| The essence of this research calls for an articulation of current understandings of the artistic development of adolescence and a review of the artistic expressions urban adolescents choose to engage in outside of the traditional school setting. The following research question was posed: Given that adolescent identity construction continues to be questioned, and given that in some school systems students have the opportunity to work outside mainstream programs, how might participation in meaningful, non-traditional artmaking strategies within collaborative projects build interpersonal relationships that contribute to their identity formation?; The research focused on twelve high school-aged, minority students (seven male and five female), in an urban setting, who participate in arts experiences after-school, such as cartooning and Japanese animation, graffiti art, RAP, hip hop dance, street photography, and museum internships. A qualitative case study method using phenomenological in-depth interviews is used and the inquiry is guided by inductive analysis and an interpretivist, ethnomethodology approach. Through videotaped individual and group interviews and examination of student artwork, and through the use of text-based and image-based analyses, this study identifies alternative means and modes through which youth communicate.; Findings from this study suggest that for the participants, non-traditional outside-of-school art activities are the means through which these adolescents reinterpret their world and they use their art practice and art explorations as a master narrative through which to create their sense of self, explore their adolescence, and construct meaning about their life experiences. The results indicate that these art forms and community-based activities are at the center of their identities and youth define themselves through a meshing of their individual and group identities, as realized through their after-school arts experiences.; Conclusions suggest an "Adolescent Artistic-Code Influence Model" that includes four conceptual indicators which play roles in the creation of meaning, construction of identity, artistic development, and collaborative art practice in urban settings after-school: Landscapes and Layers; Sites and Surroundings; Mentoring and Match-ups; and Voice and Vision and Artistic Codes. Participants in this study indicate that non-traditional forms of communication carry more relevance as agencies of identity formation than may previously have been appreciated. |
