Arts-based approaches to democracy: Reinvigorating the public sphere

Abstract

Across the globe, new forms of democracy have been hailed as key to addressing the most existential crises facing society. In the face of democratic malaises such as polarisation and disenchantment, as well as systemic crises such as climate change and structural injustice, deliberative innovations are proliferating. We explore the contribution a specific form of artistic practice – participatory performance – can make to democratic renewal. While the current focus of democratic innovations has been an institutional design approach creating small-scale spaces for citizen engagement, we argue an arts-based approach to democracy returns to a focus on the large-scale public sphere as an important locus of democracy. Through an in-depth case study of The People’s Palace of Possibility, a participatory performance touring the United Kingdom 2020–2024, we explore what ‘mode of connection’ or political culture between citizens – for Hannah Arendt the defining dimension of the public sphere – participatory arts promotes. We find that the artistic dimension of this work promotes critical democratic renewal by inviting a reflective, playful, imaginative, and collective way of engaging citizens on systemic issues such as climate change and structural injustice.