From people’s experience:

cultural participation in the arts organisation, Faro de Oriente in Mexico City

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of an ethnographic research in the arts organisation, Faro de Oriente. The aim is to understand the distinctions between public cultural policy and ordinary practice in the organisation. Ethnographic research was conducted for 11 months (2011-2012), including participant observation, semi-structured interviews and archival research. This paper argues that while policy makers have configured arts education in an instrumental way, ethnographic research shows disjunctions and negotiations. Participants’ motives for undertaking arts practices and their social relations, challenges the expectations and desirable outcomes of arts education. These motives and social relations emerge in a context of inequalities in Mexico City. This paper contributes to understanding the relationships that emerge outside institutional contexts and the reasons for this. It adds knowledge to understanding how public cultural policy plays out on the ground by examining people’s sociocultural context and their ordinary relations in an arts organisation.