The Ethics of Community Arts Practice – a perspective from the USA with Arlene Goldbard. Creative Exchange offers a half-day seminar with US writer and consultant Arlene Goldbard. Arlene will draw on her lengthy experience working with practitioners to address the ethics of community arts practice and cultural development.
As more and more artists get involved in the exciting field of community cultural development, they encounter the unique ethical challenges of participatory arts practice. How is it possible to balance the commitment to a funder or sponsoring organization with commitments to community participants? Is the community artist’s role to channel others’ creativity without intruding, or should the artist’s own aesthetics, values, and priorities be part of the mix? How do you handle censorship, conflict, disruption?
Arlene Goldbard is a writer and consultant whose focus is the intersection of culture, politics and spirituality. Her most recent book, New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development was published by New Village Press in November 2006. Her essays have been published in In Motion Magazine, Art in America, Theatre, Tikkun, and many other journals. She has addressed countless academic and community audiences and recent topics include “Converging Worlds: Art, Politics and Community and “Higher Ground: Community Arts as Spiritual Practice”. She has provided advice and counsel to hundreds of community-based organizations, independent media groups, and public and private funders and policymakers. For more information on Arlene Goldbard and her publications visit http://www.arlenegoldbard.com/