As this research project is part of my Final Masters Project for the Creative Futures MA at Staffordshire University, I am required to produce both a reflective log of my progress and also a portfolio of some form. Both of these will be assessed but I also want these two required elements to be of relevance to the participants in this project and also to my audience. Therefore, as well as ensuring that I meet the assessment criteria I also want the reflective log and portfolio to be of relevance to all involved and to other people within the same area of work who may find this research of interest. Here is what I intend to create:
This public academic blog will record the process of the development and undertaking
of the project consisting of enquiry and examination, ideas generation, data
gathering, interviews, varied research activities and methods, video evidence,
reviews of events, commentary on personal learning and reflections on the
approaches to inclusive arts at Epic Arts Cambodia and congruous organisations
in the UK. In simple terms this blog will track everything I do regarding this project including my actions and also the reflections and reasoning behind decisions I make or conclusions I draw.
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| Local children watch a performance by the Inclusive Arts Students |
A portfolio consisting of the following parts:
1. A
short film about the project that will document the very basics of the project to aid easier explanation of the project as a whole. The film will include footage taken in both Cambodia and the UK and will include some short interview clips form a small selection of people involved. My aim is to be able to create a short overview of the project and provide a context for people wanting to understand the project before they delve further in to the research.
2. A
video document of the presentation about the approaches to inclusive arts at Epic
Arts Cambodia with accompanying presentation material. This presentation will be given at the UK organisations that I visit and I will film the presentation and also provide the presentation material alone side this. This will enable people who can not attend the presentations to be able to assess the information discovered at Epic Arts in Cambodia
3. A
written report of the investigation in to the perceptions, experiences and practices
of activity participants, facilitators and programme managers of Epic Arts
Cambodia and congruous organisations in the UK. The report will be produced in
English, Khmer, a simple picture format and audio formats to make it accessible
to all participants. It will be available to access online via the Epic Arts website enabling anyone to read the research and download the report.
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| The Inclusive Arts Students rehearse for the Epic Art Showcase March 2014 |
What is the timeline for this project?
This project will be
delivered between March 2014 and May 2015, with initial research being
undertaken in Cambodia between March 2014 and October 2014. A research period
in the UK will commence in November 2014 with a written report being produced
during February and April 2015 and the final date for submission of the final portfolio
is May 2015. Here is the month-by-month timeline I have created for this project to ensure that I stay on track and complete the project in the time allocated.
Literature review
People of interest for this literature
review:
Adam Benjamin - Lecturer in
Theatre & Performance at Plymouth University. UK, specialising in
integrated dance practice. Uses dance as a medium for research
Alice Fox - Principal Lecturer and
Assistant Head in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Brighton. UK.
Leading the MA Inclusive Arts Practice. Uses ‘visual’ arts a medium for
research
Carrie Sandahl and Philip Auslander – Writers
of Bodies in Commotion: Disability and Performance.
Uses dance as a medium for research
Katie Goad/MaCabe – Co-Founder of Epic Arts
Kilkenny Collective for Arts Talent – Delivers day courses open to
disabled and non-disabled artists in Ireland. Uses ‘visual’ arts and drama as a
focus for its courses
Marcel Baaijens - Inclusion
Coordinator at the Learning Connextion. New Zealand. Uses ‘visual’ arts a
medium for research
Rikke Gurgens
Gjaerum and Bjorn Rassmussen –
Researchers of inclusive theatre. Norway. Uses drama as a medium for
research
Susan Finley – Associate professor at Washington State
University. Researcher of participatory arts practises and developer of
arts-based research
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| A student from the Special Education Project shows off his new creation to sell in the Epic Creations shop |
What do people mean by inclusive
arts?
In
discussing and defining inclusive arts, there are a number of similarities and
differences in the language used and its perceived meaning. Benjamin (1995)
reluctantly, but only for want of a better one uses the word ‘integrated’ to
describe his work with disabled and non-disabled people. Where as Bokslag and
Wheeler-Connolly (2009) writing for the Kilkenny Centre for Arts Talent (KCAT),
define the differences between inclusive and integration by stating that the
first is focused on bringing together all abilities to work equally and the
later being a venture where one section of society must adapt to be accepted by
another. Fox (2010) expresses inclusive
arts as a process of creative activities that are delivered to ‘marginalised’
and ‘non-marginalised’ people with a focus on the collaborative processes that
enable a change of social view.
There
is a different view of inclusive arts from Gjærum and
Rasmussen (2010) who use the term ‘inclusive’ to mean work where disabled people
are ‘included’ in an art form, but still work as a group of disabled people
without non-disabled people making a contribution. Baaijen (2013) as an
‘inclusion coordinator’, talks of ‘inclusion’ but this does not reflect the same idea
that Gjærum and Rasmussen hold of people with disabilities being ‘included’ in
a non-disabled setting or activity, but his view is focused on a ‘coming
together’ of the two groups through the arts.
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| A visually impaired student on the Inclusive Arts Course takes part in an art class at Epic Arts |
How are the roles of participants and facilitators viewed in inclusive arts?
Fox
(2010) emphasizes the importance of seeing the participants in a project as
equal in the dialogue of creative practice, not that the facilitator is the
‘expert’, but that each person learns from the other and she states that
ultimately, inclusive arts is about celebrating differences. Benjamin (2002) supports
this concept that ‘inclusive arts’ is a matter of exploration and the resulting
discovery of shared practice between disabled and non-disabled participants and
facilitators. Conroy (2009) of KCAT discusses that inclusive arts is focused on
artists of all background and abilities working to the same curriculum in their
own personal way which reflects their ability and situation.
Aylin
(2009) of KCAT also comments on the benefits of the unique experience of
inclusive arts, which presents ‘new interpretations’ or new ways of doing
something and in turn, breaks away from the ‘normal’ techniques that are used
in each particular art form. Benjamin (1993) speaks of the importance of how
the company he co-founded, Candoco Dance Company, is not a company run by those
with-out disabilities, for those with disabilities, but a matter of equal
placement and the focus is on the creative work that is produced by the coming
together of the individual people. Baajien (2013) uses the term
‘cross-pollination of the creative processes’ to explain this practice and the
resulting work of bringing non-disabled and disabled people together through an
inclusive arts project.
The
experience of shared benefit and learning is supported by Conroy (2009) of KCAT
who speaks of the experience of teaching in an inclusive arts-based classroom,
where she talks about the depth of learning that she, herself, experiences as a
teacher working with her students when applying a collaborative approach to her
teaching methods. Carson (2009) also of KCAT explains that inclusive arts can
distract from an individual’s physical or mental ability or disability by
bringing in to focus an individual’s creative ability. Fox (2010) proves this through
the reaction to the performance ‘Smudged’ she developed for the Tate Modern.
Fox explains that the audience began to see the artists as people and not ‘disabled’
people when they watched this performance.
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| Students and Staff at Epic in Cambodia take part in an inclusive sport session |
What is the view within inclusive
arts regarding process versus product
Benjamin (1993) brings the question of aesthetics
in to focus within this subject, by stating that if work is
to be produced by an ‘integrated’ company such as his company Candoco Dance
Company, then the performance standard and choreographic
quality should meet the same criteria of that of any other professional
contemporary company. Finley (2003) focuses more on the process and the ‘experiences
of passion, communion, and social
responsibility’, rather that the resulting aesthetic and ‘expert’ expectation
of the arts. Verwoord (2011), notes that she personally recognises that arts
can me more than a ‘human’ production in that it can add to our level of human
understanding. This description of the use of the arts to create deeper human
understanding is supported by Fox (2010) when she tell us that the idea of the
‘expert’ leading the ‘disabled’ should be forgotten and replaced with a shared
practice that aims to teach us more about what it means to be human. But she
does not feel that this should forgo the quality of work created and calls for
‘high quality and therefore value’ in inclusive arts.
Benjamin
(1993) encourages this idea of high quality in ‘integrated’/’inclusive’ dance
by expressing his frustrations when he has experienced audiences applauding the
‘disability’ in a performance, rather than the quality of the work that has
been created and he pushes for an acceptance and expectation of professionalism
in ‘integrated’ dance
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| A student on the Inclusive Arts Course at Epic Arts enjoys a movement workshop |
Is inclusive arts just another
word for arts therapy?
Through
the ‘Side By Side’ project, Fox (2013) is clear to state that ‘inclusive arts
practice’ is not the activity of non-disabled ‘helping’ the disabled, but that
the two combine to achieve collaborative working practices, whether this is between
students, teachers or facilitator. Katie Goad, co-founder of Epic Arts,
supports this idea (Turnball 2008), by commenting that inclusive arts is not
therapy or sympathy for those with a disability, but about the outcomes of the
creative joining of individuals through movement. Benjamin (1993) states that
through leading workshops he has seen how non-disabled participants are often
surprised by how much they are challenged and that this desire for quality and
artistic professionalism, through physically and mentally challenging work, are
not included in dance therapy which is seen as ‘caring; for those with disabilities.
Sandahl and
Auslander (2005) comment on how dance, art, drama and music work done with disabled
people is often lead by non-disabled people wanting to ‘help’ disabled people. Gjærum
and Rasmussen (2010) support this by recoginsing that the disabled people they
have worked with often see themselves as service users in the arts based activities
they are offered, rather than artists themselves. Interesting,
Sandahl and Auslander (2005) comment on the fact that even in the ‘theory
setting’, people can unintentionally experience this benefit of collaboration
between disabled people and non-disabled people and suggested that the carers
of people with disabilities who are involved in ‘arts therapy’ projects,
benefit from a different view of their client as they begin to see them as an individual
with individual artistic ideas rather than a ‘disability’ that must be ‘dealt
with’ or ‘cared for’.
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| A inclusive arts student taking part in an end of the week reflection session at Epic Arts |
What is the gap in current research and
how will this project at Epic Arts, Cambodia close this gap?
Fox’s
research explores primarily what inclusive arts practice is within the field of
‘visual’ arts and people with learning disabilities which is akin to Baajien,
where as Benjamin’s focus is on the integration or inclusion of people with and
without physical disabilities through dance. The work at KCAT is focused on
inclusive arts for all, but uses mainly ‘visual arts’ to do this. Research in
to Epic Arts Cambodia will close a gap in current research as Epic Arts has a
varied approach as it works with the mediums of dance, drama and ‘visual’ art
and, in the future, music to deliver inclusive arts opportunities, it also
works with people with and without physically disabilities and those with and
with-out learning difficulties across a broad age range and also brings a
mixture of cultures together. Epic Arts insists on high-quality work in all
arts within its inclusive arts practices, but its work touches on both
‘process’ based work, through its education programmes and ‘professional’
standard work though its professional performance team.
There is a limited amount of information and research in to inclusive arts and I believe that a project that investigates what Epic Arts is doing in Cambodia and consequently shares these results with other UK based practitioners and organisations with the same outlook would be incredibly beneficial to all participants involved and would add to the current discourse surrounding inclusive arts. Through this project I will examine a variety of practices within a number of different art forms and will also be able to investigate both process and product focused artwork at Epic Arts Cambodia. The results of this research will be shared not only to UK partners, but will be available to a wider audience through a public blog and a written report.
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| An inclusive arts student taking part in a textiles based art workshop at Epic Arts |
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. Please do feel free to make any comments or give me feedback. You can also contact me via email - laura@epicarts.org.uk
References for the Literature Review
Aylin. S. (2009) Art and
Inclusion: The Story of KCAT. Self-Published by KCAT. Colour World Print. Kilkenny
Baaijen
(2013). Marcell Baaijens Talks about
Inclusive Education. Film. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3JQSPxlVnE - Accessed 5.2.2013)
Benjamin. A. (1993) In Search of Integrity.
Dance Theatre Journal.
Autumn.
Vol 10, No 4
Benjamin.
A. (1995) Unfound Movement: Integration in dance training, it's potential
pitfalls and prizes. Dance
Theatre Journal. Summer. Vol 12. No 1
Benjamin.
A. (2002) An evolution
in practice
Integrated practice: History, background and the future.
Animated Magazine (Foundation for Community Dance). Summer Edition
Bokslag.
P and Wheeler-Connolly.B.(2009). Art and
Inclusion: The Story of KCAT. Self-Published by KCAT. Colour World Print.
Kilkenny
Carson.J. (2009) Art and
Inclusion: The Story of KCAT. Self-Published by KCAT. Colour World Print. Kilkenny
Conroy. J. (2009) Art and
Inclusion: The Story of KCAT. Self-Published by KCAT. Colour World Print. Kilkenny
Finely (2003). Arts-Based Inquiry in QI: Seven
Years From Crisis to Guerrilla Warfare. Qualitative Inquiry, Volume 9 Number 2, 2003 281-296. Sage Publications
Fox (2010). Inclusive Arts. Film. (http://youtu.be/x7E1HSK7DbA - Accessed - 4.2.2014)
Fox
(2013) Side By Side: Learning Disability,
Art and Collaboration. Event/project leaflet. Published 2013.
Gjaerum. R
and Rasmussen. B. 2010.
The Achievements of Disability Art: A
Study of Inclusive Theatre, Inclusive Research, and Extraordinary Actors. Youth Theatre Journal, 24:99–110, 2010
Sandahl.
C. and Auslander. P. (2005). Bodies in
Commotion: Disability and Performance. The University of Michigan Press. Michigan.
USA (1st Edition)
Turnball.
R. (2008) In Cambodia,
giving a stage to 'inclusive arts'. New York Times. Published Tuesday
June 24th 2008
Verwoord.
R. (2011). Participatory
Artistic Quilt making for Peace building and Peace Education: Reflections on a
Workshop in the International Institute for Peace Education 2010 and on a
Research Study. Journal of Peace educational
and social justice. Volume 5 Number 3 (2011): 284-302
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