Collaborative arts is a dynamic and contemporary form of arts practice. It can come under the heading of participatory arts, socially engaged arts, community arts, arts in social and community contexts. Collaborative arts encourages cultural democracy.
Photo credit: Protest is Beautiful (Tottenham), Freee Art Collective
Artists interested in engaging with people to make exceptional art often engage with communities in the broadest sense of the word – it can be a neighbourhood organisation; people united by a hobby or interest like a chess club; working fishermen, farmers or asylum seekers.
Collaborative arts practice plays with and contests notions of authorship and the idea of the artist-genius working in isolation. Work that is made collaboratively with different groups often exists outside of the gallery or takes place outside the traditional theatre space. Or it may take place in a prison or hospital. It can also be interdisciplinary and for example involve a musician working with a visual artist or an architect with a dance artist.