art activism for
community development through
civic engagement and cultural exchange
Knowing Ways; Critical Learning In Arts Practice
Edinburgh, Scotland
Knowing Ways introduced me to world leaders in the field of art activism and community development who are producing risky art and facilitating meaningful, transformational projects. Through formal presentations and casual peer-to-peer learning, I witnessed and contributed to dialogues about processes that use the arts to develop health, human rights, critical learning and positive social change. These topics relate directly to my art activism work, which aims to contribute to community development through civic engagement and cultural exchange. During this conference I had the opportunity to reflect on my work to date and enrich my artistic visions while being inspired by the work of others.
I am now connected to a network of artists, activists and academics that I met at the conference. I plan to keep in touch with these contacts and possibly collaborate with some of them in the future.
Personal Highlights of Knowing Ways:
- Speaking with art activist Karolina Bregula (Poland) about her public work Let Them See Us and discussing the commonalities in our arts practice along with the similar challenges we face.
- Chrissie Orr’s (USA) presentation on El Otro Lado - a project she is facilitating with young people in New Mexico.
- The project… engage(s) the creative process to explore our human connection to land, our sense of home and belonging, and our sense of boundaries and cultural divides
- Seeing how Adverb Productions (USA) are promoting health and LGBTQ issues via in-school performances
- Participation in process drama, Valsinki with Pilvi Kallio, Riku Laakkonen, Jani Tihinen and Jenni Bergius (Finland). These artists combined theatricality with drama activities to stimulate discussion around politics, city government and privatization.
- Meeting contributors and editors of the Arts and Communities journal, including conference director, Stephanie Knight (Scotland).
Attendance at Knowing Ways was made possible thanks to the Queensland Government (Arts Qld) and the Copyright Agency Limited (Cultural Fund)
