A Second Wind and a New Book

For the past month I've been in a whirlwind of everything happening very quickly interspersed with moments of absolute nothing. Neither of these states has encouraged my writing here, although I have scribbled in notebooks while familiarizing myself with the local bus and train system. But once I get home I want nothing more to sleep and on the days when I didn't leave then I just never got enough rolling.

But enough of that.

My brain has been roiling back and forth with thoughts of Community Art and art in general always on the crux of the wave. The first really momentous piece was when I was offered a job in the community art department of a local museum. This spurred me into a flurry of movement. I organized my life around my new job and my creative mind started clicking away as I considered all the new possibilities.

This new step prompted me to make up my mind about what to buy from New Village Press. Although because of a bit of confusion with the shipping the book took a month to get to me, I have started reading Museums and Civic Dialogue. So far I've almost completed the first segment on a exhibition put forward in 2002 by the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle. The exhibition was called Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics, and explored the implications of the then recent completion of a "rough draft" of the human genome.

Having little background in science, reading about this exhibition taught me just as much about the science of genomics as it did of the art that was used to contemplate the field. This is a perfect example of what the exhibition was trying to achieve: an inter-disciplinary approach to learning and understanding. By combining artists of all kinds with scientists, librarians, public speakers and more, the Henry reached a much wider community at a much deeper level.

As I read, I thought about how fundamental the inter-disciplinary approach to art is to Community Art. Because communities often aren't focused around art, a community artist has to enter into the community by understanding and working with whatever is fundamental. In this case, the general interest and concern about genomics in Seattle, a city with a large investment in biotechnology, was a perfect way to bring art to the rest of the community. It also gave the community a different and deeper way of thinking about genomics.

The New Village Press

I've been haunting the New Village Press website recently, wallowing in indecision about whether or not to buy one of their fantastic books. On one hand, I would love to be able to sit down and plow my way through everything that has been put forth by this wonderful publisher, but on the other I have reading supplies coming out of my ears and less and less time to do anything about it. Reading about the press in and of itself has proven to be interesting however, because the places that support community art are a vital part of the effectiveness of community art.

Its also been useful to see how a publisher which puts forth so much writing on community art, and other community projects, describes itself. The 'about us' section starts of by saying "New Village books serve the interdependent fields of social justice, participatory planning, community building, ecology, and community-based arts. The Press crosses boundaries between professional, academic, and informal education with books that engage practitioners and community activists working together to rebuild neighborhoods."

I found it interesting that community art was lumped with so many other fields that somehow manage to coincide perfectly. Recently, I have begun to think more seriously about the applications of community art. Each of the "interdependent fields" that the Press mentions in their 'about us' section could be seen through the lense of community art. Indeed, as the word interdependent indicates, most of the fields overlap. Personally, I was introduced to community art hand-in-hand with community building and social justice by a wonderful woman named Claudia Bernardi, who I will write much more about later.

The books published by New Village Press range from ones solely on art to ones solely on the environment, but the ones I find most appealing involve both or more subjects. While I keep telling myself that if I find the money to spend I should get a book completely about community art, seeing as that is what I am going into, I keep drifting towards the environmental community art books. This stems from a recent reawakened interest in the uses of community art to better the environment.

Only time and the amount of money left in my account will tell what I end up buying and reading from New Village Press, but whatever it is will undoubtably make its way back here.