Perception: arts, identity, and access
LINK
http://www.newhavenarts.org/news/artspaper/articles.html
OluShola A. Cole
Those of us who have been around the arts community recognize the pattern: gatherings of creative focus groups, board meetings, etc., the feedbag of conferences for arts administrators and roundtable discussions. We’ve been having the same old conversation and asking the same old questions about art for decades: Is the face of art changing? Is the audience for traditional art venues shifting? How can we shift focus to grab a drifting audience? What is our community? How is our organization perceived? How can we pull in the (insert underserved community here) population? Who do we serve? Why are we here? And my all-time favorite: Who are we?
It would be completely false if I were to say I didn’t pose those questions to myself every so often: Who am I? Who do I serve? Why am I here? My position places me right at the intersection of identity, access, and art. I interact with people of varying levels of artistic and entrepreneurial skill, from those who can throw an art opening together in the blink of an eye, often the darlings of the New Haven arts scene, to those who can make a tag jump off a surface but can barely keep a dollar and have no idea about the Arts Council and those who are making their own waves through theater, photography, and dance while bringing together what community they can in New Haven. I simply have to get to the core of my mission and think about the arts and the community in terms of creativity and access. Break it down further, and it’s all about working to help artists be supported and validated, knowing they can become vehicles for cost-effective, influential and creative access to art.
A twisted air of grandeur accompanies the Arts Council, a perception of access-granting and encrusted arts patronage — of people shaking gnarled fists at struggling artists deemed unworthy of their benevolent support. This actually works in my favor as I continue to demystify my organization, meeting artists who choose to work in communities facing negative perceptions as they create access to something wonderful and positive.
It’s breathtaking to see how some of the groups I have run into adapt their identities and goals to create such great and groundbreaking organizations.
I’ve kept up with Tina Lee Hadari, executive director of Music Haven, a group of conservatory graduates who run a free after-school music education program for string players in the New Haven Schools. The program is quite simple, but the sheer impact of this work sheds light on the fact that strings are not familiar instruments in many school programs, particularly in lower-income environments with large populations of people of color, which the group mainly serves. There are very few programs like this in the country, and this access to the arts is cultivating a generation of musicians of color whose artistic careers could include joining string sections of orchestras.
Sharece Sellem is the director of the youth drama group Artistik Xpressions, which recently completed a New Haven Public Library Tour with its show Feelings and Footprints. The show highlighted Black History Month. This was a successful monologue series in which talented young student actors portrayed influential African American figures in history as children and later as adults. During the performances, which were held in libraries throughout New Haven during the February school vacation, the audience participated by asking questions of the actors in character as adult historical figures. I later found out that these actors are Sellem’s students from Davis Street 21st Century Magnet School, a school focused on literacy and maintaining high-level reading skills where Sellem teaches.
Enter Ibrahim and Sabhir, two charismatic and motivated young men I recently had the pleasure of meeting. They run a group in New Haven called The Youth Revolution, which is geared toward using community, hip-hop and spoken word to create an environment of positive reinforcement for New Haven’s youth. Their annual event, which gives youth space for creative and expressive outlets, is a great way to bring individuals, parents, students, and communities together to help creatively transform negative perceptions of youth and hip-hop in New Haven.
I’ve been keeping tabs on Rose Garcia, site coordinator for Youth as Leaders, another after-school program that has increasingly started using the arts as a way to engage youth and get them invested in their own community. From sending the students out to take pictures and putting up their work for a gallery opening to bringing in a Brazilian Capoeira group to one of its community functions or hosting a family night out where students bring their parents to an event with local arts programming. With is student arts focus group Arts Anonymous, Youth as Leaders is a model for non-arts organizations using the arts to help students and community gain access to essential resources and tools.
For urban design and street artists, there is a large void that needs filling in terms of space in which to gather and feel connected. After talking with several individuals about this, and the role the Arts Council can play, the idea of having a simple gathering space in which to critique work, meet, and socialize struck me as a basic necessity. I’ll be hosting an Arts Council after-hours for artists in the area who aren’t classically trained and don’t have access or exposure to traditional means of creative and visual expression.
Another empty space that can be filled with eye-opening and thought provoking art is women’s theater. Another individual addressing access and perception is Halima Flynn, artistic director of Fire Dragon Productions, who is producing events such as New Haven’s Celebration of Swan Day featuring female artist performances while preparing to host and set up the city’s first chapter of 50/50 in 2020. This will be a local organization, part of a national collective tackling the ongoing issue of women in theater not fully being represented across the board. In addition, the New Haven Theater Company’s Kaia Monroe is accepting play submissions for the Second Sex Playfest in order to present “theatrical material that would utilize only young female actors in order to expand the breadth of female-centric dramatic literature.” Again, a festival such as this is doing much to bring attention to the issues of accessibility, perception, and the struggle of women’s to find their identity and establish a presence in theater.
My position in the community leads me to believe that community knowledge and exposure to the arts at the local level is essential, and that is how I will serve my creative neighborhoods. The perception and identity of the Arts Council strikes a chord with me as a think about my position. I play an important role in demystifying and changing some of the perceptions of the Arts Council. I can tell focus groups and conference attendees that the face of art has never changed — it’s the administrative focus that has shifted. The lens is always revolving, and yes, the economic climate has made us artists get very creative.
Artists in this community from every income bracket need to feel as if they are part of the Arts Council. But how? While I don’t know the answer, I do know what will help create my approach. My angle is artistic accessibility, and the groups that I have mentioned represent that fully. I look at this cross-section of artists in the communities creating a platform that can encircle an at-risk population and through art slowly reduce risk — child by child, family by family — while also being deemed worthy of support by contemporary peers and groundbreaking patrons who are fully capable of understanding, relating to, and being supportive of the community dynamic.
This is the opinion of OluShola A. Cole, the Arts Council’s coordinator of community programs.
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