ARTSblog

Joanna Chin

Sometimes, I like to take a step away from the art itself to ask what art does for society.  In a world that often portrays our field as frivolous or boils our work down to how it can stimulate local economies, it’s a nice exercise to imagine how the thing to which we dedicate our lives actually contributes, and has even more potential to contribute, to bettering the world at large.

Shifting gears a bit, let’s talk about one of the most global issues facing…well, the globe: climate change.  A 2009 report by the Pew Research Center claims that the number of Americans who believe manmade global warming is real has dropped 14 % from 2008.  And, according to a Brookings Institute study, even among Americans who believe that global warming is occurring, there was an 18% decrease in respondents who said they were very confident that this phenomenon was taking place.

Speculation about the reasons behind the climate change movement’s loss of momentum abound.  While some popular hypotheses for its decline include the current economic crisis and the radicalization of the Republican Party in the wake of Obama’s election, one of the most interesting to me was in a Newsweek blog entry suggesting that many Americans are indifferent or unable to comprehend the long-term effects of climate change.  That indifference has emerged more strongly now because it’s much harder to prioritize abstract, far-away problems like climate change when compared to the daily threat of losing one’s job. Read the rest of this entry »

Match.com.
Video conferencing.
Avatars.
Smart phones.
Chatroulette.
Facebook.

How has technology affected the way we interact with one another?
The proponents would say that it has opened up new doors, expanded possibilities. On the other hand, critics would claim that new technology and interconnectivity is negatively distorting the way people socialize.  On occasion, I’ve stopped and wondered whether we make relationships less significant when our primary means of interactivity is a collection of Facebook messages.

Thus, if technology is mutating our relationships, how has it affected our definitions of community?
Already, we see the expansion of communities online that are defined, not by geographic proximity or traditional social groupings, but by participation in chat rooms, tweeting, and wall posts.  The definition of community is morphing from neighborhood gatherings to encompass these web exchanges and, consequently, poses interesting challenges and opportunities for those using art in community development.

John Ewing’s 24/7 Interaction: Brookline – Roxbury, which opened this past Friday, demonstrates that, while technology is changing the way we interact, an inspired artist can harness new methods of communication to not only build community, but build community between geographically defined neighborhoods.

Read the rest of this entry »

In her green paper on community development in the arts, Maryo grounds her tips in the idea that the past helps give context to the present and future. However, an equally important way to contextualize one’s individual project is within the collective body of community arts work being done currently. Unfortunately, getting a handle on the amorphous blob that is “The Field of Community Development in the Arts” is an ever- increasing challenge, particularly given the rapid changes in the way that we store and share information.

Now, I know that as a young professional, I’m supposed to embrace technologies of all kinds and thank the online world for providing 24-hour, instantaneous information. But, sometimes (just sometimes) combing through 29+ pages of  Google search results makes me a little bit nostalgic for the days when the definitive publications on subject W were X, Y, and Z.

That was it.

No thousands of web pages, each containing a kernel of pertinent or significant information. No following trails of links to “x marks the spot” (i.e. that document that’s exactly what you were looking for), only to see the eternally-helpful “Page Not Found!” flash across your computer screen where the jackpot should have been buried.

Alas, those days of old-book smell and the whisper of (paper) pages under fingertips are dwindling and the challenge of finding substantive, legitimate information continues to grow.

Are you ready for slightly-embarrassing confession #2? Read the rest of this entry »

In setting the tone and structure of my posts about the future of community arts, I want stress how important your thoughts are in fueling discussion by building off of Alie Wickham’s immediate response to the Future of Community Development in the Arts Green Paper, which said:

I’m responding to the line after this, “What do you think?” According to many of the “tips” I read in the paper, I believe many of them will continue to stay constant and true – their context will adapt according to the time we are living in. However, I feel it would be highly interesting to bring up the point that it wouldn’t hurt for each of us to help our prospective organizations to develop similar tips for each of our fields that we believe will stay MOST constant and true. Not only will these tips include long and short-term goals – something the green paper emphasized in one tip – but goals that will continue to stay true and relevant in the present and future. More than likely, these tips will develop from comparing there relevance to the past, as well.

Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the Green Paper discussion on the future of Community Development in the Arts. We encourage you to read the full Green Paper available in the tab above and make general comments at this time. Be sure to keep your comments brief—the Ambassador for this Green Paper will begin deeper, threaded conversations around specific paragraphs, sections or themes that appear in this Green Paper. Follow this conversation thoroughly by adding the Community Development feed to your RSS reader!