Continuing my series on Community Arts Practice as framed by the Four As: Access, Agency (Participation), Authorship and Active Ownership. This is part 3 – Authorship – Finding Voice
If Agency is participation with power, then Authorship is what happens when that power begins to speak.
The dictionary definition is plain enough. Authorship is the act of originating something. An author is the creator, the one who brings a work into being. Straightforward enough.
In community arts practice, authorship is more fragile and more profound than that definition suggests. It is not simply about who made the work. It is about whether someone has been able to shape meaning from their own experience, rather than having meaning shaped for them. It is the moment when expression comes from within, not as a response to a prompt, but as a claim.
Authorship is where participation stops being activity and starts becoming testimony. It’s that key pivot where agency is at work.
Over the years, I have seen many forms of participation that never quite reach this point. People attend regularly. They take part. They enjoy the sessions. They follow the process. The work can be good, sometimes really good. But the creative power can remain elsewhere. The content, the direction, the final form can still largely be decided in advance and elsewhere, by someone else.
This is not failure because participation can often offer connection, confidence and diversion. It can be fun. But it may not quite yet be authorship…
Read the rest of the CAPtain’s Blog below.
CAPtain’s Blog – Creating a Change – Part Three: Authorship – Finding Voice
