Essay Abstracts

The full collection of Critical Perspectives Essays can be purchased through the Americans for the Arts bookstore.

A Threshold Moment: Summary and Reflections from a Gathering of Critical Perspectives Writers
Andrea Assaf
In November 2002, a meeting of Critical Perspectives writers and invited guests was held in San Francisco. The intent of the meeting was to give writers an opportunity to share challenges and questions they were encountering in the process of writing about the projects, and more broadly, to discuss issues related to writing about civically engaged art. In “A Threshold Moment,” Animating Democracy Program Associate Andrea Assaf documents and draws out a wide range of practical, ethical, and philosophical questions discussed at this gathering, including: What is the role of the writer—collaborator, critic, witness, advocate? What are approaches for writing about this work that are at once probing, informative, evocative, and accessible? What challenges and possibilities arise when the writer is either "inside" or "outside" of the project or community s/he is writing about? How much participation should writers have in the actual project, and at what point does it interfere?  How do writers approach the question of assessment in writing about art that has social or civic, as well as aesthetic, intent?

Back to List