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Finding Voice

A Visual Arts Approach to Engaging Social Change

Kim S. Berman

Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Imprint: University of Michigan Press
Published: 01/2017
Pages: 248
Subject: Social Science - Black Studies (Global), History - Africa/South/Republic of South Africa, Art - Study & Teaching
Print ISBN: 780472053667
eBook ISBN: 9780472900718

DESCRIPTION

In Finding Voice, Kim Berman demonstrates how she was able to use visual arts training in disenfranchised communities as a tool for political and social transformation in South Africa. Using her own fieldwork as a case study, Berman shows how hands-on work in the arts with learners of all ages and backgrounds can contribute to economic stability by developing new skills, as well as enhancing public health and gender justice within communities. Berman's work, and the community artwork her book documents, present the visual arts as a crucial channel for citizens to find their individual voices and to become agents for change in the arenas of human rights and democracy.

REVIEWS

“Kim Berman’s pioneering work, Finding Voice, is transgressive in the best sense, crossing boundaries that separate disciplines, communities, academics, policy-makers, and funders. She challenges fashionable fatalism. She shows how cooperative artistic production, bringing poor communities together with scholars and artists, can be a wellspring of agency and hope.” 
—Harry Boyte, Augsburg University

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