The Holding Project
Ashley Pryor
The University of Toledo, USA
Barbara Miner
The University of Toledo, USA
Lee Fearnside
Independent Artist, USA
Abstract
The authors argue that community-engaged arts practices like The Holding Project can and should be brought into closer alliance with each other and can be mutually beneficial. We suggest that the 2011 Visual Literacy Competency Standards are entrenched in a Western Enlightenment worldview. While the values undergirding these worldviews may be valuable in some contexts, they are not universally shared and serve as an inadequate foundation for collaborative, community-engaged arts projects. Further, the 2011 Standards and the proposed “Framework for Visual Literacy in Higher Education” (ACRL-VLRT, 2021) currently under review may not go far enough to model a more inclusive and egalitarian approach to community-engaged work. We hope that by calling attention to the implicit Eurocentric bias inherent in the 2011 standards, we can make a small contribution to the ongoing efforts within the visual literacy community to support “social justice through visual practice” (ACRL-VLTF, 2021).
Keywords: ACRL, Community-Engaged Art, Competency Standards, Eurocentrism, The Holding Project