In this paper we report on a research project in gallery education, conducted in the South West of England. The project was part of the ‘Enquire’ programme, a national research programme in partnership with the Arts Council and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (Taylor, 2006). The specific aim of the South West cluster research was to investigate the learning benefits of gallery education in providing opportunities for young people’s participation and democratic learning. The projects were focused on the experiences and the learning of the participating young people and the artists. The assumption of the research was that gallery education is significantly different from art education in school or museum settings, not only because of the active involvement of the artists (Pringle 2006), but also because artist-led projects in a gallery context have the potential to provide a unique opportunity for democratic participation. Democratic learning refers to the practices of learning that are democratic in quality. Such learning processes are situated in the actual practices and communities that make up young people’s lives. This view of democratic citizenship does not see citizenship as something to be achieved rather it is something that is always and already present. Hence citizenship is not conceived as the outcome of a particular educational and/or developmental trajectory but as an ongoing practice. The research was not concerned with the art-related outcomes from the projects, but with the democratic aspects of the participation of young people in the process, that is the processes of democratic learning. We conceptualised this as Citizenship-as-practice (Lawy and Biesta, 2006; Dewey, 1966). Here, citizenship learning is not something that precedes citizenship rather it follows them and accompanying their actual practices of citizenship.

The aim of the research was to understand the potential for democratic action within gallery education projects, and to assess the potential for significant democratic learning within such projects. The research involved a collaboration between art and gallery educators secondary schools and the university. A total of 52 young people (Year 10), took part in the eight projects which ran between October 2006 and November 2007. The research comprised three modes of data-collection: a) semi-structured observations of project activities; b) group-interviews (2); and c) individual interviews (19) with participating young people. A group interview was conducted with the artists and their individual reflective diaries were made available to the research team. All of the data were transcribed and analysis was conducted by the research team using a grounded theory approach (Strauss, and Corbin, 1990).

Our findings confirm those from our British Academy sponsored research (Biesta, et al, 2006). We identified a number of learning benefits for young people including the ability to work collaboratively; the development of practical and conceptual skills; and increased engagement, motivation, self-esteem and confidence. This mirrored findings from earlier work (Taylor, 2006). However we were able to show that issues of voice, agency and difference were important for young people’s democratic learning. ‘Voice’ concerns the extent to which young people feel that they are being listened to, particularly by those in power and authority positions. ‘Agency’ concerns the extent to which young people feel that they have an opportunity to shape the conditions that shape and structure their lives. ‘Difference’ refers to the importance of living with plurality and difference and acting in ways that respect otherness. Our research has shown that the conditions of democratic participation are an important factor in the processes of democratic learning; furthermore that the projects provided significant opportunities for democratic learning. The young people not only developed their artistic capabilities but given the time and space afforded by the projects, were able to develop their democratic and citizenship capabilities.