Interdisciplinary Seminar in Community-based Arts
Dr. Billy Yalowitz
Temple University (Fall 2004)
Community-based Arts brings artists together with people of a community of location, spirit, or tradition, to create art that is based in the life of that community. The goals of this course are for students
- to learn about the history and theory of Community-based Arts
- to learn to think critically about the issues of race, class, and aesthetics inherent in Community-based Arts practice
- to gain exposure to established Community-based Arts projects in Philadelphia through field trips and guest speakers
The course will prepare students to become involved in the growing number of field internships in Community Arts that are being offered through Temple’s Community Arts & Literacy Network. We will study and visit key community-based arts programs in Philadelphia. Students will then choose from one of several ongoing community arts projects underway in North Philadelphia with partnering arts organizations, and will participate in workshops at these sites. These programs include:
- Art Sanctuary/North Star After-school Arts Program – workshops with artists in Poetry, Dance, African drumming and Culture, Afro-Modern Dance, participating with high school students. Special workshop on Theater and Ancestry.
- Asian Arts Initiative: After-school RAP series and arts workshops.
- Pepon Osorio and Achieving Independence Center of Department of Human Services
Osorio's is the Artist-in-Residence at the Philadelphia Department of Human Services (DHS), working on community arts projects with young people in the foster care system.
WEEKLY COURSE SCHEDULE
- September 2: Course introduction
- September 9: Community Arts History and Theory. The role of the arts in human societies. Communities of origin.
- September 16 (Rosh HaShana): Karen Malandra, Community Arts & Literacy Network: Art Sanctuary, Temple, and the North Community Arts Program
- September 23: Community Arts Practice: Issues of Race, Class, Aesthetics, I (Racism, Communities of Origin)
- September 30: Race, Class, Aesthetics, II. Presentation of Communities of Origin papers. Introduction to Pepon Osorio. Paper #1 due.
- October 7: Field Trip: Pepon Osorio, “Trials and Turbulence”, DHS installation – meet at the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), 118 S.36th St between Sansom and Chestnut, on University of Pennsylvania campus
- October 14: Community Arts Practice: Race, Class, Aesthetics, III; Introduction to New York City community arts sites.
- SATURDAY, October 16: Full day field trip to visit Community Arts sites in New York City. Details TBA.
- October 21: Community Arts Practice: Race, Class, Aesthetics, IV Issues of Class; Radicality in Community Arts
- October 28: Field Trip: Asian Arts Initiative, 1315 Cherry Street, 2nd Floor. Paper #2 due.
- November 4: No class meeting. [Imagining America conference, November 5 – 7, University of Pennsylvania]
- Nov. 11: Reflections on Field Trips; Final Project Assignment. Field Journals due.
- November 18: Final Project Workshop
- TUESDAY, November 23 (NOTE, We will meet; this is a Thursday class schedule day):
Race, Class, Aesthetics, V
- December 2: Final Seminar: Wrap-Up. Final paper due; presentations.
READINGS
Most texts for the course can be found on the Community Arts Network (CAN) Reading Room, http://www.communityarts.net; specific URLs are noted below. In addition, we will be reading “Other Sheep I have”, the autobiography of Father Paul M. Washington, available from the Main Campus Bookstore, the pamphlet “Working Together to End Racism”, by Tim Jackins/United to End Racism (2002) (available from instructor for $2) and photocopied handouts.
For 9/9
For 9/16
For 9/23
- “The Cost of Whiteness”, by Thandeka. Tikkun, May/June 1999. Handout.
- “Working Together to End Racism”, pp.1 - 20
- Washington: Chapters 11- 18 and Afterword
For 9/30
- “CWT #3: Making City Water Tunnel #3”, by Marty Pottenger (1997) http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/ archivefiles/2002/09/cwt3_making_cit.php
- “We Are All Connected: Elders Share the Arts”, By Linda Frye Burnham, Susan Perlstein (1995), http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/ archivefiles/2002/09/we_are_all_conn_1.php
- “The Object of Process”, by Lucy Lippard, in New Land Marks – public art, community, and the meaning of place edited by Penny Balkin Bach, Fairmount Park Association, 2001. Handout
For 10/7
- “Visitas al hogar: sobre el significado de las cosas/Home visits: On the Meaning of Things”, by Maribel Alvarez, in Pepon Osorio: de puerta en puerta, Door to Door, EAP Press, 2000. Handout.
- Packet of articles on Pepon Osorio, handout.
For 10/14
For 10/21
For 10/28
For 11/4
For 11/11
For 11/18
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS
1. Paper #1: Community of Origin: Due September 30
5 - 7 page paper on students’ cultural backgrounds, looking at the cultural forms of students’ ethnic/racial/religious/national origin heritage from the perspective of Performance Studies and Cultural Anthropology. Personal essay combined with family research into these cultural forms.
2. Paper #2: Community Arts Profile. Due October 28
7 - 10 page research paper on a community arts project or artist, investigating the process by which community arts works are created, focusing on the artist’s approach to doing community arts work, their philosophy and creative process, their goals. Also looking at the community which is engaged in the project, describing the community and relevant points of its history, how the partnership between the artist and the community came about, the working process, the art product, and the aftermath effects of the project upon the community and on the artist.
3. Field Journal: Due November 11
For each field trip, guest speaker, and workshop in which you participate, make a journal entry that addresses the following: Artist/Community Arts leader name(s), role in the community arts project.
History of the community arts project
Goals and philosophy of the project
Working process- how do the artists work with the community?
Art works produced – how do they reflect the exchange between the artist and the community?
4. Final Paper: Community Arts Project Proposal: Due December 2
Students will conceptualize a Community Arts Project and write it up in the form of a hypothetical grant proposal detailing a community arts project for a specific community. The proposal will include a rationale, philosophical statement, plan for community research and engagement, and project time-line.
COURSE POLICIES
Grading
Class participation
Community of Origin paper
Field journal
Community Arts profile paper
Final Reflective paper |
| 20%
20%
20%
20%
20% |
Attendance
Attendance at all seminar and field trip sessions is, of course, mandatory. Students are responsible for their own transportation to and from field trip sites, unless otherwise noted, and should allow sufficient travel time to unfamiliar destinations. Any anticipated difficulties with attendance should be discussed with the instructor before they occur. If you miss more than one class your grade will be reduced by one grade for each subsequent class missed.
Paper #1: Community of Origin – Cultural Forms: Due September 30;
Suggested length, 5 - 7 pages, double-spaced
This paper focuses on the cultural forms of a community of which you are a part. Choose one of the communities that you belong to – it can be based on location, tradition, or spirit. It is recommended that you write about a community that you were born into, based on ethnic, racial, religious background and/or national origin. It may be a part of your heritage that is relatively unexplored by you or your family -- a part of your background that has been forgotten or ignored – or one that is well known to you.
Primary source:
Oral History interview with a family member or an elder of your community
Secondary source:
One work of history, historical fiction, or memoir by someone from your community
1.
What is the community? What defines it?
What are your proud of about this community? What do you enjoy about being part of it?
What has been difficult about being part of this community?
How have you participated in the cultural forms of your community? Is this community your “home”? In which ways? How has being a part of this community shaped your identity, your cultural values, your hopes, your beliefs? How has your relationship with this community changed over time?
2.
How does your community tell its stories and declare its identity? Consider rituals, performances, worship, storytelling, “gossip”, community art, holidays, celebrations.
What cultural forms and practices are most significant for your community?
Describe one of these practices in detail –
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Who participates? What are the roles that people play?
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What life cycle event is being marked?
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What changes in the community as a result of the practice? Consider status, community roles, identities. Are these changes individual or collective?
How have these forms changed over time?
What factors – migration, dislocation, socio-economic class mobility, assimilation, political and economic factors, cultural evolution and change – have contributed to these changes?
3.
How does your community relate to the larger U.S. society?
How has this community been affected by dynamics of oppression? Consider institutional forms of oppression, i.e. racism, sexism, classism, anti-Semitism. Oppression may have been more evident and harsher in earlier generations. What have been the effects of this oppression on your community?
Does the community have a history of taking action for its own liberation? Has performance or art-making been a part of this history? How? How has assimilation affected your community?
Paper #2: Community Arts Profile. Due October 28
In this paper you will research a community arts project or artist, investigating the process by which community arts works are created. You may write about either a specific community-based artist, or on a particular project. Choose among artists and projects we have studied, or propose a topic. (For an excellent listing of community-based arts organizations you might consider profiling, check the CAN Reading room , see web address below, under Arts and Urban Communities, Outside Links.) If you are writing about an artist, you will want to give a picture of the artist’s approach to doing community arts work, their philosophy and creative process, their goals. In order to get this larger picture of the artist’s work, investigate at least two (2) community arts projects they have undertaken. If you are writing about a particular project, describe the community and relevant points of its history, how the partnership between the artist and the community came about, the working process, the art product, and the aftermath effects of the project upon the community and on the artist.
Consider the following:
- What is the community being engaged? Consider Geer’s definitions – tradition, spirit, location.
- Is there a key community issue being addressed by the project? Are there goals set by the artist and/or community in relation to this issue?
- Relationship of artist(s) to the community - what knowledges and skills are being exchanged between artist(s) and community? Who leads the process? Do community members have a voice in the process? How? Check the table below for parameters for exchange.
- Do the planning process, creative process, and artistic product reflect this exchange? How?
- How does the project/artist affect the community? What is different in the community after the project is done? Does any “social change” occur? Does the process produce ongoing community arts activity?
- How do critics receive the product of the community arts project?
- How does the project affect the artist(s)?
To answer these questions, use a variety of sources. Include sources of at least two (2) different types from the below list. Cite at least four (4) sources.
- Primary sources, written by the artist(s) and /or community
- Secondary sources, written about the artist(s)/community and project(s)
- Interview with the artist(s), where possible
- Viewing of videotapes or slides of the community art work(s) created
Suggested length: 7 - 10 pages
