"Culture is the basis of community and a building block for community problem solving."
- Robert McNulty, president, Partners for Livable Communities

by Jenifer Milner

In the last issue of Synergy, we explored how arts and culture benefits communities by helping people to establish a sense of connection. This is especially important when it concerns society's most vulnerable citizens. While many people become engaged and involved in their communities through arts and culture, some have life changing - even life saving - encounters with the arts. Artistic practice provides an avenue for people to identify and express their feelings, fears, and experiences, as well as their hopes, dreams, and beliefs.

Traumatized children at a crisis centre draw what they cannot speak. People with developmental disabilities create visual art about their lives in institutions. And, in workshops that come to be called The ICE Project, 250 teens voice their feelings about life and the world in which they live through theatre games and techniques.

Youth longing to be heard
Judith Marcuse, artistic director of DanceArts Vancouver, worked with Headlines Theatre's David Diamond, playwright John Lazarus, and director Jane Heyman on The ICE Project, the first of four projects about youth issues. Marcuse, Diamond, and Lazarus are now two years into the second project, FIRE, which explores how youth are affected by violence and the violent world around them.

Marcuse writes of ICE in a recent article, "Many [teens] revealed their longing to fit into a community, to feel connected. For many others, the only goal was survival." 1She adds, "Simply sharing this information, and learning they were not alone, was a transforming experience for many of them as well as us. Their hunger to communicate and to be heard was heart-rending." 2Marcuse, together with her colleagues and a cast of young professional actors, turned the material into a 1997 production called ICE: beyond cool. The show proved a big hit, especially with young audiences. Experiencing their truths represented on stage had a powerful impact on these youth:

"… I cried in almost every scene. By the way I don't usually cry at shows but I think the reason I cry is because this show depicts my life almost exactly! On Friday October 3 I tried to kill myself by overdose, obviously it didn't work! The day after, I saw your first public show, and I don't know what happened but your show completely changed my life. It brought me out of my depression, and for that I am very thankful!" (name withheld) 3

Obstacles to connection are everywhere in young people's lives. The two influences that would normally teach teens how to connect - families and schools - struggle to do so through lack of time or resources. Marcuse reveals that absent parents was a big issue for the teens in the ICE workshops. And a BC education ministry task force recently reported, "The disciplines that help people understand who they are and how they are related to the larger human community are today less central and less vital than they once were. That must change." 4

Arts and culture has the ability to help youth - and others who are vulnerable in our society - articulate their realities to a world that doesn't listen. And, in that expression, to learn that they are not alone.

Building communities through arts & culture
"We are increasingly recognizing that creative expression and participation are powerful means of building healthy and resilient communities, from neighbourhoods to nations," 5 says a Canadian Conference of the Arts discussion paper. This is one factor that makes artists and arts organizations resources for their communities, whether or not they are engaged in community-based art. Arts groups and the communities in which they operate gain from establishing closer relationships. "It seems evident that both society and the arts can benefit from active public participation and involvement in the arts," the discussion paper continues, "communities by becoming more confident, creative, and self-determining, with a stronger sense of common ownership, responsibility, and pride, and artists by having more dynamic and engaged audiences and supporters." 6

Jenifer Milner directs communications for the International Council on Active Aging. Since 1992, Jenifer has worked in Vancouver’s arts and cultural sector, most recently as communications manager with the Greater Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture for almost five years.

1. Judith Marcuse. "Stepping out from teenaged angst," Vancouver Sun, 7 December 1999.
2. Ibid.
3. Excerpted letter posted on DanceArts Vancouver's website.
4. Janet Steffenhagen. "Social values take backseat in BC schools, report warns," Vancouver Sun, 10 January 2000.
5. Arts and Communities. Canadian Conference of the Arts, June 1999.
6. Ibid.

Last Updated: Tuesday, August 24, 2004