The subversive potential of praxis and political emotions in arts academies

The arts are made by and for people living in real worlds involving conflicts large and small. The arts are also and invariably embodiments of people’s political and ethical beliefs, understandings, and the emotions embedded in their art-making and artistic experiences. Accordingly, this chapter argues that artistic endeavours in academies should involve a special kind of empathetic social responsibility, or artistic citizenship, to conceive of and practice art-making, with a focus on the transformative and the subversively positive potential of the ethical “goods” that expressive art making can contribute to humanizing academe and re-centering its discourse on full human flourishing.