Arts-based pathways for sustainable transformation towards a more equal world

Abstract

The cultural sector is a potential instigator of change due to its experimental, performative, and relational nature. However, like everywhere else, the cultural sector re-enacts and thus conserves inequalities of various kinds through its outreach to wider audiences and its deep engagement in socio-cultural practices. By taking our actions within the ERASMUS+ project ‘Voices of Women’ as a creative catalyst, this paper scrutinizes a set of items for further discussion of arts-based pathways for sustainable transformation towards a more (gender) equal world. We discuss the ability of the arts to engage, educate, and transform power relations through three pathways towards sustainable transformation: 1. Canon critique; 2. Decolonization; and 3. New materialism. We argue that all three pathways enable novel forms of knowledge creation and actions in arts-based research, arts education, the cultural sector, and beyond. Cover image: Still picture from film: Music and Gender in Balance (Mittner and Bergli, 2018)