"Arts as Agency’. The Potential of the Arts in Educational Settings

Artistic languages can become resources used by social actors for constructing meanings and shaping social experience. Different forms of art (such as visual, graphic, performing arts, music and so on) are a meaning-making resources that people use in their everyday lives. Art has a performative nature, it offers codes through which people define themselves. It is therefore not just a device of self-expression or a cultural vehicle. Artistic languages have power to intervene in the shaping of our experience of a certain event. As we know, these processes of meaning-making through art are rooted in many social contexts, including educational institutions. As many researches highlighted, artistic languages often come into the pedagogical relationship as devices among others for classifying and evaluating the students. In this case, art is a form of distinction and social exclusion. At the same time, art can be an important element for an inclusive and democratic education. Artistic languages are not only the exclusive heritage of the cultural elite but can become a central device to care the sensorial, emotional, social and intellectual potential of students. Artistic languages can contribute to an organic educational process based on interdisciplinary connections.