Ten transformative local arts projects come alive in this illustrated training manual for youth leaders and teachers. This energetic guidebook demonstrates the enormous power of art in grass-roots social change. It presents proven models of community-based arts programs, plus techniques, discussion questions, and plentiful resources.
Writer Mat Schwarzman directs the Crossroads Center at Xavier University, which trains youth leaders nationwide in community-based arts activism. He holds a PhD in transformative learning.
Graphic storyteller Keith Knight is an award-winning cartoonist, rapper, and hip-hop musician with two nationally syndicated comic strips.
Dances around and past the sheep I love this book. (Of course, I read all the Keith Knight cartoons first, then went back and read the book.)
Lots of good information here. It's a wonderful resource in these times of massive budget cuts for the arts. The lesson is: DO IT YOURSELF (but get help!)
This book will get you started, and teach you to allocate the few available resources and align with like-minded activist folks to get the job done.
Should be required reading in every high school and college.
Inspiring This book is wonderful; it's accessible, fresh, and inspiring. Its playful tone will appeal to young adult audiences. The illustrations are dynamic, the language is clear, and the structure is elegant.
Having taught reading and literacy for many years, I am suspicious of books that teach "methods." (There is always a new method or 'miracle program' out there being foisted on teachers.) Methods almost always become stale and tired and eventually end up constricting learners and teachers. What I like about the Beginner's Guide is that in lieu of a "method" the authors present a sound philosophy in which they make a connection between art and community. This is presented in a charming and informal manner and without needless complication or fuss. The authors' philosophy seems to be based on common sense, a deep feeling for humanity, and an understanding of art as a vital expression of that humanity.
The authors present their ideas in a clear and simple framework that can be used by artists, art students, and community members in any number of situations and for any number of purposes. It's difficult to imagine such a process becoming 'stale'; what you can do with this book is only limited by the energy and imagination of your community.
Great Read and Superhelpful, Inspiring Great stories that provide models for meanigful arts programs. One reviewer here on amazon referred to the book being political and not arts centered. I found that to be way off base. What I got from the book is how art becomes a reponse to the struggles of different communities, and in turn helps to address those challenges. So, art is both an end in itself as well as a tool for articulating and facing the world. The drawings and the approach itself is grounded in how art is practiced with everybody, how art is powerful for everybody to engage in (not just those who get to call themselves "artists' and lead the "artistic life" of writing grants to arts councils). Keith Knight's comics in particular rock!
left wing politics co-op the art "Community Based Arts" is new slang. It basically means, how to get someone who is so far outside the political realm of reasonableness to be politically influencial by using art as the method of empowerment. Art? Not important. Political impowerment..according to the general message of this book is important. It really goes into the face of what art is, and has been for a millenia.
Make no mistake about it. Schwarzman is a political activist that does not understand art, nor does he have a background in art.
This book is NOT for artists that want to learn how to write grants, because there is NO practical information about how to do anything except to teach non-artists about using their political beliefs to be artistically inspired.
If you are an artist and you need some REAL advice about how to get work and survive, then I'd go to the local arts council or to the web to other professionally oriented resources.
If you are an artist and you need to seek new sources of inspiration then you should read Robert Henri's book The Art Spirit, published in 1923. It's a beautiful book, and it has inspired artists of many mediums since its publication.
a terrific resource This book can be used to formulate a grant, jazz up the funders, get students to learn about community work through comics, to teach college art students how to get out and get to work. I am so excited about this book because of how it outlines and lays out in simple forms the organizing process. They want you to be able to repoduce the processes. It's not high falutin art or theory gobbldigook. It is, on the other hand, a highly engaging funny cool and groundbreaking book about art. Comics of real artists doing real art. Great for artists, teachers, organizers, and people who work for social change.
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