A mentor
told me not to fuss too much about catching up on Art History. I have been worried about it, since I am entering the Department of Visual
Studies at Lingnan. The mentor told me that since I
have studied western thoughts through history, music history, Christian
thoughts and aesthetics, it shouldn’t be difficult for me to find the place of
Art within this framework. So I decided
I should catch up instead on my aesthetics theories, especially those that deal
with how art works with people and communities.
Speaking of
Community Arts, I built my thesis proposal on the study of art in communities. And now that I am accepted, I have the time
and luxury to begin further up the vine, with questions such as the nature of
art and the nature of communities. So I
picked up Lyon and Driskell’s The
Community in Urban Society, published in 2012. And as I went through the forefathers of
concepts of community such as Ferdinand and Simmel, I realized that this
sociological aspect is very important.
I wouldn’t
have to become an expert in them, but I have to appreciate the ways in which
communities are considered to be communities.
To me, each of these schools of theories shed light on different aspects
on the nature of communities. Therefore,
in a sense, the possible formats of Community Arts would be as varied as the
ways that a community is a community.
So the
reading goes on.
