First thing I looked at was 'Creative Review', probably something that some of you are familiar with, but this was the first time I'd looked in it properly. Obviously it is more based on the design and visual arts side of creative arts, but I was captivated by all the amazing images within it.
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| Advert for Cheltenham Design Festival |
The next thing I came across was a journal called 'Journal of Arts and Communites', this immediately took my attention. On further reading I found out this journal is published three times a year and you can subscribe for a reasonable price. This particular journal was a part 2 about Arts and Human Rights. Within this they discussed a project which happened in 2005-2006 called the 'Exodus Project'. The project was made up of three parts, a day long performance/film about the biblical fable by Penny Woolcock, a participatory photography project called 'Towards a Promised Land' by Wendy Ewald, which consisted of her working with young individuals who had come over to England from other countries. And finally, a 25 metre tall sculpture entitled 'Waste Man' by a favourite artist/sculptor of mine, Anthony Gormley. I did my final year A-level art project on Anthony Gormley, and much of my work was inspired by his sculptors. The aim of this project was to engage the community on whatever level they wanted to be involved,approaching the idea of 'Exile', from a more universalist stance, rather than just engaging with specific community politics.
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| 'WasteMan' by Anthony Gormley |
The second half of this journal provided two case studies which were more about theatre. The first was entitled 'Art and Education: A human right not a commodity unity of educational engagement in 'The Union of Creative Thinking'.' This was an article from Ian Yeoman, the artistic direct of 'Theatr Powys' in Wales, discussing one of the companies Theatre in Education programmes which had toured in parts of rural wales. The youngsters were given certain set parts of a story and then became 'members' of the 'Union of Creative Thinking' (UCT) whilst trying to under pick what was happening in the story and give reason for it. The work aimed to say that 'education is a process of becoming and children are active seekers after truth and injustice' (Yoeman, I. Art and Education: A human right not a commodity unity of educational engagement in 'The Union of Creative Thinking, Pg 229) . During this programme the job of the UCT was to 'examine cause and effect,tying together their felt sense of past, the present and future potential.
They were delivered a short narrative about a young boy who's brother had promised to never hurt him, and later in life had gone on to be a solider in the war, had come back and been completely transformed, and almost became alien to the young boy. The youngsters were given certain pointers throughout the process. Three disciplines they were given to stick by and use as a way to work through the process were: Applied Human Animology- a study of the human by looking at the basic animal characteristics we have inside, Applied Human Physiology- a way of exploring the human as an organism because anything and everything affects it, and Applied Seismology- which is a belief that by looking deep inside us, we can understand things better, by what is happening and get to the heart of the matter quicker.
It took me a while to get my head around these things, ( after photocopying this section of the journal and bringing it home with me) I understood that these disciplines were put in place by the fictional UCT as a way of getting the youngsters to use basic ideas but applying it to a world of possibilities by creative thinking. Overall this project aimed to show how theatre can be used as a tool for engagement and intuitive understanding of situations, teaching youngster about how they should be thinking and showing them that if they 'work collectively and are aware that their actions have implications attached to them. They take action consciously and transform the fictional world they are exploring. They are free to exercise power and this exercising of power demands listening, communicating, negotiating, challenging and supporting one another.'(Yoeman, I. Art and Education: A human right not a commodity unity of educational engagement in 'The Union of Creative Thinking, Pg 236)
This article not only provided me with a fascinating read it really reinforced by belief about the power of theatre in community and educational settings. At the end of the article Yoeman explains how since this, in April 2011 Theatr Powys, after being alive for 40years, has been forced into non-excistence because of cuts to funding and the fact that theatre and drama work is deemed 'not worthy of investment', which is such a shame because after building up such a strong body of valuable work over 4 decades, the company was still not seen as being something that is useful for education which just further emphasises the struggle which the arts has always gone through, and will continue to in society nowadays. Which is why it is so important to try and keep the arts alive by showing individual passion and willing for change.
After this there is a review of a workshop which took place at the 'World Education Forum' in Palestine in 2010. During this forum, all participants were given roles in a fictional town, where they had to use a scenario about environmental pollution, to address the real issues of social injustice and radical social change. Using the three disciplines of: Popular Education- a movement which aims to forge links between education and social action in its most basic terms, Direct Action- which is the desire to immediately do something in order to prevent injustice, and Art- showing how valuable this can be as a form of explaining and exploring situations through theatre which can then be applied to reality. Again this workshop goes to show how theatre and the wider arts can be used as a means to address social, political, educational, cultural and other issues in society.
I will definitely be going back into the library next time I have a spare few hours to see which other of this journals they have archived as only the most recent is available from the shelf.
Bibliograpahy:
- Creative Review- April Edition
- Journal of Arts and Communities 2: 3, Intellect Publishing, Bristol
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