Street Youth Voice and Social Art

Abstract

<p> This thesis sets out to examine how street youth use art as a mode of voice and what messages they choose to bring forward in their art. To complete this research a critical, post-modern framework was consulted. Alongside this a threeday, art-based research activity was planned and developed for street youth to participate in. Six street youth gathered at a drop-in centre/shelter to work on a collective art piece. Once the art piece was finished, messages from the art were analyzed through interview discussions with the youth, the literature, field notes and my own interpretations of what I was seeing. Findings of the street youth's messages were categorized as follows: public perception of street youth, being ignored/not being heard, expressions of hunger, sadness/pain, and coping/strengths. Art as a tool for voice was explored in the literature, and it was found that it has the ability to send powerful messages that can have consciousness-raising abilities, and even has instances of impacting organizational/structural changes. This research contributes to knowledge in various ways. First the community can learn from street youth voices that were gathered by an alternative medium. Also art-based methods can prove to be a more accessible way of collecting and interpreting data depending on the population you are working with. Finally, in the field of social work, it could be that art-based research is an alternative way to engage communities in research while at the same time challenging dominant knowledge processes.</p>