Community-based art education in China: Practices, issues and challenges

Art educators have been promoting Community‐Based Art Education (CBAE) in schools in order to enhance students’ sense of socio‐cultural identity and contextual learning about local art and culture. It cannot only bridge the gap between the students’ daily lives and the communities and art, but can also enhance their inquiry, discovery and meaning‐making abilities. In China, the community‐based approach plays a significant role in the National Standards for Visual Arts, and Chinese art educators have been applying CBAE in school art education for decades. However, Western art educators are still unfamiliar with the issues, practices and challenges related to CBAE in China owing to language constraints. In light of the above, this article aims to initiate a dialogue between Western and Chinese CBAE researchers through discourse and discussions on the main issues related to CBAE in Chinese art education. It outlines current practices of, and issues related to, CBAE from the perspective of Chinese art education. It also discusses the three major challenges to the implementation of CBAE in China, namely the conflict between indigenous knowledge and official knowledge in the school art curriculum, lack of motivation among teachers, and neglect of context in the practice of local art in schools. It is hoped that this article it will enrich our overall knowledge of CBAE and contribute to the understanding of CBAE from a global perspective. Copyright © 2020 The Authors. iJADE published by NSEAD and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.