Because of this unstructured frame, community arts has often been plagued by the same expectations of excellence and quality that are bench marks of the fine arts. Tradition acclaims the fine arts from the perspective of the finished work, the finesse of the rendering, the drafting and so forth. Current arts discourse is attempting to address issues concerning the visibility of the creative process in the final work and of the audiences' experience of the artwork. May be, theorists ought to look to community arts in an effort to understand its position in the multitude of arts experiences. Process and experience have always been a high priority in community arts, that is not to say that the outcome is the poor relation.
Community arts is after all developmental by nature.
I believe that through active public participation in culture, our culture is strengthened and enriched. As the end of the century is rapidly upon us, I am questioning this personal credo. Mostly consumerism reeks of passivity, a Television Culture of lifestyle programs where process is diluted to a level where it becomes a 'how to' list of steps that are guaranteed to produce a product that is acceptable and possibly saleable. Participation engages the public in active involvement in culture and provides opportunities for developing new processes and new interests and learning new skills. Participation can also provide a platform for intellectual enquiry, challenging notions of culture, citizenship and what it actually means to belong to a community or to the wider definition of society.