To community artists: Love (commit to) art!
Note: I love Dewey. Will sure write about his work once in a while.
This sort of questions sometimes still pisses me off during trainings for community art: “Is there any shortcut to picking up XXXXX (certain artform)” (「可以有掌握xx藝術的捷徑嗎」)
If you want to lead people through a collaborative art making process, how can you not know the process, or are not willing to put in the heart?
Good community artists not only are capable of leading others, they enjoy the process themselves. Even veterans discover something new in the process if they keep their minds and hearts fresh. The mediaof the arts (painting, dance, music, drama…image making, storytelling, vocalizing and moving) are generous vessels. They change according to the context, the person, the collaboration, the situation, the weather and even the time of day. Good community artists (the ones that are not temporarily burnt out) know this and let themselves be refreshed as they work.
Bad community artists treat the art form simply as a tool and get no joy and surprise from the work. They have not put in the time and effort to have gone through the process again and again. They are not sure about the pitfalls, the tips, the tricks and the exceptions.
From thinker and educator John Dewey (reframed by me) comes two advice for community artists:
The greater maturity of experience which should belong to the adult as educator puts him in a position to evaluate each experience of the young in a way in which the one having the less mature experience cannot do. It is then the business of the educator to see in what direction an experience is heading (Experience and Education, 1938, 37)
Replace ‘adult as educator’ with ‘community artist’ and ‘young’ with ‘participant’, then we have a description of the process of facilitating community art. Dewey points out that it is not content or knowledge (pieces of information) that educates; it is experience that educates. Community artists have to do something so that participants can experience what the community artists themselves have experienced. The more ‘mature’ artistically the community artists are, the greater the breadth and depth of experience they can facilitate.
This takes us to our main point: Love (commit to) art!
Craftsmanship to be artistic in the final sense must be “loving”; it must care deeply for the subject matter upon which skill is exercised (Art as Experience, 2005, 47–48)
I have always believed that only good artists can make good community artists. Good in the sense that they are committed to the craft and tradition of making, thinking and advancing its possibilities (the Japanese tradition of Shu-ha-ri comes to mind). Artists wishing to guide others in the collaborative experience of art making need to have experienced it themselves, the ups and downs, the flow and frustrations, and the paths and barriers.
That is how community artists become good at what they do, their love of the art grows, and they are better able to guide the less experienced.
An artist, in comparison with his fellows, is one who is not only especially gifted in powers of execution but in unusual sensitivity to the qualities of things (Art as Experience, 2005, 49)
Having dedicated themselves to the craft, they are highly sensitive to the happenings in the collaborative art making process that they are facilitating. This enables them to see the little wonders and potentials of the participants. They are surprised, energized and refreshed by the process.
Can you imagine a Wine Taster that doesn’t like wine, a cook who doesn’t love the work or a coach who doesn’t love the sport? (unfortunately I can for the latter 2 example)
