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Photo: Leon Lockley courtesy of Ruth Nutter
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There are some things about artists and arts practice that most people I'm likely to fall into professional conversations with, including the ones with the 'what are you doing here?' look on their faces (see 28th March post) readily get - things about artists as observers, communicators, questioners, lateral thinkers, skilled technicians, makers of beauty and celebration, conveyors of universal human experiences, bringers of enjoyment, creators of work that touches emotions, and so on. I'll leave it to stand as read that those are all reasons why I love working with artists and love the work I do.
But there's much more to it than all that, which is what I've been groping towards over the course of several posts that have seen me examining the 'Arts and regeneration' tag, concluding that it's still a valid short-hand for describing Loca Creatives' work, and attempting to unpack it in order to explain the claims we make about how our work helps bring about social change. So read on, dear reader, because this is where I'm going to try getting to the point. None of what follows is new or original if you've ever been around debates about community arts/participatory arts/socially engaged arts practice, but perhaps it will serve as something to point people towards when they ask me the What are you doing here? question. And hopefully it can open up some blog contributions and conversations based on actual practice in the field, to illustrate and add depth to some of what I'm about to merely skate over. This is my own take on things, as someone who firmly believes that there's a place for creative engagement practice across the whole spectrum of policy themes and social agendas touched on in my last post (and more besides). What's yours?
The artists who do the kinds of 'creative engagement' work that Loca Creatives is about bring not only all the fairly obvious and readily understood creative assets and practical skills but also facilitation techniques, tools and processes which are devised and delivered with thought, care and expertise so that people find them appealing, inclusive and non-threatening. Such artists are adept at using those skills, techniques and processes to facilitate conversations and interactions, giving people ways of exploring, expressing and exchanging ideas and views that they might otherwise struggle to articulate. They gather people's personal stories and experiences and re-tell them so that a light is shined upon them and they can be witnessed by others. They offer accessible, engaging ways of asking questions and investigating issues and possible solutions, and in so doing they enable people to see, think, debate and imagine in new ways.
Artists who are skilled in creative engagement have enticing, canny ways of inviting and welcoming people to join in, of bringing them across the threshold and making it safe to take part. They work in ways intended to ensure that people feel not only able to contribute but also that their contributions are significant and valued, and they put a commitment to 'co-authoring' at the heart of their practice so that processes and outcomes are developed with and genuinely owned by the people they are working with. They create neutral spaces for people to come together in, often across difference and in ways that enable people to both explore that difference and to discover the shared interests and experiences that connect them.
I'm not done yet. Artists bring design skills and design quality - to temporary and permanent physical spaces, yes, but also to processes and to ways of presenting information and ideas. They are generally very generous about sharing practical skills, know-how, resources and ideas - all things that people can take away and use. They offer people enjoyable creative and collective experiences, through making and doing, that result in feelings of achievement, pride and self-validation and sometimes even stretch people to places they never dreamed they would dare to go - often seeds from which people begin to feel that it's possible for them to do other things in their lives and communities that they perhaps hadn't imagined themselves capable of. And they create communal 'happenings' which bring people together for celebration, fun and connection-making in ways that strengthen their sense of belonging to place and/or community.
The artists we work with investigate, capture, record, reflect, analyse and interpret - constantly throughout the course of any given project and in ways that generate rich documentation, evidence, information and insights which can be put to further uses. They are often natural and enthusiastic collaborators who are interested in and inspired by opportunities not only to collaborate with other 'creatives' but also to work in inter-disciplinary ways - and in our experience the combining of artists' creative specialisms with the skills and specialist knowledge of other personnel on a project always makes for a rich, more multi-skilled team approach. Last but not least, the artists we work with (and of course many, many others besides) bring endless energy and commitment, a love of challenge, curiosity about people and a love of working with people in group situations, frequently without quite knowing where things are going to go and without being scared of that uncertainty - all attributes that make them willing and well-equipped to work at the sharp end and in situations that many other professionals would balk at.
Now I'm not for a moment saying that every project or every artist does all those things, but some of those ingredients will always be present in every one of Loca Creatives' projects. And I'm certainly not suggesting that artists and artist-led processes per se provide the solutions to the big social change agendas sketched out in my last post. But what I do say is this: artists who choose to work in particular, socially engaged ways bring skills, experience, qualities, values and approaches which help make big changes happen, because the ways in which they work create the conditions in which people can begin to see, talk about and believe in the possibilities - for themselves, their communities, their organisations and services. In that sense, artists and the creative engagement projects and interventions they design and deliver can - frequently do - act as catalysts for change, by opening new doorways to walk through and enabling people to take the first steps towards making transformative things happen, both big and small.
There, that's that off my chest. It hasn't got me any closer to finding the diamond phrase I started searching for as a replacement for 'Arts and regeneration' but it has seeded some ideas for guest blog posts, to spotlight and drill deeper into some of the angles and illustrate some of what I've been talking about with some real-life examples. I'm off to seek some out right now, so if you've got possible contributions and suggestions to send my way please do get in touch.
But there's much more to it than all that, which is what I've been groping towards over the course of several posts that have seen me examining the 'Arts and regeneration' tag, concluding that it's still a valid short-hand for describing Loca Creatives' work, and attempting to unpack it in order to explain the claims we make about how our work helps bring about social change. So read on, dear reader, because this is where I'm going to try getting to the point. None of what follows is new or original if you've ever been around debates about community arts/participatory arts/socially engaged arts practice, but perhaps it will serve as something to point people towards when they ask me the What are you doing here? question. And hopefully it can open up some blog contributions and conversations based on actual practice in the field, to illustrate and add depth to some of what I'm about to merely skate over. This is my own take on things, as someone who firmly believes that there's a place for creative engagement practice across the whole spectrum of policy themes and social agendas touched on in my last post (and more besides). What's yours?
The artists who do the kinds of 'creative engagement' work that Loca Creatives is about bring not only all the fairly obvious and readily understood creative assets and practical skills but also facilitation techniques, tools and processes which are devised and delivered with thought, care and expertise so that people find them appealing, inclusive and non-threatening. Such artists are adept at using those skills, techniques and processes to facilitate conversations and interactions, giving people ways of exploring, expressing and exchanging ideas and views that they might otherwise struggle to articulate. They gather people's personal stories and experiences and re-tell them so that a light is shined upon them and they can be witnessed by others. They offer accessible, engaging ways of asking questions and investigating issues and possible solutions, and in so doing they enable people to see, think, debate and imagine in new ways.
Artists who are skilled in creative engagement have enticing, canny ways of inviting and welcoming people to join in, of bringing them across the threshold and making it safe to take part. They work in ways intended to ensure that people feel not only able to contribute but also that their contributions are significant and valued, and they put a commitment to 'co-authoring' at the heart of their practice so that processes and outcomes are developed with and genuinely owned by the people they are working with. They create neutral spaces for people to come together in, often across difference and in ways that enable people to both explore that difference and to discover the shared interests and experiences that connect them.
I'm not done yet. Artists bring design skills and design quality - to temporary and permanent physical spaces, yes, but also to processes and to ways of presenting information and ideas. They are generally very generous about sharing practical skills, know-how, resources and ideas - all things that people can take away and use. They offer people enjoyable creative and collective experiences, through making and doing, that result in feelings of achievement, pride and self-validation and sometimes even stretch people to places they never dreamed they would dare to go - often seeds from which people begin to feel that it's possible for them to do other things in their lives and communities that they perhaps hadn't imagined themselves capable of. And they create communal 'happenings' which bring people together for celebration, fun and connection-making in ways that strengthen their sense of belonging to place and/or community.
The artists we work with investigate, capture, record, reflect, analyse and interpret - constantly throughout the course of any given project and in ways that generate rich documentation, evidence, information and insights which can be put to further uses. They are often natural and enthusiastic collaborators who are interested in and inspired by opportunities not only to collaborate with other 'creatives' but also to work in inter-disciplinary ways - and in our experience the combining of artists' creative specialisms with the skills and specialist knowledge of other personnel on a project always makes for a rich, more multi-skilled team approach. Last but not least, the artists we work with (and of course many, many others besides) bring endless energy and commitment, a love of challenge, curiosity about people and a love of working with people in group situations, frequently without quite knowing where things are going to go and without being scared of that uncertainty - all attributes that make them willing and well-equipped to work at the sharp end and in situations that many other professionals would balk at.
Now I'm not for a moment saying that every project or every artist does all those things, but some of those ingredients will always be present in every one of Loca Creatives' projects. And I'm certainly not suggesting that artists and artist-led processes per se provide the solutions to the big social change agendas sketched out in my last post. But what I do say is this: artists who choose to work in particular, socially engaged ways bring skills, experience, qualities, values and approaches which help make big changes happen, because the ways in which they work create the conditions in which people can begin to see, talk about and believe in the possibilities - for themselves, their communities, their organisations and services. In that sense, artists and the creative engagement projects and interventions they design and deliver can - frequently do - act as catalysts for change, by opening new doorways to walk through and enabling people to take the first steps towards making transformative things happen, both big and small.
There, that's that off my chest. It hasn't got me any closer to finding the diamond phrase I started searching for as a replacement for 'Arts and regeneration' but it has seeded some ideas for guest blog posts, to spotlight and drill deeper into some of the angles and illustrate some of what I've been talking about with some real-life examples. I'm off to seek some out right now, so if you've got possible contributions and suggestions to send my way please do get in touch.
