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WORKING TOGETHER

sarah gillings

Hello. Welcome to Sarah Gillings' flowboard presentation about my learning discoveries made as a result of my collaboration with the Rocket Artists. Inclusive Arts Practice~ Working Together Module

Vision

“The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. Each evening we see the sun set. We know that the earth is turning away from it. Yet the knowledge, the explanation, never quite fits the sight.” ― John Berger, Ways of Seeing

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Ways of seeing

The process

Conclusions

NO GLASSES!

VISION TOOLS for inclusivity

Varifoculs reflect, focussed, looking closely, seeing it through to the end, attention to detail. Noticing...

Rose Tinted Positivity, compassion, empathy, A rosy view of the world. Through the eyes of others.**

Sunglasses Blinkered, hiding, not interacting with the outside world. Not being seen, resting, recuperating,

No Glasses or blurred vision State of natural flux, a step back. The ability to gently let go......or bemused bafflement!

See also.... Contentious doubting glasses Other people's glasses...

The poignant last page of my abandoned presentation

To create exhibitions that hold seamlessly all types of artists within one space. To create an environment for continued art involvement beyond the events. Not to discriminate is to present all the works as one, professional alongside amateur, amateur alongside a learning disabled artist, learning disabled alongside a person of age, an inmate, a scholar, an ethnic minority, gay, transgender, a genius......its all in the eye of the beholder....and also how this is presented to the world.

ART is

Opportunity & space

The journey is the same for everyone. we all have to make it somewhere. A large part of seeing relies on habit and convention. To be able to distinguish and create the right situations and environment (SPACE) for mutual learning to take place through collaboration CONTEXTUAL SPACE TIME LUXURY of learning LOCATION

ART is Powerful

ART

is a diplomatic tool where words fail

a learning Accelerator

Egungun Costume

Nigerian masquerade costume late 20th Century. Egungun means, "powers concealed," it is both festival and fear and creates order between our world and the dead. Each Egungun represents a dead ancestor and as it brought out again and again over time it's powers may grow. To become Egungun the performer beneath must lose his own identity. When the spirit is there the performer no longer exists.

Process

A finished product is not the final objective. Letting go of the final outcome allows one to focus on the process of pure creation. How can we create established environments and events where a similar, artistic space can be offered to more people? It's ultimately what we take away with us from the encounter that is important.

Companion role

Sometimes simply stepping sideways can work in a companion role. Perhaps when the collaborators need some space... ~ facilitation ~ enabling autonomy ~ quiet thinking ~ friendly ~ relaxing

“It is the task of the translator to release in his own language that pure language that is under the spell of another, to liberate the language imprisoned in a work in his re-creation of that work.” ― Walter Benjamin, Illuminations: Essays and Reflections

Contextual space

Perfect growing conditions and environment for inclusive creativity and positive collaboration include: ~ creating choice ~ enabling autonomy ~ thinking ethically ~ regular interaction to enable the artists to grow ~ matching the right Practitioner with the right artist ~Ownership of the vision.

A large part of seeing relies on habit and convention. The eye of the beholder is the perspective. Glasses represent the viewpoint....symbolising for me all the skills needed to be a successful inclusive arts practitioner.

conclusion

Whatever the situation, there's an alternative way of looking at it: ~With humour ~In side out ~With compassion ~Global ~Local ~Leading ~Following ~Reflecting ~Watching ~Reading ~A new perspective

"Everything is good with a magic trick up your sleeve!" ~ Tina

All the elements are there to create magic but the trick is to know at which glasses to wear for each occasion!

SARAH GILLINGS

Inclusive Art Practice

Magic tricks reflect

relax keep it simple allow learning time embrace letting go Keep loving aesthetics

“I can't tell you what art does and how it does it, but I know that art has often judged the judges, pleaded revenge to the innocent and shown to the future what the past has suffered, so that it has never been forgotten. I know too that the powerful fear art, whatever its form, when it does this, and that amongst the people such art sometimes runs like a rumour and a legend because it makes sense of what life's brutalities cannot, a sense that unites us, for it is inseparable from a justice at last. Art, when it functions like this, becomes a meeting-place of the invisible, the irreducible, the enduring, guts and honour.” ― John Berger