Contribution short abstract

Art-based methods enable collective learning spaces for addressing societal challenges. Community-based work builds agency, solidarity and hope. The presentation explores participation during sustainability transformation through restoration art projects.

Contribution long abstract

Art-based methods can enable learning spaces and experiences where we collectively seek more sustainable ways of living and build collective agency. Pedagogical approaches based on shared imagination and experimentation create opportunities to envision a more hopeful future.

Ethically and ecologically sustainable practices require the courage to experiment and learn together – in ways that acknowledge planetary boundaries while strengthening human solidarity and sense of community. Community-based work not only enhances capacity for collaboration, but also supports strategic thinking and future-building.

Agency emerges through collective work. Learning experiences facilitated by experimental, imaginative and collaborative art-based methods play an essential role in this process.

This presentation examines cultural sustainability transformation through community art-based examples: land art workshops that address endangered species and their relationship to place, metamorphosis and embodiment, opening space for experiences of hope and shifts in scale.

Shared imagination and concrete realization create agency and pedagogical opportunities to build narratives that support ecosocial education and more sustainable living. Thus, cultural means can awaken change and strengthen belief in a better future.