Art for art’s sake

Community-Based Arts

When you think of “the arts” does this image come to mind?

How about this?

Since I can remember I have had a fascination and enduring love of the arts– visiting museums, taking classes and creating my own work.

Choosing to major in art history when I got to college seemed a natural choice for me.

My traditional education gave me an introduction to a world which lauded individualism and predominantly Western, white and male.

The field of study itself maintains its exclusivity, communicating through a language of unrestrained intellectualism and verbosity.

It was not until years later when I began volunteering at a small arts and social justice focused nonprofit in East Harlem, New York, called Art for Change that I found a place to belong and a path I was not taught in school: community based arts. Here ideas and information are freely exchanged, process is not subjected to product, change and difference are embraced, and transformation from within takes place.

An example of this a community arts workshop series I led in 2011, a collaboration of Art for Change and Living Wage NYC organizations and guided by Graffiti artist Kathleena Howie-Garcia.

The first era I studied in Art History teaches a principle just as crucial today:

ART IS INFORMATION

We organized a workshop series to take on the issue creatively by learning the traditions of protest art.

The Living Wage NYC campaign seeks to pass a local law that would guarantee that developments (such as the influx of large shopping centers) that are given tax subsidies by the local government in the name of “economic development” provide New Yorkers with a living wage (as opposed to the minimum wage).

Some of the key issues of concern in the debate were poverty, growing gap in incomes, development, and privatization of land.

With Mayor Bloomberg firmly opposed to the legislation, it was an uphill battle– fought by unions, faith leaders and other community organizations.

CROSS-INTEREST

• Mutually aids both organizations by exposing more people to the organizations and educating them on the issue (i.e. poverty) and art (i.e. art of protest), thus creating more advocates and volunteers

• An opportunity for artists to apply their skills toward a social justice cause and for constituents of the cause to creatively express their knowledge and experience

COLLECTIVE

• Democratic – Ideas and designs are drawn from participants, as opposed to being generated from the center-to –the-margins

• Equal and Inclusive – Nurtures the development of new and great ideas as all participants, including the organizers and teaching artist, are valued equally

• Working together, sharing skills, knowledge and experience builds relationships and strengthens solidarity

CREATIVE OUTLET

• The process is as important as the end products• During the process, participants have an opportunity to

discuss the issue and share their experiences, such as what it is like to live on a minimum wage in NYC

• Contributing through self-expression creates a sense of ownership among participants, a stake in the cause

• The design process can help to define and develop key issues related to the issue

GENUINE IMPACT

• The banners carry more than a written message, the expressive style and the human experience they convey can have a powerful impact on the audience’s emotional connection to values of social justice

• The arts have more range and license to humanize a social justice issue than rhetoric alone

• Because the designs are collectively and democratically sourced, they reflect the personal impact of the cause, autonomous of institutional messaging

• The end products hold on their own, the culmination of an organized project that are visually captivating.

Speaking out while holding this banner at a Community Board meeting in East Harlem resulted in a vote to support the Living Wage for New Yorkers Act.

In a 2010 study of Arts & Social Change Grantmaking, 69% of public sector grantmakers reported “Lack of Funding” as a barrier in funding arts for change work.

The Challenge

“Almost all of the public sector respondents articulated external restrictions and questions of appropriateness as significant barriers. These external pressures included the political ramifications of supporting arts for social change work and state statutes. Many private sector respondents noted that arts for change work is not the agency’s primary goal or focus. As a result of limited resources, private sector respondents highlighted concern for artistic quality, the priority of providing general support for arts organizations, and a focus on artists as goals that prevent funding support for arts for change work.”

- Arts & Social Change Grantmaking: Statistical Report, 2010

ADVOCATE:

Animating Democracyhttp://animatingdemocracy.org/

JOIN US:

Art for Change, 1699 Lexington Ave, New York, NYwww.artforchange.org

LEARN MORE:

Living Wage NYCwww.livingwagenyc.org

Goldbard, Arlene. New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development. Oakland: New Village Press, 2006.Arts & Social Change Grantmaking: Statistical Report, 2010