Walking with Public Art: Mapping the A-R-Tographic Impulse

Abstract This position paper explores how community art education students applied an a-r-tographic disposition as artists, researchers, and teachers to investigate the pedagogic potential of public art in their evolving practice. By actively engaging body-object-space, students reviewed their presumptions about art education and what constitutes curriculum through the introduction of walking as a mode of inquiry, shifting focus from the studio classroom to public spaces in community. Mapping the a-r-tographic impulse required careful interrogation of the encounter, and this process was informed by more-than-human discourses. For community art education students, the opportunity to undertake a distinct research project as part of coursework presented a new challenge, adding to their artist-teacher professionalization training in ways that expanded horizons of thought and potential trajectories in their teaching.