Artistic Constitutions of the Civil Domain: On Art, Education and Democracy

Abstract

How can we understand the relationship between art, education and democracy in the contemporary western political condition? The recent president elections in the USA showed that the classical model of liberal representative democracy is shaking on its foundations. The question is how artists and education can respond to this political condition. In the article is argued that art has a special quality to address political, and especially democratic issues. It can strengthen education in its lessons in democracy and citizenship. Art has a special quality to walk on an alternative path of democracy, namely this of the civil domain. In the civil sphere artistic qualities and skills of designing and of imagination can play a crucial role.