Reflections on transformative pedagogies and practice encounters in the cultural sphere

This chapter reflects on the scope of community engagement practices, creative partnerships and emergent ways of working in the cultural sphere. Providing an articulation of key ideas significant in creative partnerships this chapter critically reflects on the theoretical framework of ‘practice encounters’ as a way to re-consider community connectivity related to the visual domain. The significance of creative encounters and the efficacy of participation is an expanding field of discourse in relation to post human professional identity formation, audience engagement and creative industry partnerships. Evidence of transformative pedagogies as strategies to inform practice will be articulated. An examination of the ways in which practices can be considered as living things interdependent and connected in ‘ecologies of practice’ will be undertaken using contemporary community engagement projects. Evidence of practices as orchestrated transdisciplinary arrangements are described using reflexive accounts to further examine specific projects and how ideas, methods and approaches are situated in relation to the broader field. The implications of ideas presented as “practice encounters” is considered in terms of participatory practice and transformative research methods. We revisit the existing terrain and identify how community engagement encompassing art, education and the cultural sphere can be re-imagined and re-oriented to explore concepts of educational encounter beyond experience, dialogue and pre-determined goals. How social worlds related to art, education and the cultural sphere are prefigured, enacted and reconfigured using permeable boundaries and transformative pedagogy is disclosed. We conclude by speculating on the adaptations and implications of transformative pedagogies and ecologies of practice in art, education and the cultural sphere.