This book offers arts-based solutions to the threats to democracies around the world and features chapter authors who are artists, activists, curators, and teachers applying creative and cultural practices in deliberate efforts to build democratic ways of working and interacting in their communities around the world.

Introduction: The Unraveling of Democracy and Reweaving Civic Life Part One: Place-Based Actions Introduction to Place-Based Actions: Following the Thread of Place-Based Actions 1. Repurposing Agricultural Infrastructure to Build Cultures of Democracy in Rural Communities: A Case Study from North-West Victoria 2. Lake Street Arts! – Creative Democracy in Practice 3. How "Creative Recovery" Stimulates a Culture of Democracy: Case Studies of Post-Disaster Creativity in Rural Australia 4. Democracy as Demonstration: A Lifelong, Dreamed of, Home Part Two: Aesthetic Strategies Introduction to Aesthetic Strategies: Remaking Worlds and Ourselves: Aesthetic Strategies for a Culture of Democracy 5. Co-Creating Democracy: Aesthetics in Action 6. Braiding Comedy in Precarious Times: The Possibilities and Pitfalls of Research Creation in the Settler Colonial University 7. Mediating Provisional Communities: The Production and Management of Collaborative Arts Projects Part Three: Learning Environments Introduction to Learning Environments: Learning and Practice - Democracty in Action 8. Reflections on Doing Visual Politics: Photography, Collaboration, and Creative Practice as Civil Action 9. All the Relatives: Animating Stories of Democratic Participation Through Speaking Out 10. The Ray of Hope Project and Women Composers Festival: Reframing Narratives 11. The Power of Storytelling: Practicing a Culture of Democracy With Young Students Part Four: Civic Processes Introduction to Civic Processes: Get With It: A Play of Civic Processes 12. Democracy Is in the Making: Just Act’s Model for Rehumanizing Community Engagement 13. Creating Our Next LA: Art Animating Powerful Congregation-Based Campaigns for Justice 14. Warm Cookies of the Revolution: A Case Study of Democratic Culture Through the Framework of Civic Health 15. Civic Artists Reimagining Democracy 16. “The Most Optimistic Way I Have of Envisioning Our Collective Future” Editors’ Summary and Conclusion

"Borrup and Zitcer strike a timely proposition for the critical role of creative practices to advance cultures of democracy. In the face of current forces that threaten the foundations of democracies around the world, Democracy as a Creative Practice assembles fresh, inspiring, and instructive stories by frontline creative practitioners responding to these threats in a range of rural, urban, educational, municipal, and community settings and contexts. Field thought leaders introduce thematically organized essays layering in illuminating theory and reflections that lend depth and new insights and reverberate throughout the book."Pam Korza and Barbara Schaffer Bacon, former Co-directors, Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts"In a time of deepening gloom about democracy, Tom Borrup and Andrew Zitcer’s edited collection, with examples of cultural organizing from around the world, is a source of hope and inspiration. The book is particularly valuable for its detailed look at cultural workers and citizen artists on the front lines of civic renewal and democracy building."Harry C. Boyte, Emeritus Senior Scholar, Augsburg University, author, Awakening Democracy through Public Work