Chapter 16: Artmaking For Social Change: Concluding Thoughts

As noted at the beginning of this book, the inspiration for sharing authors’ first-tellings emerged as student artists reflected on their transformative artmaking experiences. Their artmaking and chapters provide us with opportunities to expand the conversation, deepen critical consciousness, and interrupt the resistance to address issues of race, class, sexual orientation, gender, gender expression, geographic location, family dynamics, native language, and other differences. The complexities surrounding their identity development for these young people did not and does not happen instantly. Rather, they utilized artmaking as a means of deepening their understanding regarding the communities in which they feel they belong. Their artmaking affirmed their new understandings of self as well as self in relation to others.