Art in/for Transition

[Andrew W]

We are trying to organize a gallery/performance/party in Newburyport to use art to explore what transition means. I've created this discussion to allow everyone to add their input on this endeavor. Thanks.

Below I've posted the first draft to the basic info for the gallery/performance/party that we envision. We'd like as much input on
this as possible. We are unsure of the title, two ideas now are "Art in
Transiton" and "Art for Transition" even though it's just one word
different, they mean different things and we'd like some input on
people's opinions.

Again, this is at the very beginning of the process, but here it is:


What? - A three night interactive gallery/performance/party featuring
the artwork of local artists, children, and elderly, based on the theme
“What does Transition mean to you?” We'd like to challenge the norms of
art (expensive, fine, rare) and incorporate environment, inclusion,
sustainability, and community into the way we create art for this event.

Transition? - We are all living during a great transition. We are
looking for alternative sources of energy, healthier ways of producing
food, more intimate forms of communication, and a reinvigorating sense
of individual empowerment and resilience. It's a lot to deal with, and
we believe art, soul, and community will help us through.

When? - February 18, 19, and 20.

Where? - A church in downtown Newburyport.

Why? - To come together over a simple concept: life is better when we
respect ourselves, each other, and the planet. To celebrate all life
has to offer. To creatively express what this transition means to all
of us. To support each other. To build community.

Who? - Anyone and everyone. Do you have something to share? Display it!
Do you have a desire to meet your neighbors and discuss this topic?
Come! This is an all inclusive event, both from the artist and audience
standpoint. We'd like to feature as many different types of art as
possible. This is an open source show where the artists do the curating.

Cost? - This event will be free for everyone. We'd like to collect a
few donations to cover hard costs, (space rental, display materials,
etc.) but this will be free because all involved will be volunteering
their time, energy, creativity, and hearts.

Then What? - It is our hope that after spending time at this event,
meeting each other, and sharing our souls, we will be encouraged to
work together to transition to a more sustainable community. There is a
lot of work to be done if we'd like to lessen our dependence on fossil
fuels and imported food, but it must start with a open heart and
renewed sense of community support.

[David de Smit]

Hi Andrew,

My initial thoughts: A GREAT idea! Perhaps the theme could focus on "envisioning the future" rather than making it specific to 'Transition'.... It feels to me as though a lot of ground work has be done to prepare people to recognize the concept of 'transition' and there may not be enough time to do that.

[Dave Viale]

I agree - great idea and thanks for spearheading this. David's reply resonates with some things that initially jumped into my head. One model of working with communities to develop a community master plan (a city/town adopted plan that outlines the goals of the community and ways to get there) is to begin with a "visioning" process. It would be interesting to see what the result would be if we asked artists, local citizens, etc. to envision the future of Newburyport. We could also ask artists and community members to produce some form of art that expresses what they'd like to see their community look like in the next 5-50 years (there may be a difference between their vision of what they expect, and the vision they'd like to see). This could be a powerful way to start to cull out what people want life in Newburyport to be like, and how transition might help get us there. We could also provide paper, paint, and other media and invite attendees to create their own piece of art that shows what they'd like to see Newburyport become in the next 5-50 years.

The collection of resulting art would be an interesting way to capture ideas and begin the dialogue of transition and perhaps a short discussion could be incorporated each night. Also, all the art from the event could collected and saved for use at future events.

Another thought is to link "transition" with the idea of a three day event. Perhaps a past, present, future theme would be interesting - one time period for each day of the event. Or, if this is too much to do in three days, we might consider a series of three art events. Maybe this first event looks at the past and transition of Newburyport up to the present. The next event would look at our current situation (I'd suggest both positive and what could be better), and the third event could be what we envision the future to be like.

Lastly, one consideration on venue - while Church's are great community spaces and certainly great partners in engaging the community and doing good work, I wonder if having the event at a place of worship might shy some folks away from the event. I would hope not, but I could see how using a Church as a venue might imply to someone that the event was somehow connected with one particular faith or another, or present a feeling that by attending, they might be pushed to join/convert to a particular faith. Not a big concern on my part but just wanted to bring it up for consideration. We might consider partnering with some of the local galleries if possible - perhaps even getting several galleries to host an art-walk night(s). Lots of "transition" ideas that could be linked to an art tour that followed a particular order of galleries.

Phew! that was a lot! Just my two cents. Thanks again for getting the ball rolling on this.

[Christina Dubin]

I'm in! I like the title of either "Art For Transition" or something to do with envisioning the future. "Art for Transition" could be interesting because the artist could actually create utilitarian or interactive pieces that could be used in transitioning away from petrochemicals versus just commentary on. I'm just thinking of the possibilities as a potter and am definitely inspired. Envisioning the Future certainly opens it up more...but perhaps too much? Just thinking of all the different mediums of art and to keep an obvious theme its almost better to have it be more specific.

I definitely would like to see it culminate with an actual event that people can pitch in and help do. In my opinion, there has been a lack of actual projects in this arena and more talk/presentation...which is great to get people into it but they fade away if there is no way they can be specifically directed in getting their hands dirty. People want to help but don't want to have to form the project is my feeling.

[David Eggleton]

I like the energy developing for this.

For event #1, I suspect that the more you stress a theme, the more you must engage various people who already identify as artists, who have some confidence they can do it justice. The more you stress the centrality of arts in the future life of the community, the less you need a theme, although having one remains an option.

[Andrew W]

Thanks all for your initial reactions. So many Daves...

David de Smit: what do you mean by "there may not be enough time to do that"? Enough time during the event? Or before the world ends? I like the idea of envisioning the future a lot. It's hard to promote an event with Transition in mind because a lot of people don't know what it is so it creates an extra step of explanation.

Dave Viale: Again, I really like the whole envisioning idea. I'm going to incorporate that. However, I'd love to be able to also move beyond envisioning. (Maybe I need to be patient though...) I would like this event to BE the envisioned event. As in, do we need to hold an event to talk about and express our thoughts for future life/events/community or can we just start to act on those visions? It's kinda confusing because we are all at different places.... Maybe the envisioning work can be done at meetings rather than events? Then again, I like the idea of displaying visions of the future we would like to see.....

Christina: I totally hear you on people wanting to go to events but not wanting to plan them

David Eggleton: True. But how would you promote an event that promotes the importance of art in future communities? Doesn't an art show inherently promote the importance of art?

I actually just don't even know what it is that we are trying to accomplish with this event.

If the end goal is just to have an event to express ourselves I feel like I can't justify all this effort.....

If the end goal is to further the transition movement, that seems more worthy.

However, that brings up its own problems because getting more people to "sign up" for transition is potentially a turn off and more importantly, not necessarily effective in promoting individual change (i think 2 out of the 35 NBPT ning members went to the pot luck).

So what are we trying to do? Get people to do what they can individually? Get involved with Transition at a "director" level? Spread awareness about global warming and peak oil?? It's like so vast and vague that I'm having a difficult time defining this event. Is it for Transition? The community? Artists?

So this is all good work we are doing now. We are honing in on the essence of our intentions.

I'd like to hear what you think.

[Kirsten O'Leary]

I hope to have some of my wearable-Transition-minded art ready in time for the show.

[David Eggleton]

Andrew White said:

Thanks all for your initial reactions. So many Daves...

David Eggleton: True. But how would you promote an event that promotes the importance of art in future communities? Doesn't an art show inherently promote the importance of art?

"Dave's not here, man."

Seriously, my note was founded on what I've put in the discussion of localization. I believe a low carbon, local, living economy in a vital, close-knit community will have a large (way far beyond what we've seen) arts and crafts component, so to speak. Newburyport and Woburn will eventually have distinct motifs, patterns, materials, sounds, etc. Advanced inclusion will permit many to find their voices and empower them to become enthused about expressive and artistic production that's sometimes solo and sometimes troupe/ensemble.

Thus, adopting and finding ways to increase arts activity is Transition, in my book. If making Transition the content of works serves a purpose from time-to-time, that's fine. I think having the future local economy in mind facilitates quality strategizing.

[Dave Viale]

Andrew:
"So what are we trying to do? Get people to do what they can individually? Get involved with Transition at a "director" level? Spread awareness about global warming and peak oil?? It's like so vast and vague that I'm having a difficult time defining this event. Is it for Transition? The community? Artists? I actually just don't even know what it is that we are trying to accomplish with this event. If the end goal is just to have an event to express ourselves I feel like I can't justify all this effort.....If the end goal is to further the transition movement, that seems more worthy."

I would say YES to all the above. I think any event can, to some degree, accomplish all those things and would further the movement. I'd be curious to hear what you might use as measure of success - an indicator to show that the event "furthered the transition movement" and that we could look at and say "if we accomplish (fill in the blank) then its worth putting in all the effort for the event"

If you can link the event with a large scale plan that the transition group has (I am not familiar whether the group has a strategic plan or not) then I'd suggest trying to "nest" the event into that larger plan - so that it builds towards an accomplishment of a task in the plan or a goal of the plan and you can plug people who attend the event directly into other activities or at least present the plan to them. If there is not yet a strategic plan then I'd suggest that the event simply tries to educate about the idea of transition, recruit people/get them interested, perhaps suggest things they can do individually and in the community, and oh yes - explore the movement through art and recognize the importance of art in our culture/community. this could be done in many ways - a few simple ways would be by brief statements on flyers or advertisement for the event, a brief opening speech at the event and perhaps event a post event discussion.

In the end, I believe any event that is attended by folks new to the idea will continue to grow the transition culture and add one more piece of straw to the critical mass/100th monkey pile on the camel's back, so I'd encourage your organizing of an event that feels like a good balance between the time/energy you have available, the time frame in which you want to hold the event, and the relative impact you are looking for. Hope that helps.
dave

[Elizabeth Marcus]

I love the idea of an event focused on the arts and transition and I am drawn to the Arts for Transition approach. The idea of a 3-day event seems a huge undertaking for the first time out. It's better to smart small and then to grow it as you learn. I would suggest framing it as an awareness-raising event about recognizing our fossil fuel dependence, what the result of that dependence has been and envisioning how a lower energy future might look.

I'm not an artist and have never organized an art show, but I would think that you need to have a core group who will work to put this together. Do you want to have an exhibit where you invite artists to display and talk about their finished pieces? A space where the public will come and be given a theme and materials to come up with their vision? A community art project that will be assembled by those who come and displayed somewhere afterwards?

To Dave V's question about Transition Newburyport's strategic plan, our ultimate goal is the creation of an Energy Descent Action Plan by the community. The model is laid out in "The Transition Handbook" by Rob Hopkins and on the Transition US website . Transition Newburyport is in the awareness-raising phase, though we have also been involved in a number of visible projects. I hope that the excitement expressed in this discussion will result in the formation of an Arts Working Group (see the transition references cited above).

[Andrew W]

Thank you again everyone for helping me through this step by step.

David, I really love what you're talking about, however I feel like the community isn't there yet. I don't think this art event could be conceived from a place of local materials, etc. I feel like we need to explain to the general public what all of that means before we can get there. Right now I imagine Newburyport and Woburn art shows would look very similar - as would Newburyport and Portland, ME: the materials would probably come from the nearest art stores (which would probably stock the same products).

UNLESS we work the idea of LOCALIZATION into the theme of the event. But we may alienate ourselves by doing that at this point. Right now I think the goal is the strengthen our community. Here's something Catherine Colby said in an email with me about this event:

"I think the end goal is to further the Transition movement, but that's not going to happen until people feel comfortable expressing themselves in their community. So, I think this event is primarily to strengthen our sense of community and if we can do this around the theme of environmental awareness and conservation that would be ideal. I want to get people excited about their local community."

To Dave's points: My success indicator would be based on attendance and involvement. Say there are an average of 10 artists spots each night (some nights there will be more and others will be only 1 or 2 if it is performances that night) - if we fill all those spots I will feel great. If we have more than 20 people (about the size of the last pot luck) come each night I will feel great.

As far as strategy: As Elizabeth points out, eventually there is an Energy Descent Plan, but to me, that's eons away judging by the current membership of Transition. So I think for now, we should just be focusing on building community around the key values of Transition. In simple terms, we need fun events to attend. We need to show people how fun and useful canning is, and sewing, and making real sauerkraut, and telling stories about how our ancestors managed to do anything before the shake weight (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbsSeVr5NSI) came along.

5 Things This Event Should Do:

1. Encourage people who have never attended a Transition event to come
2. Attract passionate artists, speakers, etc who can inspire, inform, and motivate the audience
3. Challenge ourselves
4. Connect one another
5. Make us laugh

[David Eggleton]

Andrew White said:

Thank you again everyone for helping me through this step by step.

David, I really love what you're talking about, however I feel like the community isn't there yet.

Your assessment of the community is probably accurate. I just wanted to inject what the event will be a first step toward.

One possible angle for communications about this campaign is to proclaim that other resources are subject to depletion, but imagination is unlimited. If you develop an imagination ascent action plan, Newburyport will be on the podium with Totnes. There's part of the population that can be drawn to creativity for its own sake, so to say, but will run from talk of approaching troubles.

[Elizabeth Marcus]

Nicely said David E. .... Imagination Ascent Action Plan ...

I think the 5 goals Andrew laid out are good ones. I would suggest that the people who attend be thought of as participants, rather than an audience. The goals would accomplish exactly what an awareness-raising event should .... attract, enlighten, stimulate and motivate.