Activating Social Change through Art
Sponsors: Check Your Head and Sierra Youth Coalition
Activating Social Change Through Art utilizes the creative tools of interactive storytelling, mapping and collage to engage and inspire Vancouver youth around specific issues of social change.
The project involves a series of youth facilitated workshops and the development of a drop-in arts studio. Three workshops will be presented in local high school classes:
"Tell it Like it Can Be" engages interactive storytelling exposing students to inspiring examples of social and environmental change, brought about by people like them.
"Globalization - Mapping the New World" supports participants to create their own maps of 'the world as they see it', in the process re-examining and challenging the way we are encouraged to see the global relations as hierarchically organized and divided by borders.
"(re)Constructing Media" employs collage and writing to explore the words and images the media use to create and reinforce certain stereotypes and characterizations of young people.
Youth participating in these workshops along with other interested youth will be invited to come to a weekly drop-in, open space art studio. This space will provide the opportunity to expand on the creative processes in the workshops and use them to deepen their understanding of social and environmental issues and exploring concrete ways they can affect change.
The goals of the program are:
- To provide for greater arts and creativity-based methods for exploring issues and solutions;
- To improve participants capacity for critical thinking for identifying power dynamics and imbalances, along with visions for change and solution development;
- To counter feelings of increased confusion and cynicism among youth when faced with information about issues such as global inequality, the power of corporate media, the impacts of climate change and more;
- To offer a space and creative tools for youth from diverse backgrounds to further explore and develop their capacity to be active and engaged citizens;
- To move beyond youth who are ‘already converted’ and reach out to those otherwise unexposed to the kind of information, resources and opportunities for critical thinking offered through connecting with high school students in regular classes.
Contact Information
-
Check Your Head
Olive Dempsey, Program Coordinator
olive@checkyourhead.org -
Youth Contact:
Emma (Sierra Youth Coalition)
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