Convenings

Past Learning Exchange Reports:
Minneapolis, March 8–10, 2002

Open Space Session: Of what use is an artistically animated democracy?

What does it get us as a society?  How do we not squander the promise or diminish the potential?

What are the real issues when we talk about democracy?  The difficulty of getting our hands on a definition:  understanding the difference between procedures of democracy and the substance of it. 

Jan Cohen-Cruz, NYU Center for Arts & Public Policy:  Is democracy a movement?  Is it a success if some other point of view wins?

Sondra Farganis, Vera List Center for Art & Politics:  The more political engagement there is, the more things move to the right.

Bill Cleveland, Center for Arts & Culture:  We are living in a democracy others want to emulate, but it is broken. Can we rise to the occasion to realize our potential through democracy?  If there were full participation, I could take an end I myself do not like.

Sue Wood, Flint Youth Theatre:  By engaging citizens in the powerful possibilities of the arts, people can see it is possible for things to change.

What’s not on the table is often more important than what is on the table. 

How do you gauge a project’s intent and its actual contribution? (this relates to comment in the Neutrality session about “the tyranny of vague intent.”)

A community’s effort to deal with an issue can be set back as well as advanced by an arts-based civic dialogue project.           

Example:  A play done in Ireland about ‘mixed marriage’ as a metaphor; is there a commonality of issues we can discuss?  The first one was a big success, but they tried to do it again with a different play, and it fell apart.  Relationships taking two years and courageous people to form were torn apart again.  What caused it?  The stakes were raised, but some people were different, with different agendas and goals.

How do you measure the success of a project?  How do you leverage success for continued use by the community?

Distinguish short and long term effects, low and high end outcomes

Sondra:  Arts as an entry point to bring people together to discuss something, BUT…If at the end of it you have created an alternative consciousness—“There are other things I can do with my life” or “Things may not need to be the way they were in the past”—There are low end and high end answers.  High end may include new social or political movements.  Ex.: Replacement of political parties by social movements in last 40 years; Civil rights, gay rights, feminism etc.  Animating Democracy has planted seeds, having the potential to grow into a successful movement.

There is no other opportunity for social change in my view.  What are the next social movements?   Anti-corporate globalization...

How are art & dialogue partners?  Art matters, dialogues matter—but not the same way all the time.

Jan:  Artists & activists—it needs to be understood as a hybrid field.  There is power in recognizing that.

Sue:  Problems are compounded by a society that doesn’t value artistic or even intellectual activity. (Not to be confused with entertainment, which just reinforces what we know and doesn’t take us somewhere new like art can.) ... Soap operas (seen by us as popular entertainment) deal with issues well in some countries; deal with AIDS, women’s rights, etc. with good writing and actors. Art and dialogue are wonderful partners because both are after the same thing:  taking us somewhere new.

Concern about follow through.  What happens after we leave the scene?  We are concerned with the short-term effects and long-term.  Legacy and leadership building strategies within communities.

What if this project REALLY succeeds?  Animating Democracy may matter if we have a concern about what happens more than 2 years down the road.  We need to take the long view if art will have a real chance to animate democracy.