Community Arts

2021 ◽  
pp. 129-136
Keyword(s):  
Community Arts

‘You can’t just take bits of my story and put them into some play’: Ethical dramaturgy in the contemporary Australian performance climate

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shane Pike ◽  
Sasha Mackay ◽  
Michael Whelan ◽  
Bree Hadley ◽  
Kathryn Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Life Stories ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Relational Aesthetics ◽  
Community Arts ◽  
Operating Environment ◽  
New Ways Of Working ◽  
Current State ◽  
Effective Community ◽  
Time Resource

In Australia a vibrant tradition of participatory and often politically motivated performance work developed under the term ‘community arts and cultural development’ across the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. In this body of practice, considerations of ethics are articulated through process, practices and representation rather than content. Though effective, community arts as it developed in Australia is often time, resource and emotionally intensive for artists, community participants and audiences. In recent years, retraction of funding, as well as shifts in practice towards live art, performance art and relational aesthetics have reduced the resources available for these once prominent practices. Practitioners are confronting challenges and needing to develop new ways of working in an operating environment where long-term consultation is not necessarily possible or preferred by stakeholders. In this article, we reflect on the current state of play for practitioners seeking to develop ethical dramaturgy in performance works that collaborate with communities to tell life stories or represent participants’ lived experiences in Australia. Through examples from our own practice, as practice-led researchers, we consider how work in this sector is under strain and experiencing scarcity, precarity and an increasing lack of access to institutional resources that have historically enabled ethically rigorous dramaturgical practices. We aim, through this process, to rediscover and rearticulate an ethical dramaturgy for deployment in the Australian environment as it exists today.

scholarly journals Flat Out! Dancing the city at a time of austerity

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 797-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Noxolo
Keyword(s):  
Community Arts ◽  
Working Through ◽  
Auto Ethnography ◽  
The City

This paper reflects on and challenges existing paradigms around movement and mobilisation in and with the city. This focus is provoked by a community arts project called ‘Flat Out’, in which the researcher collaborated with the Drum Intercultural Arts Centre and Birmingham Royal Ballet, on a dance project with members of the community in the Lozells and Newtown areas of the city. The paper pushes for more deeply embodied and more highly politicised versions of place ballet and urban vortex, introducing a concept of choreography that comes from dance practice, and working through decolonial and postcolonial theories. A brief auto-ethnography of the author’s Birmingham childhood illustrates that movement repertoires are diverse, historically and spatially conditioned, and, in the case of Birmingham, located within an ongoing ‘decolonial churn’.

Eudaimonic well-being and community arts participation

2013 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Swindells ◽  
Rebecca Lawthom ◽  
Kevin Rowley ◽  
Asiya Siddiquee ◽  
Amanda Kilroy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Community Arts ◽  
Arts Participation

scholarly journals A community arts programme for older people: an evaluation

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore Stickley ◽  
Ada Hui ◽  
Gary Souter ◽  
Danielle Mills
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Older People ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Community Arts ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Stereotypes ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Group Interviews

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an evaluation of a community-based arts programme for older people in Nottinghamshire. Design/methodology/approach – The evaluation was conducted using a combination of pre- and post-initiative quantitative questionnaires and qualitative focus group interviews. This paper focuses upon the findings from the focus groups. Findings – Participants reported feeling more positively about ageing and being more motivated to pursue new opportunities at the end of the programme. Five themes emerged from the focus group interviews, namely age and ageing, the finished product, new opportunities, aspirations and the future and personal benefits. These related to increased confidence, having greater creative expression, meaningful occupation and opportunities for socialisation. Social implications – The programme was found to be successful in helping individuals feel more positive about their age, to feel more confident and motivated, to engage with others through mutual creativity, as well as to challenge negative social stereotypes of older people. Originality/value – The paper will be of relevance and value to those working with older people and those with an interest in the arts. This evaluation demonstrates the diversity of the older population with older citizen’s voices being at the heart of the programme.

What can the Welsh school music sector learn from the community music movement?

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob Smith
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Community Music ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
Community Arts ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
Creative Development ◽  
South Wales ◽  
School Music ◽  
Education Review

This article draws on theories of creative development articulated by Sawyer and Green as well as reflecting upon data from case studies of projects run in Wales with community ensembles Wonderbrass, South Wales Intercultural Community Arts and London-based Kinetica Bloco. It proposes a model of learning for music education in Wales that promotes active creative participation and fosters the speaking of a musical language rather than simply the reading of it. In the context of Welsh Government’s recent education review, the article advocates a music policy of creative engagement, with musical materials that go beyond the pedagogy of imitation. Here I propose a creative engagement method that empowers participants to interact with musical materials by creating their own musical statements within a musical style or language, whether through extemporization, improvisation or composition.

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