ABSTRACT
This chapter examines art as research and participation as a third dimension of a critical aesthetic practice. Across both classes this dimension emerged in an arc toward collective engagement that began with identity and the centering of marginalized voices, extended outward into understanding others, and then built toward research and shared concerns. The chapter explores the usefulness of the idea as it relates to dialogue, research, and participation as dimensions of a critical aesthetic practice. It shows that two arts-based research projects. The first is The City Project and the second is The Bearing Witness Project, each serving as an example of students’ arts-based research into a range of social issues both teacher and student selected. The chapter argues how students’ arts-based research encouraged presence, dialogue, and the production of agentive material responses in relation to one another and what they were learning through and with the arts.
