Hope Rising Amidst: The
question of a friend!
A friend asked me what do you
mean that Community Art Practice is a way of bringing peace?
The answer of course is found
in the art making itself. Indigenous healers, our Creation myths, religious
ways, legends, stories and human instincts and history have all taught us that Making
Art has is way of making peace. Tensions, big and small are experienced as
tightness, lack of room, closed spaces, roads we thought we were going down
that have stopped with a jolt in the side of a mountain or edge of a
cliff! Violence, is often the
out-BURSTING of wants, demands and desires that have not found outlet in any
other form. Fear and trembling come from
places within our-selves and our communities that lurk in the shadows. Even Joy when needing to be expressed and
having no path, breeds frustration that is palpable. No peace can come when we
feel boxed in, blinded, tense with what is in and around us which cant find way
of being expressed. Choosing to respond to the senses, which are our first
responders to dangers and beauty in our midst, can help us all
engage in Artful Living, rather than frustrated, even reckless responding.
Community Art Practice is a
way of engaging our senses. I would like to share a story with you of one the Community Art Experience's Sadhana Thapa and I led in Nepal with some of our
first year students from Expressive Arts Nepal.
Imagine if you will, a quiet open air covered porch, like a
window unto the world of Kathmandu, being flooded by 30+ school children
between 8and 10 bounding in from one entrance!
Yes the pushing, shoving, running, yelling, tugging, irritating,
frustrating entrances were happening! You’ve got the scene in all its frenzy
for sure! And we make a BIG circle of course!
Round and round the circle we
went inviting each child out of words
and into SOUNDS! “Listen for and make
the sound you have within you right now!” we said! And everyone did! Some
blasted out noise in Dr. Seuss trumpet fashion, animal sounds too came flying
in like birds, and whispers, of life being imagined for the first time blew
gently through! We even on the final round added gestures to enliven the space
and sound! The sounds and movement were imaginative, the laughter was freedom
of hearts opening.
We moved from sounding to
color in our explorations! “Open up the world of your colors and land them on
the page in the markings of your own creating!
This was our initial visual art -making frame. And these children did make art perhaps
tentatively at first, but not for long. It was marvelous indeed to see them moving into the work of letting Art find
its way to their pages.
There are children who are deemed lower cast
children, subjected to the enslavement of their potential to fit the
expectations of society as servants, as slaves, as those who are born to perform
menial, mean tasks. In other countries, some children suffer similar objectification because of racism, gender bias, religious affiliation and more. Art does not discriminate or segregate, diminish or degrade. It is simply gift that comes to all children and indeed all humanity reminding each one of their inherent value as unique and beautiful and able to receive inspiration and bring forth Art!
The peace that settled into
the group through our time together was palpable, noticeable. We ended the day, talking together about the
fun, the play, the value of each one and the Art! We considered what the mural had to say to
all of us. We smiled together in the
softness of honoring one another, our work and saying goodbye.
Community Art, engages the
heart of each one and gathers the contributions of everyone! The art-making
somehow brought the children into a space where grace and graceful treatment of
each other, as if each one had value, was the right protocol. Their exit was different! What, but the Art making could
have inspired, inspirited such transformation?
The Art these children are
and expressed, are part of what inspires Sadhana Thapa and I to continue partnering for the sake
of establishing Expressive Arts Nepal: Expressive Arts for Inner Peace and
Community Health.
To learn more about our
project and the variety of ways we are together reviving art making as
therapeutic practice and Community healing in Nepal, please visit us at https://www.gofundme.com/p5u74qd4 and look for my next blog soon! More stories to come!
We HOPE you are Inspired to partner with us!
