Intergenerational Counternarratives of Creative Agency: Reimagining Inclusive Practices Through Youth Participatory Action Research

Abstract

Since the 1990s, art museums across North America and Europe began actively recruiting teen or adolescent audiences, often through co-created programs aimed at increasing youth participation in the arts. Scores of these programs target young people–and youth of color, specifically–to grow and diversify art museum attendance. Although there is growing interest and investment in youth audiences to diversify museum attendance, there is limited research that examines the hidden tensions of such programs and their efficacy for youth development (Tzibazi, 2013). Inspired by post-critical ethnographic approaches (Noblet et al., 2004) to Youth Participatory Action Research (Cammarota, 2008), this study centers the intergenerational desires and perceptions of youth and adult co-researchers in a teen-centric program (Szekely, 2012). By investigating the counternarratives (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002) of teen and adult co-researchers, we sought to learn more about participation and creative agency from those at the center of these programs. In service of these aims, the following research questions were asked: As a YPAR collective, how did we navigate and negotiate our participation in a teen-centric program? And, how did we work together to develop creative agency? This dissertation draws from a three-year longitudinal qualitative case study of a YPAR collective that worked inside and outside a Southwestern Art Museum. Data were generated collectively through participant observations; in-depth individual and focus group interviews; and program materials such as artworks, designs, and other artifacts. The complete dataset was analyzed inductively and in collaboration with youth co-researchers (Marshall & Rossman, 2016; Ladson-Billings, 2009). The analysis of data was informed by critical theory; in particular, the concepts of interest convergence (Bell, 1980); critical conceptual frameworks for arts participation (Bae-Dimitriadis, 2017; Kraehe, 2017; Simon, 2016; Yosso, 2005); and mestiza consciousness (Anzaldúa, 1987; Torre & Ayala, 2009). This conceptual and theoretical framework helped illuminate how the neoliberal art museum unwittingly contributes to maintaining white supremacy even as it seeks and speaks of cultural equity. The findings of this study offer critical insights on youth creative agency, participation, and inclusivity discourses within neoliberal art museums. The conclusions suggest that the paradoxical realities young people face in art museums can offer a radical space of possibility to foster creative agency and resistance.