Because our art space (Caravansarai) has not yet opened in it's newest incarnation--in a building dedicated to residency and art production together--we have not yet had a chance to engage the community or to "host activism".  However, we also struggle to define "activism".  Is it possible to be passively active?  That is, to provide safe haven to activists in distress without drawing attention to that fact?

Our reality as Americans in Turkey positions us akwardly to accept political or social activists if it threatens our ability to continue our work here.  And that ultimately is no good for anyone.  That being said, however, we are welcoming to activists if the medium of their activism is creativity-based.  If the activist is a writer, artist, performer, etc. then does it really matter that they are activists?  We would like to think that providing 'save haven' to all artists is our mission.

In bringing this up, I am assuming, perhaps wrongfully so, that some of the capacities needed by art spaces to host activists in distress involve the public pronouncement that this is what is happening.  And by public, I am meaning that the bodies from which they need safe haven will know it is us who is taking them in.  And in doing so, are we considered proxies of the American government in a sense?  This is not to say that we would not do it--just that we need to understand the implications if any.

This year the fD network-in-residence office is in Sao Paulo at Casa das Caldeiras (CdC).  Through this relationship we came to know a group called CEDECA-Interlagos in the neighborhood of Grajau, over an hour away from the center of the city.  This may be an oversimplified explanation of CEDECA's work, but one way in which I could see that they engage their community is by teaming-up lawyers, community organizers and artists to address individual or family situations.  In addition to such a proactive approach, arts are also used for witnessing, for example, when someone is murdered in the neighborhood, they make life-like paper mache dolls that resemble that person.  These dolls are placed in public sites around the neighborhood in memory of the deceased and as a reminder to the community ... challenging the desensitization felt in a community where people are killed on a daily basis.  Here are some pictures from a workshop on this dollmaking practice that we helped CEDECA conduct at the World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil (January 09).

Karen Phillipswww.freedimensional.org

There has been a fair amount of discussion about the importance of the words we use to talk about the work we do. Words can open doors, but words can also close them. In the same way that activists working without computer or internet access are necessarily left out of this conversation, so are those that speak languages other than English. 

I am one of the lucky ones who gets access to much of the world in my mother tongue, who can find the "English" button on so many foreign websites. I can't help but take it for granted. But many folks posting comments on this dialogue are doing so in a second or third language.  When translation costs can't make it into budgets, English often reigns and other voices are not heard. 

In these resource-constrained times, what are some strategies participants have used to cross language barriers--either in their art space or their work?

fD has often relied on volunteers with language background to do translations. The three videos you see at the beginning of the dialogue have subtitles done by two network members who responded to a request. We are grateful to them and hope it will open the dialogue. Participants in the Conectas Human Rights Colloquium (a trilingual conference in Portuguese, Spanish, and English) will be joining the conversation later in the week, and, though not ideal, we're going to try to post some summaries of the day's discussions in Spanish and Portuguese. 

 If anyone feels inspired to summarize their own comments in a non-English language or to write in them in another language with a brief English summary, please feel free (I know there are many Spanish speakers in the dialogue, for example). 

Karen Phillipswww.freedimensional.org

RESUMEN– 23/09 y 24/09

Hubo mucha conversación acerca del tema de la terminología que usamos para describirlo que hacemos. ¿Puede que “activismo” sea una palabrota? Para algunosadministradores de espacios de arte, asociarse con palabras como activismo,justicia social, o derechos humanos limita sus posibilidades de trabajar. Talvez es mejor usar vocabulario más benigno pero sigue apoyando a artistascuya obra puede ponerles en situaciones de riesgo. Otra cuestión es hasta quepunto publicitamos lo que hacemos como organizaciones que alberguen aactivistas bajo riesgo, que quieren pasar inadvertido. Talvez es más seguroevitar de hablar de este servicio para quedarse “bajo el radar.”

En otros momentos, el hecho de ser reconocida por muchas organizaciones e individuales se convierta en seguridad, como indicó una activista/poeta que comentó. Para ella, si su caso es anunciado es más difícil que alguien puede conseguir a perseguirla sin que alguien sepa del hecho.

No hay una respuesta correcta de cuánto publicidad y explicitad es óptimo, se trata deencontrar un equilibrio, insistió una participante.

Otro tema digamos lingüístico que surgió estos primeros días es cuando y como distinguir entre un artista (músico, escritor, poeta, etc.) y un activista. Para muchos estas son dos vocaciones distintas, para otros, no tanto. A veces, aun si su “arte” es político, el marco artístico deja más opciones para alguien bajo riesgo. Otras veces, es el “activista” quien logra acceder recursos para su seguridad. 

Y, como decían algunos, no es siempre en los momentos de vida y muerte donde alactivista/artista/trabajador cultura le hace falta el apoyo que puede proveer un espacio de arte—hay casos de exclusión económica o social como indicó un comentador.

Espero que logré captar algunas de las ideas de estos dos primeros días bajo el tema del “Activismo”. Si existe quien quiere participar en español, ¡no hesite!

Offering space to host an activist/culture worker is a huge
and much admirable effort, but sometimes it is not as simple as it might seem. Usually
activists and culture workers who look for placement services are in a very
delicate situation and may need legal advice (to ask for political asylum in
the host country or just get their VISA permit in order), psychological
therapy, health treatment, financial support, or other types of assistance.

What a host art space can do to help is be prepared for such
needs. Investigate about resources in your country or region that might be
useful ---  strengthen ties with human rights organizations.

Examples from São Paulo, Brazil:

For legal advice, the Public Defense Attorney Office in São
Paulo offers free legal services to any person who demonstrates insufficient
financial capacity to pay for a lawyer – these services are open to everyone
(illegal immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees) and they have a specific
Human Rights and Public Interest Department. Some NGOs or Law Firms with Pro
Bono departments can also offer free legal services.

For psychological therapy, the universities that have
Schools of Psychology often have clinics where senior students and professors
provide free therapy services (this happens at Pontifical Catholic University
of São Paulo and at University of São Paulo).

For health treatments, I would also suggest looking into
universities with Medical Schools that have free clinics. Specifically for
Brazil though, the Public Health System (SUS) is open to everyone, which is
actually a major reason to attract migration flows from Latin America to Brazil
(Brazilian legislation authorizes temporary visas for people solely based on
their need of health treatment).

For financial support, there are good resources to have in
mind and suggest when your art space is in a position to receive an activist
or culture worker with such need. I would suggest researching online for
international organizations that offer thematic resources. For example: Urgent
Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights (http://www.urgentactionfund.org/), Open Society
grants, scholarships and fellowships (http://www.soros.org/), The Rory Peck
Trust (http://www.rorypecktrust.org/), Front Line Defenders Protection of Human
Rights Defenders Small Grants and Fellowships
(http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/front-line-small-grants-and-fellowships),
among others. Amnesty International keeps a particularly extensive and
up-to-date list of financial resources for human rights practitioners:
(http://www.amnesty.org/en/human-rights-defenders/resources/financial-res...). 

There are four videos above that fD's communications department in collaboration with Shirari Industries created for this dialogue ... they are from top to bottom:

(1) Art Spaces Hosting Activism

(2) Defining Community

(3) Connecting the Arts and Human Rights Worlds and the Role of Emerging
Art Spaces

(4) Providing for Artists in Residence Through Sharing and Bartering in
the Community

--

Just click above on the screens above to take a peek OR use these links!

Karen Phillipswww.freedimensional.org

Nancy had asked previously about how human rights organizations and art spaces can partner either to support an activist in distress or to address a particular community issue of interest to both bodies.

Having worked on both sides of this equation (and now right in the middle) I had a couple of observations of some of the things to consider when HR NGO's engage art spaces or vice versa:

First, expect quite different organizational cultures--communication may be more formal in an NGO with time-consuming protocols or hierarchical decision processes, for example. Second, organizational size and capacities will probably be quite different--NGO's will have a bigger staff, bigger budgets, while art spaces will likely be more scrappy. That said, each organization will have unique expertise to bring to the relationship--a US-based NGO may be very good at writing visa letters, while a local art space may have connections with local foundations, embassies, or area businesses to help welcome of CSH placement. Third, chances are the two orgs will speak different lingo and frame issues slightly differently--similarly they may have quite different strategies to pursuing similar goals. Artists have commented to me in the past that they see many large HR NGO's as playing it safe or acting conservatively, while partnering with arts organizations can seem radical or risky to some NGOs.

Understanding some of the differences between your organization and your cross-sectoral partner can help facilitate working together. HR orgs need to recognize that art spaces may have only one staff person, if that, and can't quickly respond. Art spaces may need to wait longer than they want while an NGO partner seeks approval of a supervisor or board.

fD sees itself as a facilitator of these cross-sectoral partnerships. Already, we have seen that once an NGO and an art space have worked together, we can step out of the process. There are also other good examples where HR organizations have worked with film organizations to promote their message (Human Rights Watch has an annual film festival, for example and Reporters Without Borders has had numerous successful campaigns with photographers and designers).

Have any art spaces approached local or international NGOs in their work? 

Engaging and mobilising people for actions against  rights abuses and bad government policies in Nigera Its very easy and some times very dificult in some part of our communities becuase of level of poverty and ilitracy  but we normaly engaged our poeple by speaking the language they want to hear and using what they want like for instace now, October 1st is Nigerian independent day Anniversary and we are seriously engaging our people to make sure we demonstrate a civil protest that will distrupt the anniversary in many part of the conuntry becuase of  the state of the nation. Particulaly, our university educational system that is withnesing the 4th month  ongoing strike with our government doing nothing to resolve the problem. we normaly work on peoples emotion at times with corresponding national events to our work 

"New Tactics In Human Rights":http://www.newtactics.org/en/dialogues/home

*Art Spaces Hosting Activism in the Context of the Art Action Union*

*General Questions:*

•    What creative practices or forms of art expression have you used that have engaged people and communities to take action?

Utilising marketing and communication strategies for alternative media creation, all techniques and practices are recognised as valid and necessary for the adequate and passionate expression of individual ideas.  Therefore, the free-spirited artist may be engaged in a number of different ways, susceptible to the etymological processes of personality.

Conversely, the audience for which awareness is sought can then be engaged in the same etymological fashion.  Artists engage with their personal audiences according to their natural fan base and their desire to create works of a questioning nature.  Grouping together art and activist communities in smaller groups attracted to a style of presentation or the cause itself.

The Art Action Union will then utilise various community strategies to co-ordinate, promote, participate and promote where ever possible. 

On the whole, the nature of new-media benefits mainly the visual medium (and to a lesser extent the written) for drawing attention to messages and social networking is largely responsible for the success or failure of the individual actions.  Therefore joining networks to creatively engage a critical mass can provide impact and hopefully education, the flow on being the further empowerment of the content creating artists to continue to question.

•    What kinds of communities are you engaging with forms of art expression?

With the popularity of artistic and creative community sites such as redbubble, imagekind and zazzle (among many others) the philosophy to inspire and empower the artist within the individual has gained extraordinary online momentum.  Structured networks, communities and friendships form based on the creative interface of the artist.  These sites attract anyone with a slight passion for the arts or a desire for expression.

To observe, these sites break down in an etymological fashion, groups form from common interest, genre, profession, art-form, passion, etc.  Amongst these groups there are many people who are making art, writing and taking photographs in their spare time passionately, aiming to make their first sale online.  Print on demand art sites that provide artists with a shop front, official gallery and working space have given people not only confidence and motivation, but also an instant online audience, which can transfer with time to other traditional presentations such as exhibitions, publications, merchandise etc.

Creating art for social change in a pro-active manner is the drive of many of these ‘diy’ artists and some theme their entire image upon their need to be socially responsible and conscientious with the audience that they naturally and eagerly attract.  Their audience is comprised of people who are truly concerned about the issues they face and often find inspiration themselves to express their feelings through creativity.

People in these places are often actively looking for constant and continual artistic inspiration.

The artists are considered free spirits, sometimes people will all contribute at once (particularly if the topic is contentious and/or in the media at the time) and sometimes people float through the forums 3-4 months later, stumble on an ‘art for awareness campaign notice’ and become inspired and add their piece for their own benefit.  It's a constantly inspiring, motivating and beautiful event to behold.  No matter how one gages the 'success' of such ventures, one person creating a positive work and showing it to one other person is an achievement.  In these instances, our artists generally all have their own audiences that they promote their work to.  If we run a campaign and 10 artists contribute 1-2 works and distribute that to their fans and watchers, the message goes further, when the Art Action Union (AAU) coordinates those pieces together, the message becomes stronger with a collective voice.  It is then the responsibility of the AAU, to promote the campaign, those participants, their works and messages as an agent and media provider. Hopefully to gain further exposure for the independent artists at their shop-fronts, where ever they may be.

The group is based on a network of artists and other organisations that are concerned with the functionality of art in the public realm, utilising the internet in it’s flexibility and to endeavour to circulate all the great art and design with community purpose that is already happening independently, to a wider diversified audience.

•    As an activist, how might you contribute to or engage art spaces to advance community engagement and action?

The central function of the Art Action Union is to forge links with other socially active community networks, in order to get exposure to coordinate with whatever we are needed for and to hopefully gain artists opportunities to get their ideas into the public arena through print, internet and ultimately traditional events such as exhibitions.
We also offer a graphic design, multi-media and visual campaign consultation ‘service’ to provide artists with opportunities to create designs and works for community organisation and causes with little money for visual merchandising or promotion.  We also open the networks for promotion of all types of worthy causes and campaigns and write articles and circulations to further messages.
As campaigning and marketing for awareness is so visual and graphics intensive, we often provide concepts for free in return for cross promotion of our collective to further the word of mouth appeal of the collective’s activities.

*Questions for Art Spaces:*

•    How does your art space define “activism”?

Creativity is really a very loose term... it can be applied to anything that is an expression of the mind where there is an intermingling of concept and experience with opinion or knowledge.

Our motto is: Aspire to Inspire!

+ Empowerment.
+ To ASPIRE TO INSPIRE a positive artistic force for social change by utilising creative skills to present a message and to get exposure for important artworks and independent and non-represented activist artists.
+ To educate and provoke thought about topics of concern to society.

•    What forms of programming have you found effective to engage your communities?

Objectives
+ To gather activist artists together to broaden the appeal of communication of messages through connecting existing networks and individual audiences.
+ To promote and market activist art/ists activities’ wherever possible to strengthen voice and communication of messages for awareness.
+ To forge links with other active community based networks and supporters or sponsors in order to get exposure to coordinate with larger campaigns and gain artists opportunities to get their ideas into the public arena through print, internet and events such as exhibitions, etc.
+ To stimulate awareness amongst our communities by acting collectively and artistically. To aspire to inspire!

Assessment of Audience
+ Community based art is creative expression emerging from a need to collectively highlight and educate on social improvement. It is concerned with the functionality of art in public arenas and works with all media, in all disciplines, everywhere.
+ Community based artists are committed to bringing arts and education together to highlight and expose the widest possible range of social conditions and challenges facing our community. They seek to create social change on every level of society, from the most personal to the most political.
+ Activists and activist artists are most likely to be interested in promoting their messages through large networks that are self funded or supported as they are generally sole operators with a passion for stimulating awareness.
+ Many wearable products are highly adaptable to raising awareness with conscientious imaging and slogans.
+ Promotion of artists sourced from existing Activist Art networks can manifest through print, web, publication, exhibition, performance, written word, etc. Each medium creates potential for a wide circulation of positive ideas. The ‘organisation’ effectively becomes an agency where independent and non-represented artists can find a collective to help them spread their messages, their ideas and their products.

•    What do you see as unique about your art space and how do you use those aspects to “host activism”?

The Art Action Union is a collective based on the desire to promote and encourage activist artists to continue to create and pursue the Arts for social change and positive awareness.

It is a collective dedicated to providing, exposing and creating opportunities for independent and non-represented artists who exploit their talents for raising community interest and awareness for difficult topics.
The Art Action Union is a network and an audience, a collective and an independent project, a non-profit group and a market stall, the internet and the street, it is passive and active.

+ A developing network of activist artists sourced from art communities, activist sites and social networking sites.
+ Creative ideas to motivate collective enhancement of positive social re enforcement.
+ A known reputation for supporting and promoting activist art.

•    What capacities do art spaces need for responding to activists in distress (providing “safe haven”)?

Our Rules
- Be active and artistic
- Make your messages clear and concise
- No slander or defamation
- No defamatory content or conduct
- No inciting violence or violent discussion
- Peace is mandatory
- Education and discussion is encouraged but no name calling or personal attacks – adhere to the user policy of the host site.
- Text and symbolism are often strong elements of activist art
- Messages need to be clear on impact
- Supporting descriptions need to be provided if this is not the case.
- Artists are asked to think about:
- How quickly and strongly your message is conveyed, it needs to be fast to clearly convey messages for communication and coverage of the issue.
If your work is abstract or lacks strong imagery, it may not be accepted.

There is however a fine line in protecting activists that are members of our galleries as we are dependent upon the sites we utilise to not discriminate against the personalities of the activist. 

In this sense, from many observations, I note that activist artists are often classed as provocative by commercial sites, hence any altercation from the viewer expressing dissatisfaction on a personal basis to the work of the artists, are often allowed their views upheld and the protection afforded to the artist is reduced.  Often the commercially motivated sites lay the blame back on the activist for the conflict as being the ‘provocateur’ because of their chosen forms of expression. 

This is a particularly hurtful and emotional time for the activist artist as they are then forced to fight hard to have their expression upheld. 

Where there are instances of stalking or harassment, mediation would be a positive and personal way to interact in the situation to find a peaceful repose.  The nature of internet communication allows situations to erupt very quickly and if the right protocols and discussions are not had at key moments then degradation will occur.

Banning policies cannot work in a community of diverse creativity, unless the owner of the artworks is afforded the right to protect themselves from perceived harassment on a personal control level.  Block functions are necessary for the artists who are continually provoked to anger or confrontation of personal values.  If they are not allowed this personal control mechanism, there is no control over the perspectives that are pushed into the technocratic ear of a disassociated customer service system. 

Without a commercial legal team to rely on, customer service will become discriminatory without fail.

•    What are the rewards and challenges of providing a “safe haven” for threatened activists?

Benefits for Artists
+ Busy creative people can express themselves and campaign at their convenience, when there is no other suitable, satisfactory or satisfying outlet to find voice.
+ Creative intellectual thinkers have an outlet for expression and discussion centred on issues that are important to them.
+ Contribute to form a collective critical mass, collaborate with other passionate artists.
+ Online campaigning becomes fun and expressive, providing the artists with a platform and the audience with a product.
+ Artists can utilise their existing networks, create new networks and plug into an existing art activist hub.
+ Getting attention for what you do is empowering, find an existing audience and watch your confidence and motivation soar.
+ Connect with other activist artists who are working on campaigns of their own, meet like minded artists locally and globally, and network with others who want to heal the world.
+ Take advantage of the promotional and organisational opportunities the group may be involved in, such as applying for grants, online campaigning and other promotional media and events.
+ Be known as a caring soul.
+ Find an existing audience who want to see (and maybe even buy) activist art and also an audience that can benefit from being exposed to activism.
+ Get involved and become an active contributor for the group, the site or the organisation.

Benefits for Audience
+ Creating a network of independent artists, who bring their networks to the group, also creates an instant and commercially susceptible audience and means for promotion of artists and their products.
+ Planned creative activist activities (‘awareness campaigns’) issued through the Art Action Union Network to inspire and motivate activists to put their thoughts into action.
+ Cross-promotion of other competitions, creative activist initiatives or community arts projects to motivate artists to continuously create activist works.
+ Products (t-shirts, magazines, posters, buttons etc.) can be produced and marketed through the networks to promote the artist and the product, the network and the cause.
+ Activities can be tailored to encourage local campaigning amongst isolated activist groups, encourage collective voice (petitions etc.) and ultimately encourage the viewer to further their support of causes, whether intellectually or financially.

•    What expectations do art spaces have of the activists being provided with ‘safe haven’ and what do activists expect of art spaces providing safe havens?

No expectations, no disappointments…
To aspire to inspire!

_Copyright K. Cameron (Art Action Union) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED_

artactionunion.org

   I believe, though I was not there at the beginning of this relationship, that freeDimensional put out a call for participants in a residency training and ultimately accepted Caravansarai to participate.  Which was fantastic because I think we had not fully considered this world of activism before, and the other possibilities of running a residency program.   So freeDimensional has really supported us and our initiatives, which validated what we were doing.

   Because our art space is not an NGO (impossible for us in Turkey, as well as not economically feasible) networking is the most important way we have of promoting and marketing our programs.  I'm sure Julie can talk more about her experience with Res Artis (the artist-in-residence network) in depth, but it is through them that artists find our about our project.  

   One of the most exciting things about belonging to networks is the possibility of partnering with other artist-run organizations and sharing tactics and ideas.  For instance,  Iz's Cura Bodrum residency is inspiring and she strenuously researches possibilities using networks and workshops.  It is amazing to have another organization in Turkey who is similar to us with whom to share ideas and possibly projects because the majority of other programs in this area of the world are not run by artists but by administrators.  We would not have had the capacity to investigate working together had freeDimensional not insisted upon it!

Karen Phillipswww.freedimensional.org

One thing I think about a lot is how to make the fD network more robust by linking to partners from outside the perceived confines of the *art world*, especially those from the human rights and social services sectors. Because fD is making a link where usually one previously didn't exist, it is not always easy to assert the utility of such a connection. We have to make a case for creating a linkages between those who may think they have little in common. 

When I have conversations with friends in human rights organizations that support HR defenders on the ground about how an art space could be a useful partner, and I'm usually met (at least initially) with skepticism.  In many ways, fD's work as an organization is to support these unlikely partnerships and show examples of these to a broader audience to make the case for these partnerships. 

Any ideas or strategies out there for diversifying the fD network or making our case to human rights / social justice workers? Maybe some of the activists or HR org people in the dialogue have some thoughts on this? 

Being a part of the fD network allows us to come near art/cultural spaces globally rather than the local networks which are narrowed by personal relationships like we have in Egypt. Those virtual networks don’t have regular gatherings, common goals or even an online discussion like we have here probably due to the lack of a leading organization.

I believe the most valuable benefit one should acquire through a network is “setting common goals”; I agree with Wondercabinet about collaborating with similar organization to share ideas/projects, and most likely set common goals where then you could magnify the area of your possible collaborates by including organizations who are totally different than yours; each is working on a separate project/event but at the end of the day we are all assembling one message.The way fD got Artkhana involved into the “Take to the Sea” project is a good example on how to gather diverse local and foreign organizations/activists/artists to carry out different projects under the same umbrella. There are different groups working on a research project, a documentary, an interactive map and a short animated film all addressing the issue of economic migration using different approaches and targeting a wider, diverse audience. It’s a goal driven project.

Karen Phillipswww.freedimensional.org 

En losprimeros dos días la conversación sobre redes (networks) se concentró en lossiguientes temas: 

Diversificaciónde redes—cómo extender nuestras redes a otras redes o otros sectores que muchasveces no se hablan. El propio sitio web de New Tactics es un ejemplo de unesfuerzo de expandir las conversaciones sobre los derechos humanos, dijo unaparticipante.

Mapping—algunosparticipantes compartían recursos el proceso de “mapear” nuestros recursos,redes, y tácticos en la Red. 

Tácticos—decomo los espacios de arte pueden tomar contacto o engranar con sus comunidades,y específicamente con los niños. Se ofrecieron varios ejemplos de modelos de estocomo el concepto de artistas que enseñan, relaciones con escuelas locales, y programasque ponen un artista residente en contacto con niños.

El temade migración económica – un tema que ha sido tratado por varios espacios dearte en la red freeDimensional. El centro Artkhana compartió unos ejemplos deun taller que ofrecieron a la comunidad sobre este tema.

I'm involved with several different networks, of various sizes. Some as an artist, some as an organisation and some just because I find the format intriguing. I'll speak, not so much about the network (you can see their websites) but how they support my live, work and projects. 

Res Artis: (http://www.resartis.org/)  global family, 'case study' of every type of residency structure possible, international information distribution, 

Facebook: (http://www.facebook.com/) local network (specific local information and resources), local information distribution, 

FreeDimensional: ( http://www.freedimensional.org/) future project partners, small intimate group, crossover into other 'dimensions' (human rights, etc) 

Rhiz.eu: ( http://www.rhiz.eu/) not technically a network, but I sort of treat it like one, I always check this site before visiting a new place or if I am curious about a city, interesting individuals and projects  

Local list-serves,  word of mouth, 

Alicia Marván - artist . curator . activist - www.aliciamarvan.com

Trying to recap and wrap-up our very exiting dialog, I wantto attempt to make some personal conclusions, specifically dealing with theissues of resources’ accessibility andmigration. I arrive at the following almost contradictory realizations:

As an artist, curator and activist, I am often (willingly ornot) continuosly migrating to where professional and economic opportunitiesare. Although I immensely enjoy travelling and learning about our complexworld, this constant shifting and root-less existance is becoming increasinglydistressful.

 As a community leader that cares about individual andcollective fulfillment, I realize that this objective is strongly dependant onidentity reinforcement through sense of place. Yet, it is hard to “stay put”when resources are scarce in marginalized regions.

So then, this great idea of global knowledge / regional action we’re proposingthrough our programs just needs some extra resources so we can fully flourish,and that’s where networking comes in…

Karen Phillipswww.freedimensional.org

RESUMEN en ESPANOL – 25/09

En la línea de “Cuantificar el impacto” se han compartido varias herramientas para documentar o mapear su impacto, sus programas, y sus comunidades. Algunas de estas herramientas son:

www.surveymonkey.com para crear encuestas gratis en la Red

Tactical Mapping de New Tactics para visualizar los tácticos que se están usando

Luego, el diálogo mudó al tema de comunidad, cómo la definimos, y cómo elegimos y damos importancia a ciertos temas o asuntos de importancia a la comunidad. Para un participante que dirige una residencia de escritores, el tema se vieron con capacidades a tratar es la marginalización lingüística—creando un espacio parala creación de obras literarias en idiomas que muchas veces no se publican, para sostenerlos.

Algunos comentarios se aplicaron a la idea de la comunidad virtual frente a la real, física. Por una parte el Internet nos da acceso a gente del mundo entero que pueden tener intereses en común con nosotros. Por otra parte, esta conexión virtual puede reemplazar importantes enlaces físicas con las personas con quienes compartimos costumbres, tierras, historias. Encuentros de cara-a-cara, como va a acontecer con los participantes en el coloquio de Conectas que va a tener lugar en Brasil o que ocurrió con el grupo de espacios de arte emergentes en Canadá, son más que nunca importantes para fortalecer nuestro trabajo.

I was struck by comments that Todd made in "some other examples besides Creative Safe Haven" and DW provided in more on "community" that might provide some ideas for Art Spaces to document their impact.

Todd wrote:

Another example fD learned about at its Cairo hub The Townhouse Gallery.  We worked with the Tadamon Multicultural Council,
which is made up of over 25 refugee and community groups in Cairo. 
This council was formed by The Townhouse responding to a need in its
community ... very simply, these groups needed a place to meet and
Townhouse allowed its 'art space' to be used for community purposes.
The council is now fully registered and has its own offices but the
Townhouse's role in helping the council get on its feet is important to
remember.

DW wrote:

Part of Sangam House's mandate is supporting writers working in
marginalized regional languages, particularly in South Asia. We provide
public readings and discussions where those from the local villages and
neighborhoods are introduced (or re-introduced) to writers working in
the local languages. Our hope here is to help preserve (and sustain)
these local canons before they disappear -- or are gobbled up by
English. This is the most immediate and substantial form of community
engagement that we have found. It provides social interaction, utilizes
the communities physical facilities, addresses a major concern for the
communities (preservation of mother tongue), and encourages others
about what might be possible within said community. (That is, one
doesn't have to switch to English and go running off to Delhi or London
or New York to make meaningful literary contributions.) 

I think these are certainly forms of "qualitative" impact measures - as art spaces look at the contribution being made not only to individual expression, community empowerment but also in terms of support of other organizations and network building, and cultural preservation. Bravo!

These kinds of successes might be documented as "unforeseen" positive impacts. I doubt that fD set out to provide this kind of support to the Tadamon Mulitcultural Center. But it certainly shows the power of collective collaboration and resource sharing. Perhaps with, Sangam House also did not set out to preserve local languages - but this provides a  tremendous service and source of empowerment and pride to communities. 

Can others share stories of goals and successes that they INTENDED to reach as well as stories like this of successes that were unintended?

Nancy Pearson, New Tactics in Human Rights Program Manager

Hi there!

In the process of creation of Mamuta Center in Ein Karem-Jerusalem, we are constructing and working with different networks we want to work with: local artists, neighbours, international and local networks of art center, artists, ngo's and so on.
With each different group we of course work in different ways, but what we would like to comment here is the way we are working know on our opening public art event next 15-17 Oct., under the name "What's hidden behind the pastoral?"
We have the network of artists who submitted proposal of projects and are going to show in the center and in the village works related to the history of this former Palestinian village, with the "owning" of landscape, and other site specific approaches.
Besides that we started to generate an digital archive about the history of the village, concentrating information to be open for the public, making some interviews with actual inhabitant and trying to map and reach former Palestinian inhabitants or information already gathered.
We are working on a sound tour in the village for the event which is going to mix between the local actual version history of the village - through a local organization of actual neighbours with the voices of Palestinian before 48 through a NGO organization dealing with the recovery of the Palestinian history, of the camp of Jewish refugees who inhabit the village in the beginning of the 50' through private people we connected and so on.

What we are trying to do is actually to open connections between artists, local neighbours, and organization dealing with the same issues, trying to open the platform for further connection between those organization, artists, researchers and public in general. In this phase of organization the connections are working quite well.
Coming back to the discussion about activism, we don't call our practice in the center as activist because it would not help us in developing the project the way we want, it would not allow us to generate the connections in the openness we would like to make them. Art project allow us to work freely but it's also not enough to describe the way of our approach to Mamuta scene. We would try to be more clear next days, we are already happy that we can at least make a brief contribution to this amazing dialogue ( we have here in the places we r staying in buenos aires no Internet access , so it's very hard for us to follow the discussion and take part they way we planned)

best,
lea and diego

Karen Phillipswww.freedimensional.org

Today when we speak about impact, we are often drawn (or encouraged by funders) to think in terms of objective, quantifiable pieces of information like how many artists did you support? how many visitors attended your programs? how did participants in your program rank the experience? etc. There are two problems with using these strategies to talk about the impact of the work we do as art space administrators or artists. One is that numbers only talk about that part of our work that can be quantified and therefore overemphasizes these elements. Another is that, even when numbers are obtainable, they may actually say very little about the impact of a particular program or action on, say, a community or a particular social justice issue.

This doesn't mean we should abandon the search for the impact of our work--or track quantifiable data when possible--, but that we should recognize that oftentimes the most important part of our impact may elude measurement. 

Over the past four years, fD has assisted over 40 culture workers and activists-in-distress through the fD network through creative safe haven placements, information services, and other forms of institutional support. This number is important. But so is the the fact that last summer 12 art spaces from around the world got to know one another and learn from each other's struggles--the results of this fD hosted encounter will no doubt impact these centers, their programming, and their communities, but in such diverse ways that we can't put it on a graph or in a spreadsheet.

Lucky for us to be part of a sector that uses creative media to express ideas and tell stories.  This year, fD tried to do this with a series of videos produced during the Wasan Island retreat that you can find at the top of this dialogue. 

I wonder: Is this an effective way to show our impact? 

How else can we show the power of a network of art spaces linked by an interest in engaging community issues and hosting activism?  

Front Line Defenders is a wonderful organization that assists human rights defenders around the world. In terms of measuring impact, Front Line talks about the paradox of threats being seen almost as a measure of an individual's and/or group's effectiveness. If you aren't being effective, no one is taking any notice of what you are doing.

I've been thinking about this during the dialogue from a number of perspectives: 1) the artists/activists that are needing safe haven - where they have reached a level of effective that those in power want to find ways to stop their work or eliminate them completely; and 2) art spaces that come under scrutiny for the work they are doing and may be targeted in a number of ways - bureaucratic red tape; taxes; fees; inability to renew leases (as was mentioned in the dialogue; closures; to the targeting of staff.

I want to be sure that we don't forget to provide a link to the wonderful resources provided on the Front Line website for people and organizations to consider and evaluate their security situations. 

Nancy Pearson, New Tactics in Human Rights Program Manager

I am interested in this mapping project for networks that New Tactics developed.  Do you know anything more about it?  Is it a quantitative measure of success, do you think?  Or could it be?

Alicia Marván - artist . curator . activist - www.aliciamarvan.com

I love the broadening of your residency topic into "Human Mobility", I'm sure it took the project into an interesting turn. I am also delving into the issue with the february residency, and also chose to broaden to theme, but from "Economic Migration" to just "Migration", to include other migrations in the ecosystem/experience (monarch butterflies, aerial seed pollination, psycho-social migration of the self, etc.).

Another very important thing that has been mentioned by you and others is the diversification of the network and working teams. It is very important for me at Guapamacátaro to reach out and include people from a variety of disciplines in order to gain a better understanding of the issues in turn. This year I received very interesting proposals from architects, product designers and educators, in addition to artists.

Iz: It will be very interesting to compare results/collaborate next year, post-residency.

Hello Iz,

Thanks for your comments and thoughts here.  I wanted to ask what resulted from your decision to collect narratives in Bodrum about irregular migration from Turkey to Greece - did you publish these?  Were they illuminative to you?  I would like to learn how this initiative went - is it a useful example of an arts space engaging an issue with 'activist' or 'humanitarian' intentions?

 It seems you've struggled on deciding what to do about issues that you have identified as crucial.  I wonder if New Tactics, or anyone else attending this dialogue, have examples of the way actions on human rights issues can emerge from collective convesations such as the one you've described, or the one we are engaged in now.   If so, do these examples suggest that networking and meeting does indeed lead to collective action?

thanks

Thanks for your cautions about the broad use of some of the terminology, Iz. It's easy for all of us, I think, to fall back on such phrases and to use them in a routine way that works against their potential. I've been giving a lot of thought lately to the phrase 'community-building' and even the word 'community' and what, exactly, we mean when we employ these words/phrases.

 Much of the talk about the future of publishing (something that interest our writing residency program greatly) is the notion that it will be based in 'community-engagement.' But I'm curious about what this means and fear the phrase is now a catch-all for any group with common interests - and I think that's not very useful. Community does include notions of common interest, yes, but it also includes shared resources, social interactions, and the capacity to work through conflict. I also fear that in the age of virtual communities, our communities rooted in the physical world are underestimated. Thus the importance of an art space (and in this case I refer to the program I help with, Sangam House, and that art space's capacity for connecting with the people who share the roads, the local customs, local markets, etc.

Sangam House's efforts to reach out to its physical community is uber-challenging because it is a tremendously diverse area vis-a-vis language. Tamil is the official language of the state but several mother tongues are spoken in the immediate area - along with French and English - and these language's very often are a defining factor for this or that portion of the community. 

Part of Sangam House's mandate is supporting writers working in marginalized regional languages, particularly in South Asia. We provide public readings and discussions where those from the local villages and neighborhoods are introduced (or re-introduced) to writers working in the local languages. Our hope here is to help preserve (and sustain) these local canons before they disappear -- or are gobbled up by English. This is the most immediate and substantial form of community engagement that we have found. It provides social interaction, utilizes the communities physical facilities, addresses a major concern for the communities (preservation of mother tongue), and encourages others about what might be possible within said community. (That is, one doesn't have to switch to English and go running off to Delhi or London or New York to make meaningful literary contributions.) 

Onward.

DW Gibson

I was really intrigued by this point - that activist tend to enter art spaces as their last resort. It also brings me back to the earlier discussion on safety and vulnerability - do you think that your space may offer more of a safe haven to the artist/activist because it is not an institutionalized "safe haven" for larger groups of people? Are there benefits for the activist in terms of opportunity to continue activism/art? What are some of the barriers to accessing art spaces as potential safe havens?

Last year during the Conectas Human Rights Colloquium in Sao Paulo, fD worked with its hub partner, Casa das Caldeiras, to offer an art space for the initial day of the colloquium, a day in which 70 global activists and community organizers would meet for the first time.  We approached Conectas with this idea b/c we understand the challenges of such a big introduction of people and we felt that an art space such as CdC had a lot to offer to make this a unique experience, one that would ease these folks into a week of intense work that lay ahead of them.  You can see a bit of the first day on the colloquium video and in its photo album.

Another example fD learned about at its Cairo hub The Townhouse Gallery.  We worked with the Tadamon Multicultural Council, which is made up of over 25 refugee and community groups in Cairo.  This council was formed by The Townhouse responding to a need in its community ... very simply, these groups needed a place to meet and Townhouse allowed its 'art space' to be used for community purposes. The council is now fully registered and has its own offices but the Townhouse's role in helping the council get on its feet is important to remember.