Judith Marcuse Projects, Winter Newsletter 2012

New Year’s greetings!

May 2012 bring you good health, fulfillment and unexpected pleasures.

What a year it has been. So many of our basic systems – environmental, political, economic, social – are deeply stressed, undergoing rapid and often-unpredictable change. We are challenged to pay attention to new realities.

In Helsinki, Port Hardy, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, New York, Derry in Northern Ireland, California and here in Vancouver, colleagues with whom I have worked over this last year are, as usual, grappling with complicated and now even-more-overwhelming issues.

In times of seismic change, we can make no assumptions about the future. In a world that sometimes feels surreal, polarized and horrifyingly self-destructive, we are compelled to reassess how we live and act.

Yet, in the face of power structures that operate with blatant self-interest and greed, citizens’ movements and new-form organizations are growing, making it possible for us to imagine that positive change is possible. Local and global networks are connecting ideas and strategies; we are linked in ways that would have been unimaginable even a decade ago. Therein lies hope.

This is a time for creative empathy and for critical perspective, a time to re-examine views that we have, perhaps, taken for granted. If we are to replace the paralysis of fixed positions, we need strategies that are based in listening and exchange, in dialogue and collective enterprise that work for inclusion and equity. Generosity, creative risk-taking and nimbleness are essential elements of this new dance. Our ability to imagine is central to our success.

The arts provide us with powerful – and often playful – ways to see ourselves and the contexts within which we live; they provide us with a powerful lens that focuses both inward and outward. Making and experiencing art can open our senses to personal and collective insight, spawning ideas and energy for action. Artists are among the best-prepared of our change leaders. Arts-based research and facilitation, community cultural development and art work in the “change labs” of social innovation all integrate right-brain approaches to the ways we understand the present, imagine possible futures and work toward them.

I believe that both established and developing arts-based approaches will expand and flourish in 2012, helping us to shift and broaden our perceptions, deepen our positions and invigorate our actions for positive change. Transformation is not impossible.

Please have a look at our newest initiative, the Chataqua Project, which launches in the New Year. It is our hope that this first, year-long arts-infused series of events will provide a useful model to connect us across silos...so that we are moved to create powerful and sustainable transformation in our communities.

In what follows, we present some news highlights. If you want to learn more, please visit our website at www.icasc.ca. You will find all the details there.

Again, best wishes for the coming year. There’s a lot to do!

With best wishes,

Judith

Judith Marcuse
Artistic Producer, Judith Marcuse Projects

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Judith Marcuse Projects
and the
International Centre of Art for Social Change

The Chataqua Project

The Chataqua Project, ICASC’s central project for 2012 – and beyond – is designed as a kind of springboard for engaging with many of the issues in play in the field of art for social change.

The Chataqua Project features a year-long series of hands-on workshops, arts-infused dialogues and presentations for both invited participants and for the general public in Vancouver, British Columbia.

These events are designed to build new relationships and understandings among artists working in arts for social change and other professionals working on change agendas – in health, in business, the justice system, education, environment and social justice, some of this work touching on sensitive inter-cultural and inter-generational matters. The Chataqua gatherings will facilitate cross-silo dialogue using creative methods that are increasingly-part of change agendas around the world, and will seed possibilities for innovation and collaboration to address complex issues.

The Project provides those who are not familiar with arts for social change work with opportunities to learn about the field, experience hands-on work with artists, investigate possible applications of arts-based approaches in their own agendas and explore possibilities for collaboration. In turn, artists will have learning, exchange and networking opportunities to enable them to better understand the languages, methods and challenges in the work of others also working in community-engaged sectors.

The Project is also designed to address the nature of the professional silos that often contribute to disconnection among change-makers working on related issues. We are focussed on bringing together leaders who may not usually find themselves in the same room and hope to expand opportunities for knowledge-exchange both within and between the private and public sectors. Arts and design-based methods will be central to this process of dialogue and action.

The Vancouver project is a pilot for a series of Chataqua Project events across Canada. We are continuing with an ambitious fundraising campaign and expect to be able to announce several community partners in the coming weeks.

Foundation Course Offered Again

Judith Marcuse and Lynn Fels have, for the second time, delivered the course, Exploring Arts for Social Change: Communities in Action, at Simon Fraser University, in collaboration with the Faculty of Education and Continuing Studies. A cohort of 30 community-based learners and credit students spent thirteen weeks working together with Judith and Lynn and with visiting professionals working in the field.

One student comment is presented here; it is similar to other expressions of enthusiasm and appreciation that the instructors have received. We believe it illustrates the impact this course can have.

Taking the Art for Social Change course taught by Judith Marcuse and Lynn Fels has been truly life-changing.

As a recent graduate from SFU where I completed degrees in both International Studies and Contemporary Dance, I am only sorry that this program had not been offered sooner. One of the real strengths of this program is its ability to be a bridge-builder between disciplines, giving individuals the tools to find the intersections between their passions by using art-based, community work to effect real change in their communities. For me, this class has not only given me tools as an artist and facilitator, but has also allowed me to build a crucial network of like-minded peers. With these newfound connections, I look forward to starting a career in the burgeoning field of art and conflict transformation as an expressive arts mediator.

In addition, I really value the emphasis upon experiential learning that is inherently integrated into the course curriculum. In an era in which traditional pedagogical styles have proved to be increasingly out-of-date, ineffective and marginalizing, it is exciting to see that SFU values the cutting-edge pedagogical innovation that Judith, Lynn and others are using with their students to create the real possibility for connection and change through experiential arts-based practices.

This work has a place in every discipline of study for its ability to foster critical thinking, problem-solving, and relationship-building through creativity – all tools to be used in the real world, regardless of career path. Furthermore, beyond providing tools to help foster practical life and career skills, this body of work also acknowledges what it means to live-out work that is meaningful and fulfilling.

Our classroom has become a close-knit family in only a couple months through the work, which involves our own life experience in order to address an entire range of social justice issues. These connections, which have been fostered in the classroom, will continue to play a strong role in our lives as we build upon these networks to pursue further projects.

I hope that SFU continues to support initiatives like the International Centre of Art for Social Change. SFU gains credibility as a progressive and cutting-edge institution in an age where youth are increasingly looking for viable alternatives to pressing contemporary issues.

More student comments are available on the website….

A New Program Proposal in Arts for Social Change

Judith and Lynn, with the advice of colleagues in Canada and abroad, have developed a six-course, cross-disciplinary program in arts for social change.

The program is structured with six core courses, linked to an internship component. Anchored by the introductory course, Exploring Arts for Social Change: Communities in Action, additional courses include:

1. Digital Literacies and Participatory Cultures
2. Summer Institute: Arts for Social Change Workshops
3. Reaching Across the Silos: Partnerships and Community Collaborations
4. The Business of Social Innovation and the Arts
5. Project Documentation, Evaluation and Research, a course that includes an inquiry-based internship with an arts for social change organization

At present, due to financial and other constraints, Simon Fraser University is unable to implement the program.

A full report on the proposed program is available on the JMP/ICASC website.

Course at Quest University Canada

Judith will spend the month of February teaching at Quest University Canada in Squamish, B.C.

Located on a 60-acre mountain-top campus on the edge of Garibaldi Provincial Park, Quest is a new institution, now in its fifth year, that is committed to innovative and progressive pedagogy. For Judith’s course, the students – 20 is the maximum class size – will spend three hours daily in class and another two to three hours working on collective projects, writing and carrying out research. This concentrated “block” approach allows Quest students to enter more deeply into the content of a discipline than is typically possible.

The intimacy of the classroom situation and the university’s beautiful campus will provide inspiration for teachers and students alike!

A Call for Partnerships

Interested in learning more about the field of art for social change?

Judith, in collaboration with her husband, Richard, a social anthropologist, has written Art for Social Change: A Call for Partnerships. It’s a non-technical introduction to the field appearing in a recently-published collection of essays on arts-based research, Creative Art in Research for Community and Cultural Change (Cheryl L. McLean, ed. and Robert Kelly, assoc. ed.). It’s the second book in a useful series and is published by Detselig Temeron Press, of Calgary, Alberta.

You can also find the article on the website, www.icasc.ca.

Want to Get Involved?

We would be delighted for you to become involved in our activities.

There are a range of volunteer activities available, in particular, with the forthcoming Chataqua Project. If you’d like to get involved, please let us know by way of an e-mail to info@jmprojects.ca.

Of course, as a not-for-profit, charitable organization, we are always engaged in fundraising. We are grateful for all financial contributions, whether large or small!

You can give to JMP through our website or by sending the Society a cheque by snail mail. Official receipts for tax purposes are issued promptly.

Some News, Past and Present

• June, 2011 – Judith is elected an Ashoka International Senior Fellow
• November, 2011 – the article, Art for Social Change: A Call for Partnerships, is published
• December, 2011 – Judith gives the keynote for a symposium, Performance for Social Change, at the University of California, Davis

Local workshops and presentations in 2012
• January 9 and January 20 – Judith will give workshops for SFU’s Literacy Lives program and for the Faculty of Education, SFU.
• January 25 – Judith gives a keynote and workshop at the Passion Project, UBC
• February 18 – Judith presents a keynote and facilitates dialogue for the Volunteerism in the Arts Conference, Vancouver
• February, 2012 – Judith, with visiting guests, will teach Arts for Social Change at Quest University Canada in Squamish, BC
• 2012-2013 – The Chataqua Project takes place, Vancouver, B.C.

If you want to connect with us…

Please send general enquiries to: info@jmprojects.ca
To reach Judith, please e-mail: judith@jmprojects.ca
For fundraising or media enquiries, please contact Richard Marcuse, Consulting Managing Director: rickmarc@shaw.ca

Mailing address:
6754 Dufferin Avenue
West Vancouver, BC, Canada V7W 2K2