Handicrafts
Go to a market in a country that has tourists. Local people have taken the handicrafts that they established for their own enjoyment, pleasure, religious celebrations, and use, and have made versions for general consumption.
Whether these are totems, cloth, baskets, pottery, locally fired metal ware and jewellery, sculptures, or paintings, local arts and crafts define the identity of communities and countries. There is a continuing and heated debate about the manner in which these crafts are being dominated by goods from other countries, a fear that the old skills are being lost, and a yearning for a time when these arts and crafts were practised in a communal life that may be dissipating or at least perceived to be dying.
In large countries like the United States and India, internal tourists act as a market for additional production; in smaller countries there is an international trade. In fact, the markets of the world have always been markets where goods from a variety of sources come together.
But these artifacts can be used by educational programmes as constant reminders of important dates and events, motivators of behaviour, and as triggers for action. Clothing, woven banners, iconic or vernacular paintings and prints, and wooden sculptures that communicate the meaning and aspirations of local people are not so readily collected or recognised. Yet, precisely because they communicate directly to people, or because they have a market value that makes them self-financing, they can be useful tools in developing a background milieu that makes the voter education message so much more important and acceptable.
Art
Displayed art no longer conforms to established categories. Painting, photography, drawing, and printing interweave with three-dimensional forms; sculpture enters the dimension of time as well as space; and art plays with movement, sound, and touch through computers, installations, video, and film.
Artists collaborating with educators and promoters of democracy have produced photographic records of election triumphs, posters encouraging public participation, evocative sculpture, and telling images of the human spirit. Artists working alone or in collaboration with one another have produced exhibitions that support electoral and political moments, and comment on human circumstance.
Such works are on display or are created in public spaces, both in galleries and in the parks, gardens, and streets of cities around the world.
While specially commissioned work may be required, there is educational advantage in developing walking tours, artists' meetings with the public, specially assembled exhibitions, and educational seminars and symposiums that choose democratic themes and moments to coincide with other aspects of an educational programme. These programmes can use existing material, and even material that appears to be undemocratic can be used to provide object lessons of what the election is moving away from.
Art and the spaces within which it is displayed are resources that educators should use. Many of the larger public museums and galleries have their own education officers. These people may well be willing to support an educational programme and they will have skills and resources of their own to contribute. Such staff members are accustomed to developing programmes that attract audiences, and they often work under limited budgets and in relatively hostile or at least apathetic environments. They may also have developed outreach programmes to schools and poorer or disadvantaged communities, in some cases having established strategies for transporting artifacts.
This expertise is invaluable to voter education programmes.
Competitions
Election authorities have used competitions as a way of obtaining images and designs for use in voter education programmes as well as for publicising the campaign itself through such means as slogans and logos. In Ethiopia, a competition produced a theme song for the elections. School competitions are particularly useful in engaging young people in discussing issues and concepts, producing material that can be displayed, and in obtaining publicity. Such competitions take organisation, but result in positive perceptions of democracy and the election authority.
