Doing Art and Crossing Racial Boundaries in Informal Arts Groups

• In Event: 138 - Regular Session. Civil Society Solidarity and Boundaries

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between engagement in leisure activities and meeting people of difference among participants of twelve informal arts groups in Chicago. It asks, first, if engagement in informal arts activities—measured as hours doing art—is positively associated with the likelihood of meeting people different from oneself in one’s arts activities. Second, it seeks to further contextualize this relationship within the case study environment by considering the distribution of arts resources by race. Third, it seeks to consider the role of arts groups and group membership in providing channels to these arts resources and to a broader arts world. Altogether, this study presents an interesting case for how deep engagement in a leisure activity, the informal arts, acts to produce opportunities to cross social boundaries, most notably race.

Author

• Beksahn A Jang, University of Arizona