The Results (Part 1) - What attitudes enable successful inclusive arts practice at Epic Arts?

Over the last 12 months I have being trying to find out what inclusive arts means, in reality and in action, to the people at Epic Arts in Cambodia. Through interviews and observations with staff, students and participants at Epic Arts, I have being trying to answer this question:

“What are the perceptions, experiences and practices of activity participants, facilitators and programme managers at Epic Arts Cambodia?”

To try to answer this question, I conducted interviews and observations and from these I found 3 key areas that people identified as seen to be needed to make successful inclusive arts happen at Epic Arts. These are:

‘Attitudes’ – How people need to think and feel.

‘Actions’ – What people need to actively do.

‘Personal Skills’ – What skills people need to cultivate.

These attitudes, actions and personal skills are the foundation of the work that happens at Epic Arts and are I hope these elements can assist in a deeper understanding of Epic Arts and the essence of its inclusive arts practice and become a guideline for what is needed for successful inclusive arts practice in other organisations.

In this blog post I will discuss this question;

“What attitudes enable successful inclusive arts practice at Epic Arts?”

The people I interviewed at Epic Arts, both staff and students, were asked this question and there were a number of clear areas that emerged from their answers.

These are the ATTITUDES that are seen to be required for successful inclusive arts practice at Epic Arts:

•  Value each person’s individual creativity
• Have a ‘Can do’ Attitude
•  See the ability in others
• Understand that we are human

The first attitude that was seen to be important for enabling successful inclusive arts practice was to ‘Value Each Persons Creativity’. People felt that it was important to value each persons individual creativity in all areas by focusing on the need to see each person as unique and that they have an exclusive way of being creative. This unique and individual expression is to be valued and celebrated for its idiosyncrasy.

One staff member said –

“I think inclusive arts promotes the value and creativity of every  single person.”

A performer reinforced this message by saying –

“We make sure that we can include everyone’s creative ideas as each person has something creative in their mind in dance, in drama and in art.”

By accepting someone’s manner of displaying their creativity and creative ideas, a person is given value and this seems to be at the heart of delivery, management and learning at Epic Arts.

An inclusive arts student said –

“Different bodies move differently and different minds think differently and this makes new, unique things from each persons inside creativity”

By seeing a persons individual creativity and valuing it for being a creative expression of a different body and mind, the person is seen as unique and can contribute something ‘sui generis’ to a creative process that no one else could. The person then becomes exclusive in their input, output and purpose.

The special education project consultant said –

“We are all creative people and the inclusive arts work at Epic Arts enables everyone to express their creative ideas and to have these ideas accepted.”

I think the idea that the consultant sees all people as creative is significant to the success of practice and empowerment at Epic Arts. She points out that inclusive working in the arts enables everyone to express their creative ideas…. they are enabled, they are already creative; but need to be empowered and permitted to express their inner creative dialogue.

A performer expressed this very simply;

“It is important to see each person as a unique, creative, human being if we want to be successful in being inclusive artists and practitioners.”

Without this focus on individual creativity, the inclusive arts practices would not be successful as this cartoon points out. 

By asking the animals to achieve a task in exactly the same way, it isolates every other animal other than the animal that has the ability to achieve within the set boundaries presented. Each person ‘creates’ in a different way and this needs to be accepted and celebrated. Within inclusive arts there needs to be a wide understanding of enabling people to achieve the expression of their inner creativity in what ever way they do this and not by being compared to others.

As this quotes above says, “Everyone is a genius! But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid”. What I have seen at Epic Arts is that people don’t have to fit in to boxes of ability and inability, but that they have their own way of being creative that does not need a label or a need to understand and define that can confine - all are appreciated for what they do and for the individual way that this is executed.

The Inclusive Arts Course at Epic Arts reflects this idea of individual creativity as one volunteer says.

“Students aren’t assessed on a scale of ‘bad to good, or ‘poor to excellent’ but on a scale of their personal best and personal ability.”

One persons ‘poor’ is different to another persons, just as one persons ‘excellent’ is different to another persons An individual’s ability and creative development should be valued and seen as achievement within their unique expression, definitions and ability.

Have a ‘Can do’ Attitude

The second attitude highlighted was a  ‘Can do Attitude’. This attitude is about ‘giving it a go’, having a try and doing something even when other people don't believe you can.

One staff member said that,

“When people tell me I can not do something because I am in a wheelchair, it makes me want to try something more and work out a way of doing it.”

Staff and students at Epic Arts shared that often they find themselves battling attitudes of what they can and cant do in society within the country and sadly these attitudes are often experienced first in their own families and communities. People with disabilities are told they cant leave their homes, travel, get married or have a job and for women there is an additional oppression as they must fight for the right to independence and the opportunity to make their own decisions and have a voice that is heard.

Many Epic Arts staff and students have to actively show this ‘can do’ attitude in everything they do, to combat attitudes they experience daily in their communities and in their families.

One staff member said:

“We try to show people what we can do so that people can learn and understand about the abilities of all people, whether this is performing or making a piece of art or attending a meeting, we need to get out there and show people what is possible”

One staff member I interviewed at Epic Arts provided an example of this ‘can do’ attitude in action.

Sok has been told all his life he cannot do things, but he has proved everyone wrong. He lost his arms when he picked up a landmine when he was 7 years old and his family and surrounding community felt that Sok’s life would be forever restricted by his disability and almost not worth living. But Sok’s ‘Can Do Attitude’ shined through. He was told he could never ride a bicycle so he learnt to do it in the dark so no one would be able to see him practice; now he has his own motorbike. He was then told he could’t be a teacher because of his disability (and is still banned from doing so by the government) but he has now opened his own school with over 70 students. By trying and striving and believing, he was able to defy the confining attitudes of others and develop to succeed.

One of the non-disabled students on the Inclusive Arts Course at Epic Arts shared a conversation with a man in the village when he and his friends were explaining about what they did on the course –

“The man said, “But how can he dance, he is in a wheelchair. You must help him because you are not in a chair”. I said “No, I dance with him, he doesn’t need my help, he can do it himself!.”

All the students aim to have an ‘I’ can do it attitude and a ‘they’ can do it attitude.

One of the performers at Epic Arts also said that,

“People told me I would not be able to get a job because I have a disability. I believed that I could….now I have a good job, I am an artist and I travel around the world”

For many people with disabilities in Cambodia it’s other peoples attitudes that cause the problems. People with and without disabilities have to push against these perspectives and prove that all people ‘can do’, but to do this a ‘Can Do Attitude’ needs to be developed and cultivated by leaders.

One of the consultants at Epic Arts said,

“I think it's important for my team to have the attitude that they will give it a try, as the students experience is so important and if we can make something happen for them with a little bit of rethinking then we should.

It’s just about thinking we can do it!”

These are images are of activities at Epic Arts such as paddle boarding and a boat trip and show this idea of implementing the ‘Can Do Attitude’ for the benefit of the participants at Epic Arts. 

As the consultant says above, the students experience is paramount and instead of saying it can’t be done, it’s just a case of having the confidence to give it a try and work out how it can be made possible.

See the ability in others

The third attitude that was highlighted in the interviews was to ‘see the ability in others’. The people I interviewed often talked about when people hadn't seen the ability they had and had made assumptions about what they could and could not do.

One staff member said:

“It is very important to not decide what a person can do before they try to do it themselves. If we tell people they will not be able to do something, they might believe it and never try it.”

By making the decision for a person about what they can and can’t do, they may never discover their own ability as they have that opportunity to explore removed by another person’s attitude.

One of the managers at Epic Arts, Buntheng points out that the,

“Development of people can only happen when the ability is seen in all people and time is take to encourage their ability.

Believing in what other people can do is the first step to them developing and growing, if we don’t see the possibilities for someone we can stop their potential in its tracks, you have to first see the possibilities and then work to make it happen.”

Seeing the ability in someone is not about putting pressure on someone or pushing them beyond what they feel comfortable with, but its about giving everyone the opportunity to try, to see the possibilities and to encourage, enable and empower them.

An Art teacher at Epic said,

“Its important to believe that everyone is capable of doing anything if they want to, they just need to do it in their own way. If a person can genuinely not do something, that's ok, but you have to let that person work it out for themselves, not make the decision for them.”

By seeing ability in someone, that person then has the opportunity to make a choice, a personal choice based on their own knowledge and personal understanding. When I spoke to Sok about this, he said

“People tell me a lot of the time that what I do is good, but I think they are not always honest with me as they feel sorry for me as I have no arms. I want to say to people unless you tell me how I can be better, I cannot learn and I cannot grow.”

Part of seeing the ability in people is about aiming to discover what the true premium is that a person can achieve in reality. Sok feels that people are amazed by his ability to do many things and see what he can do, but are not always honest about what he can do better. We need to first see ability and then discover what the best is that a person can achieve and then push for their highest quality to be realised within their capabilities.

In seeing the ability of people, many people I interviewed talked about the importance of creating work that was of high quality. One student said:

“The performances we do change peoples way of thinking in Cambodia, they see disabled and non-disabled working together and we are the same high quality, we have the same skill and we are all good.”

I feel he is saying here that if the standard of the performers, whether they are disabled or non-disabled is high, then people in Cambodia can see that those with disabilities have the ability to do what those without disabilities can do on an equal level. This is not pushing those with a disability to be the ‘same’ as a those without a disability; not trying to be ‘non-disabled’ but being viewed on an aligned platform of respect, understanding and acceptance….this is a potent message in Cambodia!

A number of people shared their frustrations at people viewing the work that was performed or created at Epic as ‘good for people with disabilities’. One performer said,

“I get frustrated about when people see our performances as ‘good for people with disabilities’. Often it is not seen as professional work, but as ‘good enough’ or ‘nice’, I want people to accept what is created as art for being art, not for being made by a particular group of people.”

Some of the performers said that at times they felt that they had more to prove and had to work harder to be appreciated as an artist because they were part of an inclusive company. From my experience, I have seen that people are often shocked when Epic Encounters perform in Cambodia because they think it will just be a ‘nice’ dance, they are amazed when they see what the performers do, the quality that is presented and the issues that are addressed.

Understand that we are human

The fourth attitude that was revealed in the interviews and observations was to understand that we are human. This idea of ‘being human’ rose to the surface in a number of forms in the interviews. People talked a lot about how, as humans, we make mistakes and get things wrong when trying to do our best. One staff member said,

“When working with so many different people, we can all make mistakes while we are trying to do the right thing. but we are human and that's just what happens.”

Working at Epic Arts with the different staff and students, languages and abilities means that there are a number of issues and elements that need to be considered and in working inclusively it is easy to make mistakes. People explained that sometimes they forgot that someone couldn't hear, or understand or that someone needed a ramp to get in to a building, they would then feel embarrassed or ashamed for forgetting. But there seems to be an acceptance at Epic Arts that it is human to make mistakes and as long as everyone tries their best and accepts that everyone genuinely is trying to do the right thing, mistakes can be rectified without anger or frustration and then forgotten.

One performer said…..

“We must understand that we are not all perfect, we are human and we make mistakes. Sometimes people are trying to do the right thing, but just get it wrong, that's ok.”

As well as explaining that we need to understand the mistakes we make as humans, people talked about being human in terms of creativity and the insight in to what it means to be human in the world that can be presented through creative expression. This answer presented in an interview conducted at Epic Arts paints this picture of discovering what it means to be human through creative exploration;

“The beauty of inclusive arts is that it can teach us so much about what it means to be human and have human expression and about each different human perspective of the world.”

This idea that the arts give us a window in to the soul of each person and an idea of a persons perspective on the world as a human being, presented through artistic practice and facilitation was talked about a number of times in interviews conducted. I could see that people at Epic Arts believed that the processes that were in action and the work that was created from these processes, teaches so much about the individual and about what it is to be human every day.

One workshop participant explored the concept of being human and different in this answer. She said;

“We need to accept the bodies and minds that we have and those bodies and minds that other humans have, no two bodies and minds are the same. This is what is interesting and what creates different art and creative ideas when all these things all come together.”

I wish to embrace the simple way that this is explained, that the world is made of different bodies and minds and that when these are enabled to combine and be creative, something unique is revealed. Through this statement the workshop participant is explaining how inclusive arts can celebrate the uniqueness of each person in the world, rather that focusing on the need for people to conform to a perceived norm and be the same as everyone else.

In the next blog post, 'The Results (Part 2) - What actions enable successful inclusive arts practice at Epic Arts?', I will discuss the 'Actions' seen to enable successful inclusive arts practice at Epic Arts.