All posts by Jessica Ruth Baker

Baker Post #2

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In this class, we have had the opportunity to read seminal works in the field as well as discuss modern approaches to Community Cultural Development. What I’m most excited about, though, is the wealth of resources we have in one another. This class is filled with people who have been in the field or collaborated on projects or researched a particular topic in depth, and this is so invaluable. What this class has taught me is that it is important to understand the basics, but the only way you can really learn is from another human being.

I’m struggling with creating and following a  decolonized and anti-patriarchal approach to organizing, as many groups, organizations, and individuals will only respond to a heirarchical system of leadership, which eliminates community participation. If anyone has any resources or other ideas, I would love to hear them!

First Post Response

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Hello everyone,

To begin, I would like to share a favorite quote of mine from Jan Cohen-Cruz’s book, Local Acts:

“A community-based production is usually a response to a collectively significant issue or circumstance. … Indeed, the community-based art movement of the past
thirty years is often a cultural expression of identity politics, referring to
groups of people who connect on the basis of shared identities fundamental to
their sense of themselves.”

This is how I approach community cultural development – through the lens of shared performance and applied theatre. It is important to me that artistic work that I am creating has basis in meaning for those involved and for the audience, and that we are achieving work toward a certain goal.

That being said, a conversation came up the other day among some peers about a community-based performance we were researching. They were operating on a $600K grant from the Irvine Foundation, and they created a performance piece around the death of a little boy who was playing in the street and was struck by a car. He didn’t have any parks or playgrounds to play in, and so one of the themes of the piece was community galvanizing around the creation of a new park for the kids.

However, at the end of the day, there was no park made. Yes, they made an extraordinary performance that created deeper bonds of community and enriched the lives of the hundreds of community members who participated in the project. But couldn’t they have just taken that $600K and made a park?

So really, can we say that our cultural work is worthy of attention and funding, when there are so many other ills that beset communities like homelessness, hunger, and substance abuse? In a perfect world, we would have funding for all of these projects, but unfortunately again and again we as artists and cultural workers find ourselves having to defend ourselves against these kinds of questions.

For the record I absolutely believe we should be funding cultural and artistic work, as I think we can combat those ills through our work, but I know these are questions that I have been asked before and will continue to be asked forever…