community

The term ‘community’, used generally, refers to a group of people living together spatially. However in contemporary art it has come to denote the recognition of an individual as a important component in the summation of the whole and as an active force capable of inciting change and social awareness. In The Social Contract Rousseau maintains that society is organised by an implicit contract determined between the members of society and that the conditions of this contract are justly decided by the general will of the people.
Similarly, artists working within the notion of ‘community’ use it as a departure point for opening up and illuminating current issues facing a certain social group. The individual's ‘place’ or sense of belonging is thus determined by the relation it has to the identity of the group and the identity of the group is likewise structured by the general concerns of the individuals.

Community art is often activist in nature and functions as a deliberate attempt to integrate and socialise both the artwork and the community/groups with which it works.