Participatory Arts

Various things can lure you into art. From creative writing or painting those are ways you bring yourself closer to creativity. For me, it was the concept of visual arts and how much it intrigued me into further learning about art. About how I can show my own creativity on paper or incorporate myself into my surroundings to my own creativity. I have grown to enjoy this artistry from when I first saw a drawing book to now where I engage myself to different forms of art. As soon as I had a connection with this community, my life has revolved around art. Having this support within this community and able to come when I need it has made a great impact within my life. Being apart of this community has made me where I am able to be involving to various programs that connect to art, volunteering in different events where I can express my own ideas, and even producing my own work.

Activists make their messages and movements known through art in order to express messages, validate identities, and to make struggles known, calling themselves ARTivists to show that there is an often undervalued intersection between the two. But before the coining of the term, activists have been creating art to advance themselves and their communities. ARTivists within the Chicano community have especially been creating art in order to validate and record their own experiences. ARTivism is crucial in today’s society and culture as it intersects art and politics in order to emphasize injustices that are deeply rooted within these structures. By decolonizing and deconstructing exploitive structures, ARTivists liberate the oppressed while creating a more socially conscious future by allowing the oppressed to create their own voice and tell their own stories.

successful aging has been the topic of a number of scholarly articles and books and has recently been tied to participatory arts and humanities programming through agencies that provide services to the older adult demographic.

Combining competent research and vibrant literary works does provide more knowledge and insight into the meaning of aging. The combination of art and research is useful in my work because vibrant literacy provides a personal lens eye view of the aging process. Literacy to me is richer and more meaningful when it comes from the perspective of a writer who is experiencing what her she is writing about, versus research only. According to Wyatt-Brown, “Readers can take comfort in the knowledge that others have experienced the struggle that feel so threatening, painful and never-ending.” (p.57). Even if the literacy is fictitious, it holds more weight when coming from someone with a lifetime of experiences.

It has been my grandmother who always understood that art was a safe place and an outlet for my self-expression. She’s also an artist, which has allowed us to bond and communicate in a way that no one else can fully understand. Her parting advice was always to “reach beyond the art.” Those four simple words have inspired my artistry from creating crazy-glue pasta in pre-school to combining acrylic, oil, and ink as my renderings became more sophisticated.

After retirement, an older person would have more free time to do multiple activities and hobbies. The freedom given by retirement especially in couples, or individuals, allows them to take up new skills and aid their social development by meeting new people throughout these activities; as well as their physical and intellectual. Hobbies such as painting, bowls and walking or this new found free time could

Research on art therapy shows that there are numerous positive psychological and healthy results in visual arts suggesting that large community participation in the healing art project may have great benefits (Stuckey, 2010). Finding the Light Within project provided a safe place for people to talk and share about their thoughts and feeling, to sorrow and heal, to meet other people, and to not feel alone. Through art making, this public art community program always to make people discuss about difficult social issues and share their thoughts. Jane Golden and Cathy Harris at Philadelphia Mural Arts Program believe that mural painting

Art is a catalyst of change. It can confront both social and political issues as well as providing people with a creative outlet in which they can express their innermost thoughts and feelings - but what effect can art have on our society as a whole? Artists today have the unique ability to connect with people in a creative, innovative way that they can understand and interpret themselves. With this ability, artists are able to express their own views as well as influencing the views of others. Art is an immense part of our world – so much so that we barely even consider its impact upon us – but just how significant is the work of artists in our modern day society?

Art has a great impact on the spiritual world. The impact of art on the general condition and mood of the person and its beneficial effects on health have been seen in ancient times. At the time, Florence Nightingale said that nursing - one of the oldest arts and one of the youngest sciences, which focuses on caring for patients.

, Unfortunately, the recent procedures implemented by the federal government had made it increasingly difficult for the United States arts community to bring in international artists. Even though sharing art and cultures offer countless opportunities for our country to expand diplomatic ties with other countries through sharing art and cultures, these new visa procedures isolate the United States. from its friendly neighbor countries. According to Sara Elizabeth Macks from Seton Hall University School of Law, after the 9/11 in 2001, all nonimmigrant visas have come under closer scrutiny. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had restricted and shifted their policy to prevent terrorists from entering the country freely which made it even more difficulty in obtaining visas has created worries that O and P applicants may not receive their visas in the timely manner required or at all. I understand the change of these policies was to tighten up national security, but

I began attending San Jose State University from in Fall 2012. It was a stressful transition but I soon settled into campus and began thoroughly enjoying the campus as an experience. A year and a half had passed before my work as an English Major had begun to feel aimless. I began trying to find another major. I found delight in being able to analyze social situations and public speaking after taking the course, Argumentation and Advocacy. This class started my research into the department and the possibility of switching majors. The wide array of courses such as interpersonal communication, social issues, and performance studies offered courses that challenged me in ways that were exciting to me. In Fall 2014, I officially changed my major

This manifest itself in the form of role reduction, the elderly retires from the activities of working and their grown children move out of the house. In addition, the elderly also experience seeing their peers starting to die. All these changes accumulate and the elderly is now removed from a state of normalcy and control, to assimilating into new groups. In investigating the relationship between social isolation and leisure activities, they found social integration was integral to successful aging because it provides normalcy, a sense of control, and trust, access to information and other resources, as well as social support. Knowing all these variables, the program, designed with the concept of utilizing the arts in the form of dancing and creative writing to enhancing the lives and health of older people and in so doing help to keep older men and women out of nursing homes and living

In her book, Theatre in Health and Care, Emma Brodzniksi notes that, “Some within arts and health have looked to empirical data, the language of the scientific culture of healthcare, while others have defended a more qualitative approach….The different negotiation of outcomes represents different approaches to health.” (2010: 10) It is often the case, within arts in health, that the arts aspect is viewed as a way of achieving a goal as opposed to examining the qualities of the arts activity itself. Much work within the health and care takes place in a community setting and withholds the belief that access to the arts opens up opportunities that may not have been a possibility previously. Anthony Jackson, describes the experience of interacting with the arts as, “some kind of journey – psychological, emotional – the kind of journey we might not have taken otherwise. It may involve is in a retreat from the everyday, or it may be a detour, offering us vantage points from which to see the everyday in a new light or from a new angle. (2007: 36) At this point, I will continue on by outlining, as previously stated, two projects that took place in a community setting and provided their participants with the possibility of embarking on such a journey that Jackson speaks of.

Films are arguably the most accessible politically charged art form for United States citizens. Visual arts are intended to occupy an individual’s senses more than other forms of art, thus they have the power to teach, inspire and shape the perceptions of individuals. Cinemas help to create a shared narrative experience amongst people from different cultural backgrounds, forcing audiences to collectively consider topics they may have never believed serious before. Films have the capacity to stir an individual to action, transform their view on politics and affect an individual’s biases. These characteristics have allowed cinematic creations to play a large role in guiding social change as well as influence political policy in the United States. With advances in modern technology and cinematic popularity, its influence has grown stronger over generations.

Marina Ambramović’s concept of performance art interrogates the traditional forms and practices of what most people would consider to be the “norm”, that derive from personal preferences generated from different aspects of society. Abramović is known for her durational performance work that tests the endurance and limitations of her own body and mind. Performance art may be understood as a practice where the body of the artist is central or the medium itself involving objected based art materials such as paint and canvas. Abramović challenges this traditional sense, and introduces new concepts of “pushing the body to its limits” and cutting down the distance between artist and audience by making her own the body the medium. In this paper, I will be critiquing Ambramović’s use of performance art to the ways she provokes cultural politics by ultimately aiming to silence the question “what is art”. Upon watching her documentary “The Artist is Present”, I have found that in her performances she presents the public with challenges, shock, and emotions that can be understood as a controversial act; however the effect her performances have on people can differ based on the perspective of which performance art is viewed.