Evidence of a transnational arts and health practice methodology? A contextual framing for comparative community-based participatory arts practice in the UK and Mexico.
BACKGROUND
This paper draws on new research exploring community-based, participatory arts practice in Northern England and Mexico City to discuss contextual influences on artists' practice, and whether a common practice model can be identified. The international comparison is used to interrogate whether such a practice model is transnational, displaying shared characteristics that transcend contextual differences.


METHODS
The study used multi-site ethnography to investigate the participatory practice of more than 40 artists. Participant observation and extended individual and group dialogues provided data on practice in a diverse range of art forms and settings, analysed using open coding and grounded theory principles.


RESULTS
Findings locate differences in practitioners' motivations, and perceptions of the work's function; however, key similarities emerge across both sites, in practitioners' workshop methodologies and crucially in their creative strategies for catalysing change. A model is presented distilling the key elements of a common practice methodology, found across the study and across art forms.


CONCLUSIONS
The discussion notes where divergences echo nationalities of contributors, drawing inferences about the level of influence of national context in this work, and concludes with the implications of these findings for potential international collaboration, to face challenges within the community arts and health sector globally.
Department of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health, and Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham, UK.
Anni
A
Raw
Departamento de Antropología, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City, Mexico.
Ana Rosas
AR
Mantecón
Mexico; community arts and health; ethnographic methodology; international comparative research; practice mechanisms