Spring 2020 - ACE

In this documentary, we see the youth of Oakland gathering on a rooftop downtown gearing up to perform candid conversations surrounding the portrayal of said marginalized youths. The students were tired of being placed in boxes by the media and never given the opportunity or chance to be seen or heard as multidimensional, normal teens. In “the Roof is on Fire” Suzanne Lacy and the collaborators utilized many strategies when trying to paint a full picture for the audience. They gave community members a space to actually have these conversations (in this case, the rooftop garage, which facilitated an open-air conversation between students at which other residents and media representatives could also congregate to hear them speak.) This project was also followed by other community engagement initiatives centered around the same objective: to partake in a six-week long series of discussions between high school students and the Oakland police department. Through this, they were also givin...

What changed about your understanding of community-based arts after reviewing this genealogy? What questions emerged for you? What new connections became clear?  I didn't realize that much the government used to support the arts. All of the site-specific pieces either had collaboration with local government, or was directly funded by a government run organization, like the National Endowment for the Arts. I'd like to learn more about how and why the arts aren't as supported in America than they are in other countries, and why the decline in support. A new connection I made was that everything is connected. I had never considered the birth of community-based art, I always took it for granted, but knowing it's roots and how it's connected with my favorite kinds of art gives me a new appreciation. 

Highlight 3 insights that your reading has helped bring to the surface. Use specific text evidence to link your insights. "This encounter between artist and co-opted public(s) can often create sites of confrontation and exploitation" helped me learn that sometimes confrontation can be a way of supporting communities.  "Art, in this schema, should be both socially and politically committed and utilize the aesthetic as a symbolic bearer or sorts for such commitment." Making sure that community specific work really fits in community its intended for, so you're not an outsider.  "To this end, we might enquire into the power relations involved in collaborative art practices and the extent to which participants are frequently cajoled into collaborating in projects that often have modalities of conflict at their heart." Not thinking about "community" but about the people as individuals If you could ask the author 3 questions,...

A) 1. This reading illuminated for me the importance of relationships within community art. Focusing on the collaborative aspect as opposed to what is most "interesting" or "intriguing" about a situation will allow for the most honest, authentic process possible, and also gives the community the most agency possible.  "Collaborative art practices, in short, appear to be judged on the basis of the ethical efficacy underwriting the artist’s relationship to his or her collaborators rather than what makes these works interesting as art" 2. Another value showcased was the modern importance of art's social impact, not only it's aesthetic value or physical quality. This recontextualizes art as a kind of "force" with potential long-term impact, as opposed to a passive object to be observed or interacted with. Instead, the art might interact with you.  "‘accompanied by the idea that art should extract itself from the useless domain of ...

While working my way through the genealogy, I kept thinking about things I have taken for granted being alive at this time as the person I am. One of these things is the history of art, and specifically community based art... seeing the timeline start at 1900s was a reminder of how very recently, the way people made art was very different. As human beings, a hundred years seems like a long time-- but in the context of our shared human history of over 100,000 years, it's not very much. This did bring the question to my mind of how community art existed before more modern definitions... perhaps there's some sort of ancient art practices that uplifted different communities? Helping other human beings seems to be human nature, and so is making art, so it seems very possible.  Another thing that struck me was the concept of art being anything designated as art (demonstrated by "Fountain" by Marcel Duchamp) being also an incredibly recent concept. This is something that, a...

What changed about your understanding of community-based arts after reviewing this genealogy? What questions emerged for you? What new connections became clear?  ​ ​ Something that has changed my understanding about community-based arts after digesting this genealogy is just how vast and ever expanding  the history of community based arts is and makes me curious about its future. How will it’s older history and forms continue to inform and inspire new waves to come? One question that emerged for me was what sparked artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles interest in “Maintenance Art” and what about performing these rituals publicly did for her? How did they feed or inform her practice?  Some new connections which became clearer was the information on site specific work. I had always thought that site specific work was a tool within performance which engages directly with the terrain. However I learned that, “the works did not implicitly engage the nature of the “place”...

3 key takeaways in connection to arts and community engagement based on the work of our guest Fabian Debora. Hearing how important the foundation of family was and is for him. He spoke of how he was never a perfect father, son and or partner. He actually caused his family and loved ones a lot of pain but once he was able to break his cycle of addiction he strived towards no longer making promises and simply getting the help he needed in order to rebuild his familial foundations.  The power of  symbolism. He spoke of it when he described almost being crushed by a truck and landing on a center divider where he sat and witnessed powerful rays of sun dancing just moments after this almost horrific catastrophe. That he was filled with feelings of peace, joy, happiness and serenity. “The feelings that could only come from something much more greater. In this case, my God.” I was moved by his connection to spirituality and how that ends up translating symbolically in the n...