So, here in CAP we are intensely interested
in the social dimension to not only arts but the creative relationships that
can underpin community development. And within that, we have assumed that we
all understand what we mean by community as well. In these times of deepening crises and social uncertainty,
there are some things that it seems we still respond to as a community, as a
people and a place, with a set of self-determined values against a backdrop of
shifting variables like health, economy, environment etc.
Our substantive meaning of community as a group
or network of persons who are connected to each other by a relatively stable set
of social relations that extends beyond immediate family or genetic ties, and
who mutually define that relationship as important to their social identity and
practice. But of course, these social relations do not necessarily have to be framed
in the physical world – increasingly we are members of on-line or virtual
communities where we are united relationally by a set of ideas, or notions and
affiliations that spring from them.
The ‘ties that bind’ concept of made-community
demands that as the connections that we make to each other are strengthened,
then the relative health and resilience of any given community is increased.
Win,
win.
This weekend, we have seen a huge groundswell
of support for inclusion in a sense of shared community flowing from Ireland’s
remarkable referendum result for Equal Marriage. We also see the contrast
elsewhere all the more starkly.
Protecting the vulnerable; including those
at the margins to become part of a more resilient and self-aware whole; legislating
for social harmony not divisive chaos; allowing voices to be heard, balanced
and acknowledged; respecting identity; supporting choice. It could be the ambition of a far-sighted campaign,
or the ideals of community development but it is also a theoretical space that
community arts practitioners inhabit. For
others again, it might represent what we have come to know as the equilibrium
struck in the ‘social contract’ of post-enlightenment political practice.
Whatever it may be, socially cooperative societies recognise that the destructive
forces that besiege our lives, should be countered by the determination to minimise
their impact. That instead we must try to enhance our collective ambition. We
empower people to champion and influence decision-making in this pursuit. The
test for their success is not how much better off ‘the better-off’ are, but how much safer and protected the most
vulnerable and marginalised are. For many today, the only spaces that truly
allow for such an ethos to be understood are the arts, where a concept so
utterly wedded to the notions of civility and humanity as to embody the most
noble aspiration for a community as possible can exist. And exist supported by
notions of elegance, beauty, design, inspiration, imagination, artistry, colour…
Whilst the recognised rights to equal
participation in democratic society are enshrined in a range of documents, from
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to, our own Good Friday Agreement, we
constantly observe the undermining of such communitarian values by others.
For us in community arts, it is so
affirming to see those at the margins included. It is what socially-inclusive
creativity is all about. But, others create even greater challenges for our collective
sense of society when passively they allow the most vulnerable to become even
more marginalised and worse, when actively they advance the means to penalise
the poor further for the precarious nature of their marginalised, less-favoured
lives. This defies logic and indeed, our innate sense of social and human
responsibility.
The tremendous power that the arts hold in
general and community arts uphold in particular, is that democratic recognising
of people and their individual place in a collective project– of little-heard voices
being celebrated, of hidden talent and worth being unearthed and new
opportunities and ideas created. Our society is made all the better for it. Great
art makes you well. Great works of art and pieces of music and vistas of
outstanding beauty heal. This is now scientifically proven http://positivenews.org.uk/2015/culture/art/17334/art-nature-spirituality-prevent-disease-study-finds/
Here and now, we need as many new opportunities
as possible if we are going to move forward as a vibrant, sustaining place for
real people, with real concerns, real families and true connections and human value.
The health of ourselves and our fragile emerging sense of community must be
nurtured at the same time as opportunity for development exploited.
It shouldn’t be the reverse.
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