Uma experiência formativa no contexto universitário: o projeto Arte e Diferença

Abstract

This paper presents the Arte e Diferença (Art and Difference) extension project, which has been developed at the Federal University of Minas Gerais since 2017. The project initially consisted of holding artistic workshops for youngsters and adults with and without disabilities. Because of the pandemic, this setting underwent changes in 2020 and 2021. This paper discusses five guiding principles of the project: accessibility, ludicity, authorship, articulation between the singular and the collective, and selflessness, evincing the bond of these principles with the work path proposed. It focuses on elements related to the project’s methodological proposal and its effects on the students’ formative path, considering that the issue of disability still occupies a secondary position within university education. The concepts of hospitality and plasticity are resumed to reflect on the place occupied by the other, especially when the other’s experience is placed in the foreigner’s dimension, easily framed in labels and knowledge previously defined. The potential of the extension program linked to teaching and research activities is highly evidenced throughout this paper, as an aspect that favors the university engagement with the issues and challenges experienced by subjects nowadays.