Rethinking Time, Space, and Relationality: Disability-Centered Pedagogies in Art Learning

• In Event: Transformative Visions for Arts Education

Abstract

This paper explores disability-centered pedagogical approaches to art education through a creative model of disability. Drawing from ethnographic research at Creative Growth Art Center, a community-based studio for disabled artists, this article examines how they challenge normative expectations of time, space, and relationality. Using the concept of crip time, the article highlights how temporal flexibility allows for engagement with creative work. The spatial practices at Creative Growth foster artistic connections across bodies, materials, and environments. Relational dynamics create a community in which disability is not reduced to deficit but integrated into everyday life. These three pedagogical lenses reframe disability as a generative force in art learning. The paper reconsiders how disability-centered pedagogies can open new possibilities for art education.

Author

• Min Gu, California State University - Long Beach