Home is Where the Art is: Exploring the Places People Live through Art Education

Abstract

Through an analysis of yard art in a town of upstate New York, the relevance of an ethnographic, cultural studies/visual culture approach to art education focused on issues regarding place is established. In light of art educators' interest in place, it is maintained that researchers should seek out and analyze art in particular places to explore social and ecological issues pertinent to people's lives. The conceptual and methodological tools employed in this study include a socio-ecological theory of place; articulation of the local and larger-than-local context; analysis of class differences within place; and, consideration of place identities in terms of spatial and class distinctions among places. The particular issues investigated ethnographically are recycling and the emergence of consumerism. Finally, it is suggested that the exploration of place indicates the need to locate and incorporate various kinds of art into art education.