Article
The Contribution of the Arts to Animating Democracy

In addition to the role of the arts in social inclusion, economic development, urban and rural regeneration, the case is being made for a more influential role for the arts in civic dialogue, at least in the US. Americans for the Arts' Animating Democracy initiative (www.artsusa.org) proposes a third way — between the arts as commentator and as change agent — in which arts organizations help communities and civic leaders debate issues of concern but do not advocate particular action. What results, it is argued, is a better-informed public, better able to express views and to make decisions on complex issues, helping recover the decline of social capital in this 'bowling alone' society.

The arts offer neutrality and a 'safe space'. Difficult issues are found to be easier to explore when people debating such issues react to, or are involved with, the creation of art. The inspirational case studies provided include using anti-Semitic music to debate the Holocaust and the rise of the new right, a dance project helping to identify a future for a redundant military shipyard in New Hampshire, and a play in Seattle exploring the issues of identity and race arising out of the Rodney King verdict.

How relevant is this to Britain? Arts organizations undertake community work, and collaboration with the corporate sector is growing. But promoting civic dialogue is new and important territory. Common Purpose includes some use of arts activity in their sessions with emerging city leaders, and Groundwork uses the arts to promote ownership and participation in development projects by people not used to having an involvement. But the scope for the arts in civic dialogue is potentially significantly larger.

We live in a period of rapid political, economic and social change, and a democratic deficit means that few politicians receive anything like a respectable mandate. The issue is whether the arts can consciously be used as a vehicle for improving the quality of civic dialogue on intractable social issues such as poverty, homelessness, racism, drug abuse.

I write this while reflecting on setbacks in Bristol where, on top of the failure of the proposed Harbourside Centre concert hall, councillors have now rejected a related commercial development. Harbourside is a complicated site with four landowners. Developers had worked with the landowners for five years to create a viable scheme. This failed to capture the imagination of Bristolians, though few beyond its objectors and supporters seemed aware of what the new scheme entailed, let alone the advantages and disadvantages. The councillors' decision was not necessarily wrong. But wider debate would have helped create a more informed judgment by all involved. The arts could have helped here in creating and allowing a neutral, independent debate.

Without a better-informed and involved citizenry — not only in the creation of visions, but also in the practicalities of implementation — decisions are made in a vacuum. I came away from the Harbourside decision determined to raise the level of debate. The arts can help this process in a way that all can benefit, as Animating Democracy shows. I will be pushing in Bristol to see if the arts could be used to animate democracy here — debating issues of urban design, planning law and processes, the opportunity costs of different development schemes in the case of Harbourside.

Whether this effort will be successful will depend more on the current low profile of the arts in the city and the limited funding available for existing projects than on the merits of the case — which is strong. Perhaps the government should establish support for such work as it does with business/arts partnerships?

Andrew Kelly Bristol Cultural Development Partnership
Kelly.bcdp@genie.co.uk

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