The Laramie Project

What is community-based art (CBA)? Surely it would be absurd if “community” nor “art” were related to it; this is not what I am asking. This question is deeper and more significant: what does CBA entail, and how can humans spot it? The answer: humans cannot spot community-based art, and humans cannot comprehend the complexity of it. Even The Laramie Project, a play that seemingly speaks for a community and is seemingly art-- superficially reaching the requirements needed to exist as CBA-- may never be community-based arts in itself. Then, in this paper, I will prove that one can never know community-based arts, in itself; and I will show that projects which may be considered community-based arts, and more specifically The Laramie Project, are

The play is obviously about the geographical community of Laramie. It was obviously inspired by the death of Matthew Shepard. But did the piece address an inequality? Did it facilitate the healing of a community? To both of these questions, I think yes. Matthew Shepard was likely killed due to his sexuality which shed light upon an inequality in the community: homophobia. Not only so, but the play attempts to show characters in an unbiased fashion; it attempts to show multiple aspects of the complex issue; it attempts to show how the death of a single man affect the lives of thousands: the play attempts to foster understanding. And understanding is a “‘feel-good’ positive social value.” Truly, then, the Laramie Project fits into the framework that many CBA theoreticians would consider community-based art. But just because these people think they understand CBA, just because they may believe the Laramie Project is community-based art, they do not have to be

like with the subject “phone,” or “dog,” et cetera). CBA, then, as consequence, is subjective. This poses a complex problem when categorizing art (which is another problem in itself) as community-based because I am not pondering “Do I THINK the Laramie Project is community-based art?” I am pondering “IS the Laramie Project community-based art?” Unfortunately, the latter question requires one to know CBA in itself. Is this possible? Think about it, unlike the subject “paper,” a CBA theoretician cannot check the physical world for answers. Their answer lies in the grasps of metaphysics