ArtsAction Group and the Roots of Reciprocity
Arts and culture have historically worked outside of institutional frameworks, cultivating subversive imaginaries and resistance movements (Becker, 1994) that contribute to societal development (Clammer & Giri, 2017; Maguire & Holt, 2022). Participatory creative collaborations are critical– especially for those making art in conditions of unfreedoms and oppression (Fleetwood, 2020). Communities and academic institutions are increasingly collaborating in “respectful co-creation of useful knowledge” and contributing to a “knowledge democracy movement” (Hall et. al., 2013, p.16).
However, these collaborative efforts are challenging when imposed from outside, as systems of power that can override the other(s) (Yassi et al., 2016). Faculty researchers who do the relational work of co-creating knowledge with communities can find themselves working within (or in spite of) hierarchies, and navigating neo-liberal agendas that increasingly cut budgets and undermine diversity of opinion, cultural awareness, and faculty expertise (Brackmann, 2015).
We are faculty positioned in our respective institutions of higher education in the United States and in ArtsAction Group (AAG), a non-profit, international, community-based collective of professional and student volunteer arts educators, art therapists, and teaching artists. AAG works only where invited, with children and youth in conflict-affected communities (artsaction.org). As transdisciplinary artist researchers, we use socially engaged arts research that is practice-based, collective, community-centered, and sustainability-minded, towards capacity-building (Maguire, 2017; Mecelicaite & Simpson, 2022).
Through our experiences straddling university/community partnerships, we have learned: a) how to operate within fluid realities, b) how to identify strategies for navigating university policies within systems, c) caring and empathetic ways to translate and educate between the university and community, d) how to design creative workarounds, and e) the value of enacting courage when necessary to upstand and uphold ethical standards (for example, with tenure/promotion reviews).
Partnerships involve artful coalitions (Kay & Wolf, 2017) in solidarity (Gaztambide-Fernández et al, 2022), being and working in reflexive ways that honor and respect context with people from different geographic, cultural, and social-positionings (Fernando, 2002). Here we describe experiences navigating the impossible-to-avoid, complex and multiple egos, traditions, rules, bureaucracy, expectations, and roles that are entangled in arts and cultural university/community partnerships, understanding that university decision-making functions within knowledge silos that operate hierarchically and vertically (Dawson et al., 2018). Universities and communities navigate different standards, cultures, and practices, and use different metrics and languages in determining success.
Discovery in the Trouble: Profiles in Messy Co-Creation
Here we share knowledge produced with our partners in Kosovo, Sri Lanka, and the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria, communities where people who, in the face of generational trauma and oppression, cultivate and sustain a sense of hope with strong convictions to envision change. Arts and culture are recognized across all sites as a means towards community development.
Side-by-side extends beyond the work, honoring reciprocity in many forms—shared stories, art, music, meals, macchiato or tea breaks, and making time for play and recognizing our shared humanity. Staying with the trouble (Berman & Kembo, 2022; Haraway, 2016) embraces the unexpected to spark creative solutions and new ways of approaching equitable, community-centered research, which requires solidarity and being inclusive of participant voices– on their own terms. Messiness is part of the work. Solidarity is an ethical commitment that seeks to transform. Solidarity without consent or reciprocity risks failure and the continuation of oppressive conditions (Gaztambide-Fernández et al, 2022, p. 254).
Through the following narratives we attempt to tease out ways to address questions of how collaborative approaches provide new models of diversity and equity and/or inspire new community-centered research projects.
Suhareka, Kosovo: Background
In 2010, with funding through a university grant, AAG members first visited the Fellbach-Haus Centre for Creative Education in Suhareka/Theranda, Kosovo to co-design and produce community arts workshops with children and youth. Digital media is recognized as a potential economic growth lever and so we include STEAM (science, technology, engineering, ART and math), design thinking, and interactive art and design, exploring these possibilities through project-based learning.
Suhareka, Kosovo: Discoveries
In 2018, after three years co-developing a study abroad with partners, ten enrolled students and four faculty/AAG members are going to Kosovo. The Kosovo team has organized student workshop participants, local facilitators, curator-guided arts museum visits, and various activities with municipal leaders. One week out from departure, the university informs us they can no longer approve us renting a van. The option proposed by the university to hire a local driver is unrealistic given budget and partner availability. Lack of understanding regarding the context, coupled with a focus on liabilities, almost derails the study abroad. After much deliberation, the university approves a van rental.
Although supported academically and financially by way of the study abroad course, we experienced some gaps: the university not sufficiently recognizing faculty expertise and planning efforts, understanding the Kosovo and US context vis-a-vis liabilities, and understanding the need for context-sensitive care within community partnerships. The knowledge produced included the need for fluidity and flexibility (i.e. working with new administrators unfamiliar with study abroad), and learning how to translate context (care and empathy). It is often a burden for community partners to manage liability. In this case it was necessary to enact courage to stand up for our community partner.
Ilavalai, Sri Lanka: background
In June 2018, AAG is invited to St. Henry’s College by our partner, Father Joel Godfrey, for a two-week project. It is our second trip to Sri Lanka, and first time in the village of Ilavalai. Our shared goal is to introduce arts and healing into workshops for boys ages 11-17.
Ilavalai, Sri Lanka: Discoveries
Weeks prior to travel, the lead art therapy faculty member from the UK, who helped organize her students’ trip, is denied permission from her institution to attend. Instead, she regularly meets with them via group phone sessions in the two weeks before departure. The students take the initiative to travel without their faculty mentor. AAG, side-by-side, oversees and directs participants on site.
Universities and communities need to prioritize the relational value of their collaborations to truly benefit all participants. Given the newly introduced art therapy components and the size of the group (nine team members and 120 Sri Lankan student participants), the team would have been better served with their supervisor’s expertise and presence, assisting and managing expectations in an unfamiliar setting and enhancing the relational experience for everyone.
The Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria
The Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria: Background
It is 2013 and AAG is invited to present research at the Annual ARTifariti Festival held in Camp Boujdour and to facilitate arts workshops at the primary school. A university professor (also a Co-Director of AAG) and her student are conducting university-supported research (including travel) on the Sahawari situation. Several weeks prior to departure, a meeting with a dean results in the travel permissions being withdrawn because of a concern that the region is too dangerous. As AAG, we honor the invitation and travel without university support. The student, with additional financial support from AAG, joins.
The Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria: Discoveries
Again, a gap in institutional understanding emerges around liability and context; faculty financial support is withdrawn due to security concerns even though multiple NGOs work on-site year round with security provided by the Sahrawi government-in-exile. Identifying a policy strategy, we design a creative workaround by traveling through AAG.
The university ultimately recognized value in the work after learning about the results, and used it to promote the institution. The same dean who initially withdrew support included our work in The Catalyst (2014) college magazine, stating “This issue of The Catalyst focuses on the college’s many global learning and engagement initiatives. The articles highlight the work of students, faculty, and staff who are committed to the simple fact that the world is not someplace else.” (p. 2)Conclusion
As evidenced, a crucial aspect of this work at the university level lies in having to fill in where institutional support falls short when following power dynamics rooted in colonial histories (Jones & de Wit, 2014). Decolonizing the university involves countering how universities have benefited, and continue to benefit, from privilege and systemic inequality. Collaborative approaches set in motion by institutions must include ethics of responsibility centered in reflexivity to create fluid structures and processes responsive to all those involved. Faculty partners can facilitate this work, within a side-by-side approach with university support and community partners’ guidance. Side-by-side “artful coalitions,” sustained over time, allow for reciprocity and learning with each other. In other words, “partnerships are forever” (Hall et. al., 2013, p. 202).
Therefore, what is needed is a multiplicity of ongoing partnerships and alliances that the community can count on for years. In turn, such long-term collaborations offer the greatest power to transform our institutions of higher education (ibid, p. 202). Side-by-side can be enacted through giving informed respect to unfamiliar histories, being responsive to community partners and their needs, sharing extended opportunities and resources, co-authoring whenever possible (Godfrey et al, 2022), decentering the university tenure/promotion review structure that rewards first authorship, and insisting on open access publishing to ensure access to knowledge for those about whom we write or with whom we partner. Sustainable university/community partnerships stay with the trouble (Haraway, 2016); in solidarity, they continue and they evolve.
References
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