The artist and the pedagogy of hope

Taking Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of hope as a point of departure, I explore points of intersection between Freire's educational perspectives and my own regarding aspects of the artist's role in society and education in the arts. I suggest that education ought to seek to realize such ideals as freedom, justice, equality of opportunity, and civility, and a more just, humane society. I agree with Freire that hope provides the impetus in the struggle to improve the situation. The artist is an educator who imaginatively envisions how things are, how they might be, and presents lived reality for our intellectual contemplation, emotional grasp, and corporeal response. The arts provide means whereby hope can be instilled and a more humane society foreshadowed. If education is to grapple with the central issues of life, it ought to be vitally concerned not only with deconstructing and struggling against present realities but envisioning and celebrating alternative and prospective realities. The arts are uniquely suited to this project. As such, they ought not only to be at the centre of general education, but the artistic community can and ought to constitute a beachhead for hope, faith, and joy in the school, and a model for an education still to come.