‘I just don’t think community art produces as high quality productions as I want to be involved with.’
Not my words, I might add. Well, where do I start? I have a few responses in mind, not all suitable for a family audience. I find this attitude quite rife amongst acquaintances and I find it disheartening. One of the joys of creativity, in my experience, is the collaboration; different minds coming together, ideas discussed non-judgementally and organic experiments work towards the creation a finished piece. Of course, one might argue ‘why did you become a writer then?’ but my desire to write doesn’t stem from a Morrissey-inspired misanthropic urge. It probably used to. I now enjoy creative dialogue, discussion and collaboration so so much more than the lonely, isolated writing experiences. I enjoy creating my own writing work, but I also relish participating in collaborations with a huge variety of people.
One of the main reasons I find the attitude expressed in this quotation so frustrating is that it is, quite frankly, wrong. Community theatre will rarely have the ‘prestige’ associated with ‘higher art’ stuff – little national media interest etc, but does that really mean that the work is of less quality? It’s a bit like saying I saw a really shit production of Midsummer Night’s Dream once, now I don’t like Shakespeare…or many other hyperbolic sensationalist comparisons. (Although in the case of the above quotation, there was no justification or exploration of an experience that informed this view).
I am absolutely not criticising the role of ‘higher end’ artistic creation or product at all; I regularly indulge in and relish creative experiences at the big guns. But, to criticise and say that the quality is not good enough is absolutely archaic and misinformed. I don’t give a toss if much of the remarkable work by progressive and excellent organisations such as Streetwise Opera, Escape Community Art in Action, Anjali, Amici** are not created by your usual RP-heavy, conventional performers and creators. This is not disadvantageous, it’s quite the opposite; it’s a glorious challenge that requires enthusiasm, imagination, determination and hard work.
The ability to create, to be heard, to participate and to engage should not only be for those in society who have had numerous opportunities; education, internships, jobs, 2.4 children etc. Have a cynical attitude towards arts funding, sure, have a cynical attitude towards the government’s dreadfully misinformed valuation of the arts, but don’t discount community and participatory arts as not high quality. This is grossly unfair and misinformed. There are minefields of issues around participatory arts work but the issue of quality is not one that dominates. The issue of workshop facilitators expecting less from a group because they are different, does very much exist. I have experience of a project that had to be pulled because the facilitators were providing the learning disabled participants with an archaic, ‘you can’t do anything exciting’ attitude both in style of delivery and artistic opportunity. It was a painful experience, and sad to see such patronising and disabling attitudes in an environment that should be both celebratory and enabling.
When it comes to judging and assessing ‘quality’, please don’t discount an extensive, vibrant and misunderstood area of arts production just because you don’t understand it, or because you think you are a ‘better’ creator. The chances are that if you wish to earn your living as a creator/ facilitator, you will engage with running workshops and creating productions with groups away from the high-end elite. It would be good if these workshops weren’t led with a patronising, downtrodden attitude. One of the keys of good participation is that the project is not an ‘add-on’ and it is facilitated by those who genuinely believe that the ideas of participants can fly, and can provide inspirational and positive leadership with structure, ambition and heart.
Attending a training course in Community Arts Development last year, I had a fantastic conversation with an amazing visual arts and crafts practitioner who wanted to develop her knowledge of facilitating community art work. The course was very intense. By the last day, she told me that she would no longer be pursuing community art work. Her rationale for this decision was entirely positive; she realised facilitating community art work was more of a skill and a demand than she initially believed, and thought that she did not wish to develop her career in this way. The course enabled her to see how incredibly tough and specialist good community arts development work really was, and decided that it would take her career on too much of a tangent. I had such respect for this wonderful woman for taking herself out of her comfort zone of self-led practice to discover for herself whether community arts practice was for her. She did not criticise the quality of artistic creation, nor looked down her nose at the idea of community art. It just wasn’t right for her.
Lyn Gardener’s recent blog, Theatre needs to show more community spirit (17/05/11) touches on contemporary participatory theatre and the need for development in this area. It’s not a detailed exploration of community theatre, but it is refreshing to see community theatre acknowledged and discussed positively and critically in the Guardian theatre blog. More please.
To sum up, I think that the bee in my bonnet here is with the idea of quality, who defines quality, and that community art work is not necessarily less high quality than the artistic product of higher end organisations. To harbour such a division in the arts is not really what the British arts culture needs right now – but unity, compassion and strength in numbers. Not that the quotation that stimulated this blog necessarily represents the whole British arts institutional reaction to participatory arts work, but snobbery like this ain’t welcome in my ideal arts world.
*I’ve been hesitant to use the word ‘professional’ in this piece, as a lot of participatory companies I have seen work by create with professional performers both with and without disabilities/ issues, and therefore I’ve steered clear from pitting the terms ‘community’ against ‘professional’. I feel that ‘higher end’, although clunky, describes the division more suitably for me.
** These are organisations whose excellent work I have seen in the past.
