A arte, a diferença, o diferente e a inclusão

Abstract

This Art-Based Educational Research sought to investigate the potential contributions of meetings and artistic practices for inclusion from the perspective of seventeen subjects who participated in workshops of the Extension Art and Difference project – arising from a partnership between the School of Fine Arts and the Faculty of Education of the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Adjacent to this, it also sought to reflect on art as an experience; understand how encounters with oneself and with others favor the creative process; and identify potentialities and limitations of the encounter with the difference in the collective. The methodology used was A/r/tography making use of narratives, images, memories and gastronomic metaphors relating flavor to knowledge. In this research, it was possible to discover that the encounters mediated by artistic practices affected the project participants and allowed them to feel included since the practice of improvisation invited them to silence, to observe and listen to the other and, when that is said, inclusion it is present because the humanity of the other is recognized. Furthermore, it was possible to perceive that the workshops proposed by Arte e Diferença are capable of promoting cultural changes through artistic practices. The changes lie in training more sensitive professionals with the potential to multiply learning, affecting so many other people; in offering a collective space for artistic experience where there are no judgments and everything is seen as a possibility; in the promotion of the encounter with the other mediated by art that leads to creation through improvisation and; consequently, to inclusion. Understanding how the encounters and artistic practices affected the participants, what I called the colloid effect, I set out to outline a concept of inclusion based on art. With the findings of this research, I did not intend to generalize, since this is a very specific group of people and each group has its uniqueness. I hope that, in some way, this research can help to promote debates on the subject to promote improvements, both in educational practices and in educational and social policies.