My work always starts from the interests, ideas, needs of
project participants. I usually try to
work co-operatively, bringing everyone into the decision making, taking all
contributions into account. My thinking
was that if I worked hierarchically, participants wouldn’t have a sense of
ownership of the project. What often
happened though was a lack of direction.
Over the past six months, I have reflected on what was
successful and unsuccessful, had discussions with participants from past
projects and as a result planned a new programme of participatory
projects. I held focus groups to share
the ideas and approach for this new programme.
By doing this as presentations, I turned around my usual approach. Through this I found hierarchical and co-operative
are not opposite approaches; presenting a clear idea then enables people to
choose to get involved so at times working hierarchically may support
co-operation at other stages.
Through this process, I have now written a three year plan
with a clear vision and rationale. I
plan to use this to encourage further participation in projects with people
with disabilities, artists and arts organisations. From the Cultural Leadership Reader, the
article that resonated most with me was about Connective Leaders: building “a
sense of purpose across organisational boundaries, perceived connections
between diverse people, ideas and institutions.”
I feel my role as a leader is to articulate a sense of
purpose, I would also add to the idea that it’s important to build in check
points to ensure the purpose is mutually held; that it reflects the interests
off all involved. Articulating a broad
purpose is not the same as controlling all details, the broadness can allows
for contributions, for their to be changes and areas of uncertainty. I have been using the Disney model to
separate planning; the vision, planning and evaluation; and found this useful
for me and also for participants to know what is being asked. During a focus group, one participant made a
comment, which reassured me about my approach:
“Having a destination creates an
archway to look through but as with all creative processes you don’t know how
to get there, discussion shapes it. Being involved in the process with
the artist gives a sense of ownership and pride; you feel you’ve created it
together.”
I also realised that I’m often
trying to fix things when actually the work can set up situations that hint at
alternatives without providing solutions.
Reflecting on past projects, I found that work successfully improved
access for disabled people, not when advocating for specific changes but when
projects brought people together. This
provided opportunities to share and discuss new experiences.
Part of my leadership is my
conviction that art releases the imagination; helps us consider alternative
perspectives. What those will be and
what will happen next, you can’t know so you set up contexts and let things
happen. I don’t need to fix, control,
document, but briefly bring people together in specific contexts and enjoy the
surprises.
Working on the group project has
been really useful to share our practise and ask questions of each other. Again, it’s not about fixing, or advising, it’s
been about supporting each other to reflect and come to new
understandings. I’ve learnt this is a
really valuable process and hope there are ways to continue beyond this
project. There has been a lot of
sensibility; we made a plan but treated it flexibly by checking what we each
needed at the time. Reflection was aided
by the context we had chosen, a wood burning stove, big pots of soup and
country walks.
The question I was asked was “How
to put art at the centre rather than access?”
In response I’ve written a short statement that I hope succinctly
explains my approach.
As this approach
includes working closely with participants, I’ve also collected and presented
quotes about experiences.
The statement
and reflections on projects have informed
a project blog which presents the new
programme and an archive of previous work.
A question I asked Anna was,
“What are the connections between all the things you do – and how do you make
them work for you?” I realised that the
question I asked was relevant to me as I’ve stopped drawing which used to be
really important for me. I’m now using
the project to motivate me to pick this up again as a reflective tool.
