Toward Training: The Meanings and Practices of Social Change Work in the Arts

This 294-page study was commissioned by Judith Marcuse Projects (JMP) as part of an initiative to create an international centre for art and social change to be based in Vancouver, Canada. Its purpose is to respond to a felt need for focused training in the field of art for social change, that is, for professional development opportunities and for the sharing of research and resources related to efforts to engage in art-making (dance, film/video, music, storytelling, theatre, visual art, and so on) in collaboration with communities.

The report is motivated by Canadian choreographer and producer Judith Marcuse's desire to develop opportunities for artists to learn to put their arts practice toward making meaningful change in society. "The handful of institutions that teach or train artists to engage in social change work, both academic and community-based, are still figuring out how to best foster leadership development in the domain and how to assess both the successes and challenges in their programs. And the need is growing" JMP has attempted to respond to this need through projects such as the International EARTH Project (which is not documented in this report, but has been described through personal correspondence, and is summarised here). EARTH Project initiatives have been carried out with some 30 partners around the world - mostly from the South. These art and social change endeavours were highlighted in Vancouver at the EARTH Project Symposium in 2004 and/or at the EARTH Festival, which was held in 2006 as part of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)'s World Urban Forum.

This report details the result of the JMP-generated study of learning in the domain of arts and social change. It contains 2 major sections, 3 smaller sections describing implications and recommendations, and 5 appendices. The 46 summaries, drawn from telephone interview questionnaires of artists and organisations in the domain of arts and social change, comprise Part I of this report. ("Despite best efforts, only a handful of organizations and artists in the South, and another handful of European organizations, participated in the study.") Arranged in alphabetical order, the project summaries begin with an introductory section and discussion of strategies, followed by sections exploring each initiative in the categories of training and professional development, challenges and opportunities, and values and outcomes.

To cite only one of the 46 examples provided, the Maine, United States-based Beehive Design Collective "is a collection of loosely affiliated visual artists - worker bees - who collaborate primarily to develop visual tools for communicating "the way the world works" and explaining complex human, economic, and environmental consequences of globalization, with a focus on North-South relations in the Americas and Latin American solidarity. The group began as a mosaic mural collective, but is best known for its elaborate illustrations in poster format, each of which takes about one year to research, design, produce, and then tour. Posters are attributed to the Collective rather than to an individual, and are anti-copyright; others are encouraged to use the Collective's posters to educate about the impacts and complexities of globalization....Worker bees develop relationships with the organizing groups and, based on those contacts, travel to gather stories from groups and individuals affected by or working on the issue. From there, the worker bees incorporate stories into the design of the poster. The collaborative nature of the work means that the illustration is shared with the people whose stories are depicted, and feedback is incorporated into the art....The Beehive Design Collective does not engage in formal training, but describes touring presentations as rich with learning for both the worker bees and audience members....The Beehive Design Collective knows the projects are successful when the people most directly affected by the work feel compelled to embrace it and use it for their own purposes."

Part II of the report includes detailed analyses of selected case studies. First, the author investigates the relationships between the meanings of social change, practices, and impacts in 6 organisations. Here, the 7 main themes that emerged from the research process (conversations with artists and organisations) are outlined; they include: working toward equity and justice; raising consciousness and awareness; fostering individual empowerment and participation; bringing people together and building relationships among individuals and groups; creating dialogue; giving voice and telling stories; and creating new visions and opening new imaginations for what the world could be.

This portion of the evaluation examines how these underlying principles and values animate the artistic and community engagement practices in the work of organisations such as the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, which combines education, community engagement, and the creation of performance - while at the same time rejecting the notion of social change as a motivating force for its work. However, the head of this United-States-based organisation comments, "We might go into a community where police and youth are engaging only in an adversarial way and by the time our workshop is over they're having a conversation; they're making a plan for how they can continue talking....We're never going in directively saying 'we want to increase communication' but by virtue of what we do, in terms of providing a forum for collaboration, gathering people around an issue they can all support or they can support the importance of even if [they] don't agree about [it], by virtue of doing that, participation and organization and social action often do extend from our work." Among the impact of this group's work explored here are the role of the arts (in this case, dance) in creating networks, developing relationships, and building social capital.

Also in Part II of the report, the author explores dimensions of teaching and training in 6 different organisations. For instance, a university in the United Kingdom analysed here offers bachelor's and master's degrees in Theatre and Media for Development (TMD). As explained, Master's students, in particular, often engage in projects in the global South. "The TMD program emphasizes participatory processes where theatre and media are used as research tools that connect local and individual stories to collective and global realities. Learners, in small groups of two or three, then engage in their major project....One project involved new citizens and immigrants in Iceland in creating a documentary that was then presented to policy makers. Another involved school children in a small town in India exchanging video postcards with children at a European school. Yet another involved a group of Zambian children with disabilities creating a play for their community, advocating for their right to dignity and respect. The learner completes the TMD program with an independent dissertation or a consultancy for an organization."

The report concludes with implications for research, implications for training, and a brief list of recommendations for training in the domain of arts and social change. Core questions explored in this section include: "What values are teaching and training organizations aiming to instill in learners? What tools and skills are they aiming to equip learners with which to engage in communities? How coherent and consistent are the values across different materials and different personnel involved in delivering the training program?...As Jumblies Theatre (p. 111) would frame it, what are the 'far-reaching ripples' of teaching and training in the domain of arts and social change?....What are new and innovative research methodologies for learning about the domain of arts and social change? How can the language and practices of this domain inform the research methodologies that are applied to it?" The author explores these questions by leveraging the learnings from the research described in the report to present a series of detailed reflective questions to help guide the development or assessment of training in arts and social change. (Some of these questions assume that a face-to-face, rather than a distributed learning/online programme or course, is being developed). A series of concrete recommendations for training - such as "keep asking yourself: 'are we modeling how we believe that art and social change work should be done in the way we train?'" - follows.

The appendices include research methods, the interview questionnaire, contact information for the organisations involved in the study, curricula and programme modules, and print- and web-based resources.

To request a copy of this report - either as a PDF document, as a CD-ROM, or in printed format - please contact Judith Marcuse at the address listed below.