Art with Heart

The beauty of blogging is that it allows me to incorporate multi-media and is a great way to share a wide variety of resources and interesting pieces of media that inspire me with other people.  As this blog is mostly for the purpose of responding to readings I have mostly been sticking to the written word to express myself and share my thoughts about the readings.  But, the next set of readings are about the Arts!  And as much as I believe that the written word can be art, I think its time to dedicate one blog to other forms of expression.

I completely agree with Bill McKibben that "what the world needs now, is art sweet art" and that there are few things more powerful.  I'm also loving this quote of his right now, "there also needs to be hope as well — visions of what it might feel like to live on a planet where somehow we use this moment as an opportunity to confront our consumer society, use it to begin the process of rebuilding community. They don’t have to be romantic visions, though a little romance wouldn’t hurt."


An example of some art ( I just wrote heart instead of art... subconscious slip?) with vision and hope...


 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raGSqdUI1IQ 


And tonight I just got back from seeing Johnny Clegg live at Butchart Gardens.  First of all - what a venue.  What a gorgeous place to dance the night away to live music.  I was inspired to learn more about Johnny Clegg and was looking up some of his history and activism, because if you haven't heard of him he isn't your average musician.  He is a singer, a songwriter, a dancer, anthropologist and a musical cultural and environmental activist.  He played at COP 17 at the Climate for a Change concert, but sadly I didn't get to see him there.  Happily, my Mom got me tickets to see him play on a warm, sunny, summer's evening and I took a much needed hiatus from school to spend some time with family and friends, dancing under big trees and being transported back a few weeks to the past 7 months that I spent in South Africa.  It was blissful and rejuvenating. Johnny Clegg's own words describe the importance of getting out into nature to refresh our spirit and soul - He wrote, about playing a conference in the Durban botanical gardens - "Living in the City, it is extremely important to reconnect with a living environment that lives and breathes independently of the cities artificial man-made character. We know from psychological studies that the colour green produces feelings of calmness and pleasure. Botanical Gardens remind us that within this space thousands of living trees, plants, flowers, and all the insects, birds and small mammals, have a place in our life. It is a wonderful thing to go to such a space and rediscover this fundamental truth."




Johnny Clegg in the park


I just love it when people use their art (particularly music) to try to do good in the world.  And so many people are doing just that!  When I read McKibben's first article (essay), I was a bit surprised that he was saying there was little art about climate change, because I feel like I have seen a fair amount.  So I was glad to read his follow up article saying that in fact people were waiting in the wings, ready to release their art on the world. 


When I went to Durban for COP17 I didn't want to go there to fight with our "government" which was the role I had always played up until that point as the coordinator of the Canadian Youth Delegation.  This time I wanted to take a team of environmental educators with the purpose of using the conference for environmental education.  And so six of us fundraised and set off to Durban for a month where we used art as our medium for expression.  Not our expression, but that of the kids!  We launched a project called Power to the Kids and did workshops at schools, orphanages, camps etc. about their vision for their future.  They then depicted their vision through art.  We did the same workshops in schools in Victoria and Vancouver and when we were at COP17 we created a huge collaborative mural of all of their visions!

The mural we put together using South African and Canadian kids' art showing THEIR vision for THEIR future :-)

A beautiful piece out of Vancouver, BC.

One of my personal favourites!!

There is so much I want to share on the topic of art . Art with heart!


A year ago a group of our Victoria FUN Ambassadors took an art for social change workshop and created posters for a Water Walk that was put on by Positively Afrika to raise awareness about water issues in Kenya.  Check out their great work!


Water Walk Art Video


Here's another example of a different type of art activism.... can you find me in the photo?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/3092486897/


And finally - this is hot off the press.  The exhibit just started, and it sure is different - http://www.projectaware.org/update/breaking-all-rules-cause



I could write ten blogs about art, so maybe I'll write another one tomorrow.  If not, I'll leave it at this and head to bed feeling inspired about arts-based methodologies to research and how to have more art (of all kinds) in my life!