Adj Marshall AMCV2650: Lubar November 5, 2012

Arts Role in the Creation of Civic Ecology

In April of 2010 CIRCLE, The Center for Information on Civic Learning and Engagement, convened scholars, civic leaders and federal officials in Washington DC to develop a federal policy agenda for civic skills. The resulting policy report identified eight skills as necessary for civic personhood including the ability to gather and interpret information, speak and listen, engage in dialogue about differences, resolve conflicts, reach agreements, collaborate with peers, understand formal government, and advocate for change. According to CIRCLE civic skill education provides individuals with the tools to improve their communities, the government and the nation at large. What we are finding today is that the former modes of civic skill transmission are either in sharp decline or not reaching the people who need it most. CIRCLE makes note of this on its blog stating, Educational programs and other government-supported initiatives have been shown to enhance Americans civic skills and their levels of engagement. But these programs and other opportunities are scarce and unequal, often provided to people who are already the most likely to be engaged. 1 Through his work Bowling Alone, social theorist Robert Putnam, documents the loss of social capital resulting from a decline in civic association participation over the last 40 years. Putnam asserts that communities possessing a significant stock of social capital benefit immensely from their networks of civic engagement [which] foster sturdy norms of generalized reciprocity, and encourage the emergence of social trust. Such networks facilitate coordination and communication amplify reputations and this allow dilemmas of collective action to be resolved.[and] broadening the participants sense of self, developing the I into the weenhancing the participants taste for collective benefits.2

1 http://www.civicyouth.org/federal-policy-and-civic-skills/ Blog Post April 28 2010 2 Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 6, No. 1, Pp. 65-77

Civic associations, once heralded as transmitters of civic knowledge and catalysts of social capital, have more recently been unable to fulfill this mission as their ranks have either dwindled by the thousands or aged out of participation. Putnams identified social capital benefits align directly with the civic skills CIRCLE is attempting to embed in federal policy for educating the next generation. CIRCLEs policy initiative serves as a direct response to the national awareness of the decline in civic participation and the resulting civic skills vacuum created amongst its members. If the benefits of social capital result from the skills necessary for civic participation, how do we transmit these skills, when the mode of transmission have all but disappeared or been deemed obsolete? How do we reconfigure the way in which we transfer civic knowledge? What might some new modes of transmission look like? What existing disciplines currently serve as unacknowledged transmitters of civic skills? How might we engage various forms of learning styles? The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage Rewards artists and arts and culture organizations of excellence imagination and courage that also engage a broad range of audiences with meaningful cultural experiences. Such a strategy supports an overall vision that sees culture as critical to a vibrant civic ecology and demonstrates how the arts and heritage contribute to the life of our community today.3 Here I will argue that the arts are an often overlooked and underappreciated resource in the civic skill cultivation of todays society. Arts and culture as defined by the Pews Center serves as a collaborator in the creation of a more civically ecological society. This understanding however, is not held universally. The arts often times are viewed as neutral objective participants in civic skill creation. As museums have moved toward a model of participatory engagement this neutral objective role has become complicated. Hilde Heins Public Art: Thinking Museums Differently describes the movement of public art to incorporate the public more closely into itself recognizing that this merging symbolizes a new perception and attitude 3 Paula Marincola, Sharing the Authority of Knowledge, in Letting Go? Pp. 7

toward collaboration, mutual illumination, and understanding and fosters active participation rather than submissive reverence.4 Utilizing Arlene Goldbards theory of Community Cultural Development in conjunction with the with the Walker Centers 4C model of Civic Engagement, I hope to show how the work of local arts initiatives aligns directly with the policy goals established by CIRCLE for instilling civic skills and creates social capital. Arlene Goldbard defines the core purposes of community cultural development as creating Live active social experiences strengthening individuals ability to participate in democratic discourse and community lifeexpanding dialogue and active participation of all communities and groups in exploring and resolving social issues [and recognizing] self determination as an essential requirement of the dignity and social participation of all communities.5 The Walker Centers 4C model views arts role as container, convener, connector and catalyst in creating meaningful and productive civic engagement, which is accomplished through commentary, dialogue, action and leadership.6 Both of these models offer an artistic lens through which to understand arts role in civic engagement. I have chosen to look at three initiatives of various forms to gain a broad understanding of the ways in which arts position their role in creating civically equipped individuals. I will look at Rhode Island Council for the Humanities supplement for the National Endowment for the Arts Picturing America Initiative, a state level program, Community Music Works, Phase II initiative, a community level program, and Occupy Providences spontaneous public arts initiatives, a tiny grassroots level program. While the work of each of these initiatives is creating social capital and aligns with civic theory the organizations themselves dont always position their place as creators of civically minded and engaged citizens. Drawing explicit connections between the civic 4 Hilde Hein, Public Art: Thinking Museums Differently (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2006) Pg xxii 5 Arlene Goldbard, New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development ( Oakland: New Village Publishers, 2006)pp.143 6 Sarah Shultz, Expanding the Center: Walker Art Center Herzog and Meuron (Minneapolis : Walker Art Center Publications, 2005) Pg 30-31.

skills gained through engagement with the participatory art movement is essential in allowing the arts to be recognized for their active role in social capital development defined by Putnam as essential for any healthy community. In analyzing these varied projects I also hope to demonstrate the ways in which arts can serve as a platform for reaching populations previously ignored in the traditional civic education model.