step out of the invisibility into which racism and exclusion has forced them. French Cet article montre que l’activité artistique est un important outil d’enracinement de la démocratie, parce qu’elle offre aux exclus un moyen de joindre la sphère publique, la rendant ainsi plus hétérogène. En qualité d’artistes, les exclus deviennent des citoyens actifs et ils émergent de l’invisibilité où le racisme et l’exclusion les avaient confinés. Spanish Este artículo demuestra que la actividad artística es una herramienta importante para la profundización de la democracia porque la expresión artística constituye un vehículo para que los excluidos lleguen a la esfera pública, con lo que ésta se enriquece y se hace más heterogénea. Como artistas, se convierten en ciudadanos activos y salen de la invisibilidad a la que el racismo y la exclusión los ha empujado.

Joint Drumming in Brazilian and German Preschool Children

“…Specifically, we expected experience with intentionally shared and rhythmically entrained behavior to music in social contexts to be more chronically accessible to young children from Salvador da Bahia, Brazil (Reiter, 2009), than from Leipzig, Germany (Wingerter, 2005). If such experiences are indeed essential for children to learn rhythmic entrainment, we predict that children from Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, should be more likely than those from Leipzig, Germany, to spontaneously synchronize their rhythmic movements when drumming together with a social partner, compared with drumming solo to a playback beat.…”

What are you (un)doing with that story?

“…Others have used art in community projects, with the aim of allowing for the collective identification, analysis of, and communication of tacit social relations (Sakamoto et al, 2010;Wulff et al, 2010). Often building on the legacy of Paolo Freire and his Pedagogy of the Oppressed, such uses of art by consider collective art creation as a powerful platform for community building, consciousness raising and social action (Diamond and Capra, 2007;Fudge Schormans, 2010;Reiter, 2009).…”

A community of practice in music teacher training: The case of Musicalização Infantil

“…Most of these experiences are slightly different from the ones described in the literature (Bergee, 2006;Burton & Reynolds, 2009;Soto, Lum, & Campbell, 2009). While some occur within the walls of regular schools, an even larger number take place in non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community centres, universities, and so forth (Grossi, 2006;Kleber, 2006;Reiter, 2009;Torres, 2006). These experiences have helped to shape and constitute the solid body of knowledge on music teacher training that exists in Brazil (Mateiro & Souza, 2008) and, to a certain extent, have also impacted policy making and social justice (Ilari, 2009;Jurgberg, 2002;Reiter, 2009).…”

“…While some occur within the walls of regular schools, an even larger number take place in non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community centres, universities, and so forth (Grossi, 2006;Kleber, 2006;Reiter, 2009;Torres, 2006). These experiences have helped to shape and constitute the solid body of knowledge on music teacher training that exists in Brazil (Mateiro & Souza, 2008) and, to a certain extent, have also impacted policy making and social justice (Ilari, 2009;Jurgberg, 2002;Reiter, 2009). Yet, a criticism that can be leveled at most of them concerns issues around continuity and target population.…”