Truth UP: 23 Insights, admonitions and ideas about youth arts from the great masters
By William Cleveland
The truth is, you can't do community-based youth arts programs without partnerships.
But unfortunately, we, as citizens living in the largest monument ever built
to the primacy of the individual, have been not particularly well prepared for
the multiple relationships we must forge to do our work in communities. Yet
partnerships among artists, and teachers and youth workers and parents are fundamental
to this work. Partnerships among arts organizations, schools, police departments
and youth service organizations are indispensable. Youth arts means: partners
every where you look. But wait a minute —who's missing?
That's right. Young people — the prime constituency here — are
often left off the list of collaborators. In my continuing work as an a musician,
a writer, arts educator and arts bureaucrat, I have learned some of my most
enduring lessons from the youngest of my collaborators and students —
those l have worked with in schools and youth arts programs all over the country.
I have found that young people know a lot about community arts partnerships,
largely because they are left out of them so often. In fact, everywhere
I go, where there are young people, I ask them to tell me what they would
like to share with folks who create youth arts programs about what it takes
to create successful creative collaborations and partnerships. I find their
ideas and advice to be some of the most perceptive and useful I have come across.
So, here are 23 admonitions, insights and ideas about youth arts partnerships
from the people who know best.
1. Open the Door
The first is about access. Young people in this country understand
that we live in a culture that translates its priorities into dollars and cents.
It is clear to the young people I have talked to that we are not interested
in investing in their creative futures. For young people today there are very
few places where creative exploration and experimentation can be safely practiced.
They know art education is an endangered species. But, they want this desperately
— not because it would be nice, as a recreational alternative, but because
they know it is their job to learn by exploring and questioning the world they
were born into. We need this desperately — not because it seems
like the right pedagogical thing to do, but because without this raw and exuberant
feedback we have lost a tremendous opportunity to learn from and collaborate
with the next generation on our future.
2. Give Respect
Young citizens want to be respected for the varied and unique voices they
bring to the conversations taking place in their communities. They are particularly
concerned about the conversations taking place that effect their lives but do
not involve them. They will be heard eventually.
3. Be Trustworthy
The youth I have talked to do not want to be subjects of faddish experiments,
cultural or otherwise foisted upon them by the adult world. They want
to trust adults. And they want you to know that they know that trust comes with
continuity, predictability, regularity and consistency of work together over
time. By over time, they mean a long time. Years, not weeks.
4. Don't Push
Young people do not want to be forced to do things adults think are good
for them. They know that shotgun weddings, arranged marriages and artificial
insemination are not good partnership models.
5. Provide Both Freedom and Discipline
Emerging young artists want an artistic workplace that provides both form
and freedom. They are, at once, attracted to the improvisation and the
discipline inherent to the creative process.
6. State the Rules
Our future creative leaders want us to be clear about what goes and doesn't
go. As young artists and citizens they want to be informed of all the rules.
Where is it safe? Where is there danger? And most of all who holds what
power? They know that building trust between the more and less powerful
is tough. They also know that those who wield power are often blind to
the extent of their privilege and thus have a hard time responding to requests
to share power.
7. Be Real
The inventors of youth culture do not want to be romanticized. They want
to be respected for their capacities and potentials. They want to be acknowledged
and accepted for what they know and what they don't know. They
also want relationships with adults that are driven by their talents and possibilities
rather their potential to screw up.
8. Be Honest
Aspiring young artists want their artist/teacher/mentors to be honest and
very clear about what they know and don't know. They can recognize, and are
insulted by fakery. They want the adults collaborating with them to have their
stuff together.
9. Keep the Faith
When the adult world brings the power and force of the creative process
into their lives, young people do not want a one-night stand. They do not want
to be turned on and left behind.
10. Remember Diversity
Young people want to remind you that they are not all the same. And that
one youth does not speak for all youths. They know that there is strength
in diversity and want adults to be honest about their problems with difference.
They are too obvious to ignore. And ignoring them only gives them power.
11. Be Dependable
Once a commitment has been made, young people want regularity, dependability,
and commitment from the artists and others with whom they are collaborating.
12. Share Ownership
As they get older and more invested in creative relationships our young collaborators
want to be given opportunities to gain some degree of ownership of the process
and outcome of the work.
13. Get Busy
Young people want to make and do more than they want to be told about, talk
about, or analyze what is going on.
14. Discuss Value
Young creators want to know how their artmaking can contribute to the needs
of their peers and their communities.
15. Demand Quality
Young learners want to be held to high standards. They know when they are
being subjected to the tyranny of low expectations.
16. Be Candid
Young people want to know what you think about their work. They want you
to be fair and honest.
17. See Clearly
Youth everywhere would like adults to respect their cultural practices without
dominating, appropriating, or romanticizing them.
18. Use Common Sense
Young students want their artist/teacher/mentors to take care of themselves.
They don't want burned out partners delivering half‑baked programs.
19. Include Celebration
When the time is right young people want to celebrate.
20. Cool It
They also want the adults in their lives to lighten up.
21. Zip It
Every once in a while, young people sometimes want their mentors to listen
and not offer advice.
22. Live a Little
Our young friends want to eat and dance and make music.
23. Really Care
Young people want to love and be loved.
William Cleveland is an author/musician and director of
the Center for the Study of Art and Community in Minneapolis, Minn.
Original CAN/API publication: August 2003
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