Creative engagement, a path to a better community
For this piece, my group is tasked with advocating for and explaining exactly what creative engagement actually means. Creative engagement is something that can be completely and positively altering for a community. It’s all about making a community better, through arts that create a positive and happy space for the people and the surrounding environment. In my quest to understand the full intent and story behind creative engagement, I was able to interview John Keller, a co-worker and friend of Dan Swern, the creative engagement group’s leader. John is the director of education and outreach at coLAB Arts, which is a local arts organization aimed at creating a better community through outreach and creative activities.
An example of a project that coLAB has initiated is the Watershed Sculpture Project. As stated on the organization website, “new public sculpture works are commissioned and created from refuse collected during local stream clean ups with the Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership. These sculptures create greater awareness of our watershed and the need for community involvement to restore its health” (www.colab-arts.org). Creative engagement is all about community involvement and awareness to repair what might need some repairing. Personally, I find this project to be empowering. The Lower Raritan Watershed and nearby public waterways are weighed down with the trash and left-behind items of a community who is either not aware of the problem, or currently uninterested in fixing the issue. Through community engagement and motions like the Watershed Sculpture Project, coLAB is able to bring awareness to an issue that truly needs it.
I asked John exactly what creative engagement was to him. “On the community level, creative engagement is trying to get the community to imagine itself other than just what it is. To actually imagine what is the potential of a place”. He explained the importance of creative engagement comes from the fact that a lot of places don’t really do this kind of work. A lot of communities just accept their situation as stagnant, with an almost it is what is it schema, as opposed to going in and engaging through storytelling, arts, and community conversation. When creative engagement is penciled into the equation, there is a new motion for positive results.
Creative engagement works because it looks at the big picture of what can be done. “A big motivation of mine is that I see what New Brunswick can become.” There are definitely traditional jobs in the arts and community development, but creative engagement really isn’t one of them. It stems from creativity and a want to better a community. Creative engagement works towards results through utilizing art, visuals, conversation, movement, and so on. Social justice themes are taken both educationally and creatively, and worked on with an intent to bring awareness and a new breath of positivity. In theory, the Watershed Sculpture project is awesome, and in practice even better. With the future of New Brunswick’s waterways in mind, artists are able to create amazing sculptures that are both artistically pleasing and educationally powerful.
Creative engagement can be intertwined to bring a unique impact, whether it be the Watershed Sculpture Project, an event in which community members are given the opportunity to learn about arts they otherwise might not, or a program that brings awareness to a social justice issue in a community. I learned a lot through my conversation with John on the importance of giving back to the community, and I am impressed with how John Keller and coLAB Arts are able to do this in such a unique and monumental way. Creative engagement is something that more places should be harnessing. The possibilities to utilize it and the programs that are possible through it are virtually endless.
