In the three months since the end of the demonstration project, the most
significant insight demonstrated by the Weaving the Web project appears
to be this: art, education and organizing, when practiced together, are
a powerful strategy for bringing people together for social change.
Each speaks to distinct but inter-connected arenas of a truly democratic
society; together, they coalesce the process of social change into an
integrated whole. Put simply, it could be said this way:
Organizing leads to power; Education leads to knowledge; Art leads to
freedom.
At a more pragmatic level, Weaving the Web demonstrates that artists,
educators and organizers can translate these abstract concepts into
reality:
Artists' work can be an outreach tool for community organizing,
fundraising, and public relations
Organizers can help artists gain
promotional and media skills
Educators can help ground the work of
artists and organizers in the day-to-day realities and priorities of
grassroots families
Art can help educators teach young people about
social history, cultural literacy and community values
Arts projects
can introduce community members (especially children, families and
artists) to social change efforts
Artists, in their capacity as
educators and organizers, can create opportunities for members of the
community to express themselves
Organizers, in their capacity as
educators, can feed back stories, issues, feelings to the community for
self-reflection
Organizers can help artists and educators clarify
their political objectives, and artists and educators can help
organizers make their work more tangible to grassroots families in the
community
Educators and artists working together can improve the
perceptions of people about their own community
Organizers working
with educators and artists can improve the perceptions of people outside
a community
Within six months, with little more than one
(admittedly amazing) part-time cultural organizer, the collaborating
arts organizations are proud to say they were able to serve more than
100 underserved low-income African American families as audience members
for two community residencies. These coalition benefits represent
approximately $36,000.
The 18 organizations who participated in the six-month Weaving the Web
pilot project agree: Artists, educators and organizers, working
together, can mobilize resources and energy in the community beyond what
any of the three can do separately. Moreover, they have concluded that
the most effective social change efforts integrate some combination of
all three practices.
The project's success is attributable largely to the organizations and
individuals who were part of the Coalition, and their commitment to
bottom-up organizing approaches. The group met regularly (2 to 10 times
per month) for the six-month pilot period. They evolved some specific
agreements and techniques that became integral to implementation of the
Weaving the Web project:
The Coalition as a whole is the central decision-making body; they are
its members, planners, coordinators, implementers and evaluators. There
are no officers. Facilitators guide participants through an agenda that
is designed by Coalition members and based on discussions in prior
Coalition meetings. Decisions are made by consensus. Although this
process is slower than majority vote, there is a greater propensity for
each member to share ownership of decisions made by the collective,
consequences and benefits. Members are also more engaged in the
planning and implementation of tasks and activities.
Task forces are the workhorses of the Coalition. At the beginning of
the pilot period, task forces were created for each project (Community
School and Weaving the Web), plus a Coalition-Building Task Force was
created to oversee and nurture the infrastructure of the overall group.
By the end of the pilot period, two additional task forces (Auditorium
and Resource Development) were created to address other pressing issues.
Coalition Meetings maintain a common agenda structure designed to make
the background, intentions and decision-making processes of the group as
transparent, accessible and participatory as possible. The agenda
structure includes: (a) Spiritual Reflection, (b) Cultural Sharing, (c)
Agenda, (d) Coalition History, (e) Task Force Reports, (f) Planning and
Decision-making, and (g) Announcements.
Story Circles
One methodology used by the Coalition to facilitate
exchange and reach consensus was Story Circles. Participants in a
circle, in circular order, have an opportunity to address the topic at
hand preferably in story style in a limited time frame. No one else
can speak until her/his turn. No one can interrupt the speaker. When
everyone has had a chance to speak, a second round may occur or cross
talk, where questions can be asked, comments made about the topic.
Coalition members found that Story Circles promote participation, the
validation of each individual, cooperative attitudes, and a greater
appreciation for diverse points of view. Use of the Story Circle helps
counter argumentation for its own sake, infighting between groups and
passivity. Although time consuming, it proved effective in building a
broader level of buy-in and participation among Coalition members.
Cultural Organizer
From the beginning of the project, the Weaving the
Web partners understood the importance of having an individual
responsible for coordinating the project. It was due to recognition of
this importance that the partners decided to concentrate the original
grant monies in one neighborhood, instead of dividing it for multiple
efforts. The outcome was money well invested.
Nilima Mwendo, the Cultural Organizer (job announcement) for the project, played two
essential roles:
(1) She assured that the objectives of Weaving the Web were met (and in
this capacity she headed the Weaving the Web task force); and
(2) She was also a member of the coalition-building task force, and as such
helped with the planning structure, process and planning designs and
assured the general functioning of the Coalition.
In this latter capacity, she also ensured that art and culture remained
central to the vision and goals of the entire group.
Mwendo's contributions to the project should not be underestimated. Her
work in constructing the project and mobilizing people on behalf of the
Coalition as a whole (rather than just the arts component) helped give
Weaving the Web validity, as well as deeper roots, within the community
effort. Moreover, her personally deep roots within the Douglass
Coalition community—she is a lifetime resident and community
activist—helped enormously in defining the project as truly "bottom
up."
