The legitimisation of street art in visual arts education: Exploring the perspectives of five artists in New Zealand

Abstract

Over the past decade, the phenomena known as ‘street art’ has flourished in the art world and become a prominent international art movement. This article extrapolates the fin dings from Hung’s PhD thesis from 2020, Hitting the street: The Legitimation of ‘street art’ in visual arts education in New Zealand Insights about street art are articulated through the perspectives of five street artists, including Hung as a participant researcher, from data collected via interviews and observations. These encounters have led to understandings about how street art is produced, the social contexts that underpin its production, and the on going challenges and implications of its legiti macy as an artform. Positioned within a qualitative realist methodology, Hung examines possible causes, processes, and contexts that are often invisible to the phenomenon being investigated. Lucy Green’s (2005) theory of musical meaning and experience is u sed as a theoretical framework to understand the artistic qualities of creating street art (inherent meanings) and the social contexts framing its reception (delineated meanings). This article concludes with a discussion of possibilities and achievable str ategies for teaching street art in visual arts education at secondary schools and tertiary institutions.