Listening for the Lexicon of Cultural Shift

This essay is excerpted from "Crafting a Vision for Art, Equity and Civic Engagement: Convening the Community Arts Field in Higher Education," the catalog of a conference at California College of Art’s Center for Art and Public Life in Oakland and San Francisco, Calif., November 2-4 2006. The essay quotes keynote speeches by three leaders in the field of community arts: Amalia Mesa-Bains, California State University at Monterey Bay; Marta Moreno Vega, Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute in New York; and Claudine Brown, Nathan Cummings Foundation. Their speeches may be found in the catalog, which is available from CCA in June 2007.

Rather than developing artifact, you want to develop fluidity … what is possible today may not be possible tomorrow, and that’s good.

—Marta Moreno Vega

Amalia Mesa-Bains called it “a moment of camaraderie and esprit de corps.” Marta Moreno Vega called it “a family reunion.” And they were right. “Crafting a Vision for Art, Equity and Civic Engagement” was an arts gathering like no other.

Sonia BasSheva Mañjon, director of Center for Art & Public Life, California College of Arts

With Sonia BasSheva Mañjon, director of the Center for Art and Public Life, at the helm, “Crafting” felt different right from the get-go because the keynote addresses were all delivered by women grounded in communities of color, women who view culture from a specific angle. Their experience has taught them a lot about something we all need a better understanding of: cultural shift.

The gathering kicked off with keynotes by Mesa-Bains, Moreno Vega and Claudine Brown, people Mañjon identified as her professional role models, mentors and dear personal friends. The affection among them was tangible and it warmed the theater where we met. They come from communities that have long histories on the North American continent, where “community art” is “lived experience,” art that is lived every day. As Moreno Vega put it:

…anyone that knows about the cultures of the Caribbean, the cultures of Africa, the cultures of Central and Latin America and Asia, Native American cultures, and everyone that is grounded in their own culture, regardless of where you come from, understands that there are expressions, cultural expressions that you call art in academia, but are lived expressions, that are the history of a people, the stories of a people, that ground them in the experience that they’re in today.

They are a circle of colleagues who honor each other and see the field as a continuum of those who have gone before, negotiating constant, massive cultural shift – the people of the Civil Rights Movement, the Movimiento or Chicano Movement, the American Indian Movement, the Feminist Movement. That perspective leaves them heavily invested in issues of social justice, civil rights, cultural rights.

For them, the busy intersection of civic life, equity and community is a familiar crossroads with many trajectories. They consider it their obligation to present their observations at the crossroads to the people who will come after them – the cultural leaders of the next generation. They told us they are now at a place where they can begin to identify artists who can be held up as role models in the field of community arts: the “artist-citizens.” And they are artists, as Mesa-Bains said:

…whose work has resided both within the art world and within a deep community of which they are a part. That’s the deal: of which they are a part. They don’t go find a community and fix it and go back to their studio. They live in that place…

Mesa-Bains explained that when she sat down with her colleagues to plan the community-art curriculum at California State University at Monterey Bay (CSUMB), they modeled it on what they had learned from those artist-citizens and from their own work – from their lived experience.

...we sort of took it backwards. We looked at the skill sets that we all had in combination, and then we flipped them, and we said, “Okay, to know how to do that, what do you have to study?” And so that began this long process of defining a new curriculum and pedagogy.

And when I walked away from that keynote session I realized that the history of community art as we know it has to be rewritten. We have learned a great deal about the “grassroots” history of the “community arts movement,” going back to the 19th Century and linking it with feminist pageants, union organizing, the WPA, the Wisconsin Idea, CETA, and so on. But I don’t believe a holistic, fundamental history of this field has yet been published – one that integrates the cultural expression in all of our communities. That history is still bifurcated, still stratified, still segregated into compartments labeled with words like minority, mainstream, academic, amateur, professional, fine, informal, ethnic, folk, traditional, contemporary, classical, self-taught. For the 21st century, community art history – no, art history – must become more like a history of lived experience, more of a family reunion, more of a crossroads where we come together from many trajectories, where we are aware of the necessity to give and take from each other along a continuum of camaraderie and esprit de corps.

And in that spirit I present an expanded lexicon drawn from the “Crafting” keynote addresses of these three wise, innovative and generous women. I take these terms, with fresh definitions, from their own words – with apologies for yanking them out of context. We are fortunate to have their addresses transcribed in full as part of the conference catalog, so we are able to find these terms in context.

A Lexicon of Cultural Shift

Amalia Mesa-Bains, co-director of visual and public art, California State University at Monterey Bay

“We’re in the business of art-plus, okay? We’ve got art, but we’re going to add something else so we can keep expanding,” —Amalia Mesa-Bains

Artistic authorship: The uniqueness of the individual artist and what s/he creates; what many art schools are predicated on, mistakenly valued higher than what is created in partnership with others. “When you begin to share and collaborate with people, whose art is it? Who takes credit for it? How is it valued? Is it not valued?” (Mesa-Bains)

Art-plus: How to educate students in community arts. “We’re in the business of art-plus, okay? We’ve got art, but we’re going to add something else so we can keep expanding, and that art-plus, I think, in many ways is being able to give them skill sets. We discovered that practicing social analysis and community research was an absolute bedrock, we couldn’t do the work if they didn’t know how to do that. They had to develop cross-cultural skills.” (Mesa-Bains)

Bifurcation/stratification: “One of the impediments for this community is the way that the art community itself is structured. We are a very bifurcated community, and … we find ourselves organized around our disciplines. … The other kind of stratification, which I find very interesting, is one of scale. … So, one of the challenges for us is helping people who have these values and these kinds of concerns get to know each other and know that they can work collaboratively on issues that mean something to them.” (Brown)

“Somehow academia tries to divide what should be naturally connected. We departmentalize experiences that are holistic. … You have to have a lot of people in the room in order to do the work that you do. Not only do you include scholars who are expert in the tradition, you include community scholars that are expert in their own traditions. You include traditional leaders, you include people who are interested, and these conversation and these focus groups is that you can develop an exhibition. It is through these focus groups that dance performance can come out.” (Moreno Vega)

Marta Moreno Vega, president/founder, Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute

“Color’s not color. Dance is not only dance, music is not only music. For some groups, it is more than music … it is a way of calling spirit.” —Marta Moreno Vega

Calling Spirit: “Color’s not color. Dance is not only dance, music is not only music. For some groups, it is more than music. Because if you’re looking at the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, it is a way of calling spirit. … popular expressions, they’re all grounded in the spiritual context, coming from indigenous, traditional cultures.” (Moreno Vega)

Challenging institutional commitment: “You have to challenge your own institution. You have to challenge them. You have to ask questions about why these programs are always add-ons. Why are they always for work-study? Why are they always taught by adjuncts? Why do they never change the core curriculum? And why, when the funding ends, does the program end? Because there has to be an institutional commitment, and challenging your institutions is at the bedrock of doing this work. Because otherwise you’re alone, and then as long as the money’s there, you can keep doing it, and you’re working hard, but if you can get the institution, even in the smallest level, to make that change with you, then you have hope that even when the funding ends, you’ll be able to keep doing that work, and that fundamentally those resources and knowledge and values that come from those communities will transform the core of your institution in some way.” (Mesa-Bains)

Community aesthetics: “This idea that you can do this work and not change your aesthetic framework – Sooner or later you have to start asking questions about art historical canons that you ascribe to, you have to start asking questions about what you define as expertise.” (Mesa Bains) “Growing up in East Harlem, the colors that I saw on my wall, the images that I saw on my wall, reflected who I was, who my people were and are. And when I went to school … Puerto Rico was not reflected, the Caribbean was not reflected, Africa was not reflected, Asia, very little. So, I was invisible throughout the education that I received. … So, when I started teaching … we talked about art as lived experience. We talked about art that they lived every day. We talked about their homes and their mamas and their grandmamas.” (Moreno Vega)

Community research/community mapping: “We had students come to visit in communities, observe, meet the leaders in the community, be able to examine how a community functions, and all that had to happen before we could actually send them in to do projects.” (Mesa-Bains)

Claudine K. Brown, director, Arts and Culture Program, Nathan Cummings Foundation

"We think that the great asset of the art-and-social-justice movement is the people in it." —Claudine Brown

Convergence: “We believe that online communities are really interesting, but we think that world change happens face-to-face with each other. We think that the great asset of the art-and-social-justice movement is the people in it. And we think that when you meet each other, you have an opportunity not just to hear about stuff that an article was written about, but you really have a chance to engage. You have a chance to see the work of students and artists who care about these issues, you have the opportunity to find out if something can be used in your own communities. We think that one-on-one encounters, in-person engagements are going to be the heart of this movement.” (Brown)

Cultural citizenship: “‘The ways in which people organize their values, their beliefs about their rights, and their practices, based on their sense of cultural belonging, rather than their formal status as citizens of a nation. Particularly important are the struggles for space and cultural rights that shape community identity and connect to an understanding of artistic responsibility and problem-solving.’” (Mesa-Bains quoting Rita Ben Major and Bill Flores’ “Latino Cultural Citizenship”) “If that human being contributes to your life because you have fresh strawberries or you have wonderful artichokes on your table, or someone cleans your toilets, then they deserve to have the kind of citizenship we enjoy, and that means having a driver’s license, that means being able to be safe in a place that you have worked to build for others.” (Mesa-Bains)

Cultural grounding: Having a place in history; understanding your location so you can look at the world from there. (Moreno Vega)

Cultural policy: “In these United States we do not have a cultural policy. And without a cultural policy, to understand and define what is the United States and the multiplicity of cultures and racial groups that make up the United States, allows the space for Eurocentric visions to dominate and continue dominating, although the country is rapidly changing. And it allows a conversation of immigrants being the Other and being undesirable, when in fact, if you understood the cultural history of the United States, you understand that immigration is what makes the United States.” (Moreno Vega)

Cultural shift: “Culture is constantly shifting, realities are constantly shifting. And for different groups, different realities exist. And the challenge is to be present, is to be in the moment of understanding that shift.” (Moreno Vega)

Cultural theory: What you need to “get people in academia, and even in politics to really listen to another side of the story. … It’s like being on the debate team, you have to have a good argument or you just don’t get anywhere. Human decency and compassion simply is not enough, okay? You’ve got to have theory.” (Mesa-Bains)

Equity: “Inevitably the issues of diversity and equity are addressed when you set upon this work. Equity, for many of us, we discovered, was also financial. … Power comes in many forms, not just respect and recognition, but real financial and other kinds of resources.” (Mesa-Bains)

Exchange: “If you have something to offer, you have to assume that others have something to offer. So, it’s an exchange, it’s always an exchange of information. It’s never a top-down or, ‘I got the degree and she or he doesn’t.’” (Moreno Vega) “Acting reciprocally. It sort of seems like going without saying, but reciprocity is the core of it. You’ve got to ask yourself are you being reciprocal in those projects, in that way of working.” (Mesa-Bains)

Exclusion/inclusion: Communities of color being left out of discussions of cultural policy, especially discussion of “diversity.” “The exclusion of our experience. The exclusion of the expressions that define our communities. …The conversation [has] to include issues, not only of culture, of art, but social justice, issues of civil rights and issue of cultural rights.” (Moreno Vega)

Fluidity: “Rather than developing artifact, you want to develop fluidity … what is possible today may not be possible tomorrow, and that’s good. And that if we’re going to change and influence lives, that we have to change ourselves, because my mama told me you can’t give what you don’t have.” (Moreno Vega)

Funder envy: Funding officers who “really wish that they were doing what you’re [practitioners are] doing, instead of sitting behind a desk in an office.” (Brown)

Ghetto Arts: What the New York State Council on the Arts once called the arts of minority communities. “And Ghetto Arts meant us.” (Moreno Vega)

Going Up The Ladder: “You start out on something that you know very well as a project, but then when you go up the ladder and you look down into that project, you see what are the guiding principles, what did you learn? When I teach with my students, we go up the ladder very regularly because I don’t want them just accumulating knowledge and information. I want them to look down and see what that means, taking out and distilling those principles, that they can apply anywhere else when they face similar material.” (Mesa-Bains)

Growing the movement: “What do we do to grow this field, and to make sure that the experiences we have are not [just] our own, but experiences that others can have throughout our society?” (Brown)

Interdisciplinarity: The capacity to study not only across different arts and humanities disciplines, but also “across different cultures, issues of globalism and the environment. … in order for a student in our art program to work in another community, they might actually have to learn a second language, or at least enough to introduce themselves. They might have to know something about global and social equity.” (Mesa-Bains)

Intergenerational: “This life is an intergenerational, communal, extended life.” (Mesa-Bains) “We really believe that there are a group of people who really want to learn from their children and their grandchildren. … Young people have stepped into the fray and are teaching middle-aged, their peers and older people how to use [media] technology in a meaningful way.” (Brown)

Learning communities: “I would propose that in establishing programs that have to do with the various communities that comprise this nation, as we go out into public education and cultural centers and other places, that we are very clear, that we go as learners, that we don’t go as the expert.” (Moreno Vega)

Legacy: What has been left to us is just as important as what we leave behind. “This is not new work. We stand on the shoulders of many people, and it goes back very, very far back. I mean in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, graffiti was often a call to activism. So, this notion of doing art that deals with issues of social justice is not brand new, it is centuries old. So, we are continuing a legacy that many other artists have been engaged in for a very long time.” (Brown)

New thinking: “If you’re willing to be uncomfortable sometimes, if you’re willing to entertain something beyond your realm, then you can get them [the institutions] to do it, and you will have that capacity for what we call new thinking, renewed energy and the spirit of collaboration.” (Mesa-Bains)

Norteño-sueño: “That means north-south, and it’s a way that youth and gangs divide themselves. Norteños are American-born, they identify as Chicanos. Sueños are identified with Mexico.” An example of a reality in a community that was there before you were. “You have to acknowledge the reality of the youth you serve and the youth that you teach. Their reality is the thing that comes in the room first. You’ve got to know it and feel for it before you give them the text, whatever it might be, the lesson, the book, the example, the project, the film. You have to know who they are first. Using the past to predict the future and seeing something moving across time. We found that every community we worked in, whether we work in the southwest or we’re in the middle of Chicago, what we discovered was something that happened before, and everyone knew it but us, and we needed to know what that past was before we plunged ahead into something, because sometimes you plunge ahead and you make a big mistake.” (Mesa-Bains)

Saludos: “Do you know that in certain communities, when you go in, there’s something called saludos? Which means you have to, like, say hello in a certain way, you can’t just say, ‘Hey, hi,’ you know, and walk in the door. … You have to include the aesthetic and cultural values of the community in the project goals.” (Mesa-Bains)

Service learning: Learning to serve by working in the community, and more – “an intersection of compassion, because you have to have some ability to feel for others beyond yourself and whatever comfort level you might have.” (Mesa-Bains)

Social-justice art: “The projects of artists and community members that, one, show concern and give voice to the poor, disadvantaged and underserved; two, exhibit respectful diversity; three, promote understanding across cultures; and four, empower communities in need.” (Brown)

Stories: “When you’re trying to work in community, the … glue that sticks it all together is stories. Every community has its stories … those stories that come before us, the past predicts the future, and seeing something moving across time, and understanding the lives of the youth we serve.” (Mesa-Bains) “A lot of us live in situations where we believe that whatever our situation is, it is the norm. And it’s really important that we hear about the people whose stories are not told on sitcoms. … The bottom line is that if we’re going to do art and social justice, we need to know about the stories of all of the people living in this country. We need to have a sense of what life is like in this country, because if we don’t, we will allow policies to take place that will damage people who are, in many ways, powerless.” (Brown) “Witnessing means that you stand up and you see what something is, and you acknowledge in some way that you see that. And witnessing is a form of respect." (Mesa-Bains)

Linda Frye Burnham is co-director of Art in the Public Interest and the Community Arts Network.

Original CAN/API publication: May 2007