Communities Collaborating Blog
Art for New Canadians.
MASC brings people together to enjoy performances, workshops and residencies with artists in schools and communities. It has always been our purview to work in schools with students and teachers in their classrooms, helping to deliver important curriculum about and through the arts.  And while MASC has focused its work on high-need communities, it has not made a formal policy of community outreach.  All that changes this year, with MASC�s new Community Program and an earnest approach to the region�s New Canadians and Seniors.  MASC has already begun to deliver programming to newcomers in schools, and is now ready to launch the first year of residencies and performances for seniors in specially selected venues. Â
Participation in arts programming is particularly important for New Canadians and other people marginalized in society, helping to give voice to non-verbal ideas, needs and wishes. Â The greatest barrier in adapting to Canadian life for many New Canadians is language, leading to difficulty understanding the subtleties of Canadian culture and feelings of separation and difference. Language can be transcended through visual art, music, puppetry, dance and drama, which offer alternative opportunities for expression.
It is important for the community and artists to work together on projects that involve an exchange of ideas, with a goal of developing content and taking action collectively. Using their expertise and experience, MASC artists help coax out a common intent and methodology that supports the entire creative process, fostering cooperation and understanding. Working creatively side-by-side as individuals, each offers a unique contribution to the whole and resulting in something that speaks in multiple layers of a concept and design. Â We may collaborate with the intention of merging ideas and culture, yielding a seamless work, invisibly stitched by multiple makers. Â We can work undirected, leaving something in our wake, as a witness to a process. Any way we choose to work together, we work together. Â The artistic process is a catalyst for building community.
Art experiences are inherently endowed with potential. Â Given choice and a wide range of options, creativity is a form of problem solving. Â People feel empowered and capable when appropriate tools can be selected to execute a plan. Â This engagement with the physical environment helps develop confidence and self-esteem. Â And, New Canadians who experience healthy relationships with people in their new culture through productive activities such as arts programs, are more likely to be successfully settled into the community.
MASC arts programming can be an important part of the immigrant experience, helping to ease a difficult life transition, fostering communication with new friends and colleagues, growing roots in the land they�ve chosen to make their new home.
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Bringing people in communities to collaboration is an emerging field of practice. The Communities Collaborating Institute was developed to advance the skills of collaborators and practitioners, and to help make the work of renewing communities easier and more effective. Check out what members of this online learning community are blogging about today!
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7 Comments
Rachel Veira Gainer
At the 2007 Communities Collaborating Institute, Gail Taylor made a powerful statement about the power and purpose of poetry. She said that poetry does not attempt to solve or answer paradoxes, but instead poetry holds the paradoxes. I feel that art, as a whole, does this very same thing.
Yes, I agree, that art and creativity can be a form of problem solving. But, at the same time, art can be a vehicle for exploring a problem, a challenge or an obstacle. It may not answer a question, but it can provide a reflective outlet to shift perspective or even improve our clarity.
When the water supply of Walkerton, Ontario was contaminated with E. Coli in 2000, a collaborative effort grew out of this tragedy - one that helped to heal the community through the arts. Anne Blayney wrote an article about is in a past issue of Engage that I thought quite fitting to your thoughts, Audrey. To read Anne's article, "Healthy Water, Strong Voices," click here.*
*Anne's article is the second in this version of Engage.
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Audrey Churgin
Thank you for sharing that information with me. Â I was very touched by the images created by the participants in Walkerton.
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Making art in any form is unbelievably cathartic. Â Speaking personally, (I am a practicing artist myself) when I am in the studio working, time and space disappears. Â I am unaware of my body and its needs, how long I have worked, and the track of my thoughts. Only after some painful rumble in my stomach, or a backache due to working hours bent like a pretzel, will I notice that I in fact have a body that has needs. Â
When I am deeply involved in a creative process, the only thing that exists is the process itself.  After a period spent like this, I am renewed, though exhausted.  However, there will not necessarily be a tangible trail of my activities, only the remains of my last moments at work.  The process is impossible to capture, which I consider to be a form of freedom.  Certainly, it is freedom to express, but also freedom from having to meet someone else�s needs.  At its best, there is no obligation to explain or justify the process or its results. Â
I can understand your thoughts about �problem-solving� as a less appealing creative reference, when compared to freedom or meditation. However, the problem solved when doing creative work isn�t always about the work before the maker.  Thoughts soar from place to place, a type of thinking doesn�t always lead somewhere expected.  But it does solve problems, more deeply.  Of course, there is also the kind of problem-solving such as which glue will hold plastic to metal, but that is mechanical.  It can also be satisfying, and at the most basic level it is enough to recommend creative work.  Anyone can benefit at any point in the experience, and be empowered.  Â
Laura Zikovic
Hi Audrey
Your process mirrors my own when I am totally immersed in my work. What I find so challenging about allowing myself to get into the 'zone' is that it's a bit like tunnel vision. How often have I worked and worked and worked on my 'masterpiece', only to call it a day and wake up to something that really isn't so hot anymore. "What was I thinking?!"
What's funny is that I seem to have the greatest success once I've gotten feedback from someone else and/or after being unexpectedly pulled away from my own work. As annoying as that may be at times, it forces me to re-enter the process, pick up where I left off, but more importantly see the larger picture with a fresh set of eyes.
I'm the 'it will never be finished' artist, letting the piece go only when a deadline pulls it from my hands. Art to me is ever-changing, and is absolutely a reflection of its maker. MASC sounds like a great program that removes the 'language' barrier and replaces it with a common language - art and expression. I can appreciate how this program fosters community building, problem solving, and the importance of working collaboratively.
Working collaboratively (I feel) helps to pull us out of our 'bubble' or 'zone', allowing us to see the larger picture and how important our place is in it.
Louise Kearney
Audrey, I've just blogged about an artistic initiative in my community that's focused on social justice. I'd love to hear your comments about the Biela, biela initiative. You can access it at: http://www.igloo.org/lkearney/artsocialj
Paul Born
Audrey this is a very interesting insight and example of community building - I would love to see a web site of such a project - do you know of one.
I also really liked you reply to Rachel and the description of how art renews your soul - exhausted but refreshed - what a wonderful way to describe those things that bring life.
Much joy and thanks for this blog.
Audrey Churgin
Hi Louise, Paul,
There are many examples of artists working in community these days. The Canada Council has an entire section of funding set aside now for this purpose (see http://www.canadacouncil.ca/news/releases/2006/wa128050644587572863.htm).
As an artistic practice, community collaboration has grown out of artist-activist works in the late 70s in the United States, particularly New York. One of the projects that might interest you is Tim Rollins and KOS (Kids of Survival), the Art and Knowledge Workshop. Have a look at this web site for a taste: http://www.grandarts.com/exhibits/TRollins.html.
Canadian versions of community arts practices are abundant. One Canadian project was recently funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation: http://www.communityartsontario.ca/weavingtapestries/NewSite/.
The Biela Biela project fits well among them. There are so many good people who care, and express it in extremely intelligent, creatively challenging ways.
Audrey
Louise Kearney
Audrey, thanks for also sharing (by email) the link to the East Side Institute in New York that has created a "non-psychological" psychology -- a cultural-performatory methodology known as social therapy.