Connecting Californians
Finding the Art of Community Change
An Inquiry into the role of story in strengthening communities

Research Rationale

The research rationale emerged from the framework of The James Irvine Foundation’s Civic Culture program.

Civic Culture at The James Irvine Foundation

Civic Culture at Irvine supports Californians working to build an effective pluralism from the State’s exponentially increasing cultural diversity. One in four current Californians was born overseas; in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, the number is two in five. These newcomers have arrived from nearly every country on earth, with a great predominance from the Pacific Rim.

The program’s first premise is that the democracy is built as people build their communities. Community building is collective problem solving — shared experience toward common purpose across lines that can divide. Often with the guidance of an organizer, people come together with those unlike themselves to identify issues important to the improvement of quality of life in their communities. They make and implement plans collectively, all the while trying to learn how to get better at their work together. Through this experiential education in democratic participation, they develop the skills, knowledge, attitudes and, importantly, the human relationships that build social capital and strengthen their communities.

Based in Humboldt County, California, the Dell'Arte Company has pioneered "Theatre of Place," which is original theater created by, for, and about a particular community, but that is accessible to audiences anywhere via a unique physical performance style. Photo by M.K. Rothman

Often the result is improved public policy. For example, a statewide project of a California faith-based community-organizing network helped to shape and pass legislation in Sacramento that devoted $50 million to after-school educational programs. Policy formation is part of democratic participation. Yet the process was as important as the product. From a dozen separate California communities, from hundreds of congregations, tens of thousands of people acted inclusively toward this common purpose. They learned from one another and about one another. Working together, using the techniques of adult, community-based, experiential education, they turned their communities into places of learning.

The Arts and Humanities and Community

The arts and humanities are a particularly powerful means by which people may turn their communities into places of learning. Through art:

• We express our understandings of the world around us; we give voice.
• We interpret the views and experiences of others; we learn to perceive.
• We create new understandings; we synthesize, develop new approaches.

The expressive, interpretive and creative aspects of the arts and humanities carry special utility when dividing lines have been etched deeply in communities. Often with greater power than other modes of human discourse, collective engagement with art can heal wounds, break logjams, build bridges.

It is not only at the extremes of experience, however, that the arts and humanities are important to collective life. Art is community’s growing edge. It is through expression, interpretation and creation that the culture is continually reinvented.

Nor does art’s importance lie only at the extremes of talent or achievement. To be certain, the search is for truth and beauty. But it is through the collective process of reaching toward excellence, amateurs and professionals solving problems together, that the community can grow.

Story and Community

Absent the stories of others, how will we know them? Absent our own stories, how will we know ourselves? Story is inherent to human experience; we are the story-telling animal. Story is the means by which we learn, by which we make meaningful experience from the events of our lives together. The stories we are able to tell ourselves and others, those we can understand and imagine, carry our identity, our culture. They define what we believe to be possible in our individual and collective lives.

Interaction with narrative strengthens community in several ways:

• Telling stories gives shape to personal identity, enabling us to link with others and with universal themes.
• Engaging with stories (listening, interpreting, responding) introduces us to others who could otherwise remain distant; it builds empathy and understanding.
• Sharing stories with one another creates human connection, builds relationships and develops a sense of common narrative.

Because of its innate power, story lies at the center of the work of those attempting to strengthen communities. Organizers start with the stories of individuals, using narrative to illuminate the hopes, concerns and interests of community members; the exploration and interpretation of shared stories creates common ground; and the collective action that follows is an attempt to build a community story. Artists and humanists with an interest in community use their narrative skills to express complex and sometimes contentious ideas, emotions and issues, enabling communication and connection. Stories that are of, by and for the communities in which they are publicly performed can be the galvanizing occasion for civic engagement.

The researchers posited that artists, humanists and organizers have developed an extensive practice using narrative to catalyze civic engagement. It was in search of the breadth and depth of this current practice that the inquiry started.

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