Bucketworks has been a participant in the Milwaukee arts and culture scene for six years, although I feel a little hesitation about the idea of saying that we're involved with arts and culture because many people are afraid of both of those words-- at least, afraid in the sense that they don't think the terms apply to them or that 'art' or 'culture' is something they produce.
Today, at a conference organized by the UWM CUIR around the connection and the relationship between Arts, Culture, and Community in Milwaukee, we've heard from Arnold Aprill, the Founding and Creative Director of Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE), a "network of artists and arts organizations, educators and schools that are dedicated to school improvement through arts education partnerships." Arnold spoke about the value of inreach as opposed to outreach--the value, in other words, of going into communities with an open ear instead of a closed program, offering listening instead of assertion. When the communities into which we bring our creativity are as involved and as exposed to the challenges and problems we face during the creative process, the members of those communities become more invested in the results, and the learning and the bonds that are formed are more lasting and deep.
Creative programs have a longer-term and more measurable impact when they are developed through inquiry and dialogue with the target communities, rather than simply dragged-and-dropped into the community. Yet, funders continue to provide support for the development of these kinds of programs, which are typically measured not by the quality of their impact on the community, but rather on the sheer number of participants who attend their events. The designers of the programs are well-intentioned, but are simply using perhaps not quite the right measurements of success.
This was at least a part of Arnold's message.
On a basic level, many of the organizations I've worked with--organizations that exercise a mission in the arts, culture, technology, business, families, the spirit, personal health, etc.--simply don't know how to ask the questions that open a dialogue with a community. I think that, were they given some guidance in the formation of quality questions, they would end up getting some surprising answers, answers that would inform and deepen their relationships all around.
These organizations also have a hard time asking each other questions--even though many of them share the same language. For example, there are a variety of performing groups in Milwaukee who have petty rivalries in excess of their partnerships. They've mastered the relationships they have with audiences, but neglected their relationships with other people who do what they do. Peers who could, in fact, probably help them more than anyone else.
Over the last six years I've seen and heard stories of people rejecting each other because they feel competitive in their domain of expression--fundamentally wasting energy they could be applying to the larger challenges of making a cultural community that actually transforms the wider world.
Individual artists who are working with similar challenges (mediums, themes, whatever) scoff and hide from each other. Event promotion groups vie for exclusive 'rights' to Bucketworks.Playwrights stage walk-outs of each other's plays.
It's a silly waste of time. For the creative cultural pie to get larger, we need people to work together on the baking. And that means more communities get impacted, because there's enough surplus energy for these groups to start asking communities good questions.
I'd like to hear some of your favorite questions. Imagine you could ask any group any question that affirms. What would you ask? Who would you ask?