Making
Adapted from “LISTEN: A Case Study in Socially Engaged Art”
In January 2017, Cal Cullen from Wave Pool and Steven Matijcio invited me to create a work of socially engaged art in Cincinnati.
Dear Caroline Woolard,The Contemporary Arts Center and Wave Pool Arts Center are working in partnership to pilot a new Socially Engaged Arts program this year for and with the city of Cincinnati, Ohio entitled ‘Shouting Distance.’ This program will bring a prominent artist to Cincinnati to respond to community needs, facilitated in deep partnership with an organization and a specific neighborhood or community.We’re very interested in your work and were wondering if this might be of interest to you?A few guidelines to note:–This project can begin at any time but must be completed by November 1st, 2018.–Depending on your proposed project, we will work with you to find a compatible community partner and assist in building this connection. –The final project must have a strong visual presence.–We have accommodations at Wave Pool for you (or can set up alternative housing if that location doesn’t make sense), but are willing to work with you to figure out how much time you would actually be in Cincinnati for this project.–At least one artist talk or public performance would be expected.–We have an honorarium to offer the pilot ‘Shouting Distance’ artist as well as funds for supplies, travel and hospitality, and production/facilitation assistance.If you are still reading this and are interested, we’d love to invite you to send us any thoughts or ideas you have. We’d be interested in hearing what concepts you’re looking to expand on or if you have something that you’d love to try for which this might be a good fit. By understanding a little bit about the direction you’re interested in heading with your work, we’ll be able to think more deeply about opportunities, histories, and groups here that might be relevant and worth exploring. We’re hoping that we can make this project as constructive and productive for you as it will be for us and the city of Cincinnati.Thank you so much and we look forward to your reply,Cal Cullen
Executive Director
Wave Pool: A Contemporary Art Fulfillment Center www.wavepoolgallery.org
fig. 6-5 Testing the old and new versions of the Principles of Cooperation Card Game (one of three listening objects from LISTEN by Caroline Woolard) at the Neighborhood Summit in March 2018. Photo by Maureen France.
In March 2017, after three or four phone calls with Steven Matijcio from the CAC and Cal Cullen from Wave Pool, I proposed that the group adapt the Center for Urban Pedagogy’s approach to bringing graphic designers and organizations together to support the organization’s graphic design needs. Adapting this approach to socially engaged art means asking local organizations what they want, rather than assuming they want to implement a visiting artist’s ideas. It took us a few months to come to consensus on this approach, and to shift the budget to match it. We hired MC Reitz, a local artist who was excited to facilitate daily engagement with the groups throughout the process, as I am based in New York City. MC's background in community organizing and ongoing work at a local level gave her the ability to engage with people in ways that would be impossible without her support.
asking local organizations what they want, rather than assuming they want to implement a visiting artist’s ideas
In May 2017, I proposed four ideas to local groups aligned with her efforts around economic justice: The Welcome Project, MORTAR, CincyStories, and the Cincinnati Union Co-op Initiative. The Welcome Project’s mission is “to engage, integrate, and empower marginalized and at risk refugees and immigrants by providing community connections, employment, education and skills training.” MORTAR “exists to ensure that all entrepreneurs and small businesses, regardless of socioeconomic status, gender, race, or background, have an opportunity to participate in the rejuvenation of our city.” Cincy Stories exists “to build community through story. We do this by host- ing live storytelling events, creating people based documentaries and working in neighborhoods to engage communities using the tools of story.” The Cincinnati Union Co-op Initiative (CUCI) is a non-profit that “partners with individuals and organizations to create worker-owned businesses that sustain families and help create an economy that works for all.”
I spoke with each group on the phone, first introducing myself and discussing possibilities and requirements for the project, which was commissioned by arts organizations who needed to demonstrate the project’s impact to funders through an arts-based framework. A commissioning organization may support an invisible or less visible process, but always needs a public event, and often physical objects, to photograph and document that the funds were well spent. This project would have to fulfill the requirement for a “strong visual presence,” even though the medium of social engagement is often about building relationships, a process that is not in itself visually compelling.
I then gave the groups a series of options to choose from, based on projects and platforms I had already developed, including a set of tools for listening, a peer learning space, a sculptural installation based on conceptions of time, and a wild card idea that would be developed together, from scratch, and made sure each group knew that they would be paid for their time. The groups then had time to determine which projects, if any, were of interest to them. (A longer version of this idea is here)
A commissioning organization may support an invisible or less visible process, but always needs a public event, and often physical objects, to photograph and document that the funds were well spent.
Here is the email I wrote to the partner organizations, to let them decide if we could work together, given the context, my skills, the schedule, and the budget.
April 30, 2017
Dear Sheryl, MC, Derrick, Bonnie, Mary, Katy, Lela, and Kristen,I am so grateful for your time and support in speaking to me over the past few weeks. As you know, I am trying to do something that moves between art and social change in Cincinnati, and I would love to hear your feelings about my ideas in progress, if you have time. If you’re too busy, that’s ok!I am very sensitive to the fact that many of you are overworked and under-resourced in a time of urgent social emergency, so I am offering 3 PROPOSALS for you each to weigh in on, over the next month, from now until June 1.Please let me know what you think by June 1st, so I can begin to incorporate your feedback to make one project that most people here feel is relevant.I appreciate any and all feedback by email: [email protected] or phone 929-522-9064 by June 1. Before I share 3 proposals with you, I want to reiterate the Background, my Skills, the Schedule, and the Budget, below.If you don’t have time, that is totally fine too. I want to hear from you if you have a strong feeling that one of these ideas is best.Thanks so much!CarolinePS: I’ve pasted the proposals below and also attached this writing as a PDF, for easy printing.
BACKGROUND
MY SKILLS
SCHEDULE
BUDGET
BACKGROUND
As you know from our conversations, I have been invited by Wave Pool and the Contemporary Arts Center to do a “socially engaged” art project in Cincinnati. The project should relate to the social issues facing residents today and must have a visual arts component. After I hear from you, I use your feedback to determine which project I feel will be of mutual growth for residents of the area, for each of you, and for the arts organizations. I will try to combine the feedback into one project. That project must be approved by Wave Pool and CAC. The project must also be documented for the funders of this project.
MY SKILLS
I am a facilitator, educator, visual artist, graphic designer, and producer of large-scale, public, participatory art events. As an educator, I’ve been teaching undergraduate and graduate sculpture and design classes at the School of Visual Arts and the New School in New York City since 2010. As a visual artist, my projects range from a café performance space run at MoMA in New York City (http://carolinewoolard.com/project/exchange-cafe/ ) to coins I created to circulate as an alternative currency (http://carolinewoolard.com/project/believing-stars/)
In my work as a convener and creative director of solidarity economy and cooperative groups, I have helped to gather groups together in projects like http://SolidarityNYC.org, http://nycreic.com, http://tradeschool.coop, and http://landscapesofprofit.com. I also make sculptures like tables for gathering (http://carolinewoolard.com/project/capitoline-wolves/) and card games for thinking about the commons (http://bfamfaphd.com/cards).
SCHEDULE
I will visit for a week between August 13–21st, to begin work on a project with some of you, based on the proposal I determine is best from your feedback. I will then return for a few days in the fall (anytime Sept 3–Dec 3) to present the project with a public event. The date of my return will ideally be tied to an existing event you are already organizing, or an event that you want to attention drawn to.
BUDGET
I have $2000 to pay partner organizations, and imagine that I could pay each group $500–800 (depending on the number of groups involved), or I could pay one group $2000.
PROPOSAL 1:
PROPOSAL 2:
PROPOSAL 3:
PROPOSAL 4:
PROPOSAL 1:
BARTER-BASED LEARNING SPACE
I facilitate the opening of a learning space that runs on barter, training the trainers to run the school using open source software and community organizing skills.
TradeSchool is a non-traditional learning community that runs on barter. We celebrate local wisdom, mutual respect, and the social nature of exchange. It works like this:
1) People offer to teach a class about something they know.
2) They decide on a list of barter items they're interested in receiving. Barter items can be in the form of goods or services, both tangible and intangible. For example: jars, music tips, clothes, vegetables, or help with something like finding an apartment.
3) Students sign up for their class by agreeing to bring something from their list.
You can see the online platform I developed at work here, and the sign up system: http://tradeschool.coop/ (we also have a robust back-end system where teachers propose classes and organizers approve them, as well as an email system to remind students).
PROPOSAL 2:
OBJECT FOR COMMUNICATION/LISTENING/GROUP WORK
Through a series of workshops with members, I create a functional and beautiful set of objects that reflect a listening/collaboration process. Maybe it is a kind of rug, a talking stick, a bowl, or another object that members of a group use to set the space for a contemplative practice or a kind of dialog or group work.
People could learn the skills of listening, attention, and collaboration that are essential to any family, business, school, or team. Whether patrons are working on a new project, an entrepreneurial endeavor, or a community-based initiative, patrons will benefit from practice spaces for approaches to collaboration. Who can build something that they have not yet imagined, drawn, debated, revised, and yet still desired? To communicate dreams—to create discursive spaces for imagination—the arts are essential. Great facilitation tools allow people to communicate across differences of opinion, experience, and expertise.
More information about the Center I have created in New York about this kind of group work: https://vimeo.com/198242353/34f85d904a
PROPOSAL 3:
INSTALLATION FOR REFLECTION
I create a space for reflection and dialog about hope for the future of Cincinnati, working with members and local residents to create a large-scale conversation about a shared topic of interest and an installation of kinetic/moving objects with water in a field.
It might feel like this:
On a Saturday afternoon, I found myself gathering with a large group of Cincinnati residents in a park (exact location TBD). Upon entering the park, I was given a small bowl with a tiny hole in the bottom. I walked over to the area where everyone was standing. I saw that they were gathered around an installation of many many oval- shaped objects on the ground.
Resting in the grass everyone was holding their bowl while look ing at one hundred larger bowls, oval-shaped, like two hands cupped together, holding water. The stillness of the water in the bowls reflected the clouds in the sky overhead. After a moment of silence, we were asked to take the small bowls we were holding, sit for a moment with them, and make a wish for the future of our country. When we were done with our wish, we were instructed to walk into the grass of the installation and to place our small bowl in one of the oval shaped larger bowls that made up the installation in the grass.
You can see a version of this sculpture in progress here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BKRRe1sjmrd/?hl=en
PROPOSAL 4:
YOU DECIDE!
What would be most helpful for you? You tell me.
The groups were most interested in the proposal about communication and listening (in their membership, in their organizations, and between members, organizations, and the public).
This became the actual timeline for our work together.
January–May: Designing the Process of Working TogetherConversations with all partners and proposal creation5 hours of MC's work / 20 hours of Caroline’s work
May–June: Design Questions"Do you want an artist to create an object for listening (or contemplation) in your organization?”To work with: Heartfelt Tidbits (Sheryl), CUCI (Kristen), MORTAR (Derrick)5 hours of MC's work / 5 hours of Caroline’s work
June–July: Interviews—Specific QuestionsWhen you hit obstacles, what is missing in communication? What is your desire for communication?To work with: Welcome Project/Heartfelt Tidbits (Sheryl), CUCI (Kristen), MORTAR (Derrick)MC emphasizes in-person Aug 13–20 meetings and confirms their availability then. $100 per group × 3 groups = $300 / 5 hours of MC's work
July–August: Synthesis of Interviews “What is wanted?” Resonant quotation5 hours of MC’s work / 3 hours of Caroline’s work
August–August: Week-long Visit“Would this object speak to your desire for, or obstacle to, communication?”Prototyping/dialog all week in gatherings with partners$100 per group x 3 groups = $3005 hours of MC’s work / 40 hours of Caroline’s work
September–November: First Round of Designs from Caroline80 hours of Caroline’s work
November–December: First round of Feedback from Partners$100 per group x 3 groups = $3005 hours of MC’s work / 5 hours of Caroline’s work
December–March: Production of Final Objects5 hours of MC’s work / 80 hours of Caroline’s work$100 per group x 3 groups = $300
March: Final Presentation/Celebration (In Person, with Caroline)40 hours of Caroline’s work / 10 hours of MC’s work$100 per group x 3 groups = $300
April: Reflection Document20 hours of Caroline’s work / 10 hours of Cal, Steven, and MC’s work
MC started by conducting in-person interviews using questions about listening practices that we designed together.
LISTEN — Interviews for Community-Engaged Design of Objects for Listening
Your group’s experience with listening
Inquiry re: objects as tools for listening/communication
Your group’s experience with listening
Was there a moment when people in your group were able to listen to one another deeply enough to change their minds?
If so, what allowed that to happen? Did it have anything to do with a process or a facilitator?
Was there a moment when your group was listened to (by the board / outside group / important figure) deeply enough to change their mind? How did this happen?
If so, what allowed it to happen? Did it have anything to do with a process or a facilitator?
Inquiry re: objects as tools for listening/communication
Artist Caroline Woolard wants to create, in dialog with each of you, objects that facilitate listening.
The object is not going to do more than the people can. These objects exist to celebrate and build on the successes groups and individuals have had with communication and listening, moments when your mind was changed AND moments when you changed the mind of other people. Think of it as a “trophy” to listening that you actually use, a tool imbued with power of what has worked in the past. A few tools will be made, and all of them will stay in the area.
What is an object for listening? An object for listening could be an object that reminds people how much they are speaking, it could be a timekeeping device, it could be an object for meditation or moments of silence, or it could be a rug that encourages people to step on the area that they are speaking from (a yellow area if they are proposing a new idea, a red area if they are responding to an idea, or a blue area if they are mediating between a new idea and a response). It could be a way to make a collective wish together.
Caroline Woolard will visit in person from August 14–18 and work with you from then until late January to make objects that reflect the kinds of listening you want to experience.
Have you ever used a talking piece or talking stick in your org? If so, how did it feel?
Have you ever taken a moment of silence in your group/organization, or started a meeting or event with a centering practice or other practice of being present in your body and mind? See chapter 1.
Are there spiritual /religious / listening/ facilitation practices that you bring into your group/ organization?
Do you know of any spiritual / religious / contemplative / facilitation practices that members practice at home and might be interested in bringing into the organization?
Do any of your existing practices around a moment of silence or spirit / religion in your group/ organization include objects? If so, what are they?
Have you ever had an experience in which an object or ritual supported or improved communication? If so, was it effective? How did it work?
What do you think about the idea of an object as a tool that celebrates and builds on prior success in communication?
What possibilities do you see? What skepticism do you feel?
Do you want Caroline Woolard to work with you to create an object for listening or communication in your group / organization?
Is there someone in your community that Caroline Woolard could work with to create an object together for your group or organization (and be paid), so that the object better reflects local skills and wisdom?
Last thoughts?
Logistics
Are you available to meet with Caroline between Aug 14–18? This is the only time she can be here in person between now and the final presentation, so she really hopes you can meet!
What days / times might be good?
Do any of your members / staff create objects / crafts / art? If so, what skills do they have and what kinds of objects do they create? Do you think they’d want to work with Caroline to create an object?
Do you think any of your members / staff would be interested in making objects for listening?
Possibilities:
Workshops: making things with Caroline from Aug 14–18!
Paid contract work: Caroline working with members / staff to make things from December–February.
Thank you!!!
MC wrote up key anecdotes from the interviews to assist me when I visited for the first time, in-person, in August. After a week-long visit in August, when the groups brainstormed with me and then confirmed what ideas for tools for listening were most interesting to them, I began to prototype sculptural tools, and to refine these objects in dialog with the partner organizations in the fall and winter.
Each object is a response to an organization’s unique way of listening: a storytelling game using small bronze objects for MORTAR and Cincy Stories, sets of ceramic cups for Welcome Editions, and a card game about cooperation for the Cincinnati Union Co-op Initiative. The final objects were presented first at the Contemporary Art Center, at a private, intimate event with the participating organizations and people who teach, fund, or participate in socially engaged art in Cincinnati, and again at the Cincinnati Neighborhood Summit, an annual civic engagement event with 400+ attendees.
Each object is a response to an organization’s unique way of listening
The final objects live with the groups, and come with facilitation guides.
PRINCIPLES OF COOPERATION CARD GAME (draft)Purpose: This teaching tool helps people learn about the ten principles of cooperation.Timing: 30+ minutes, depending on the groupParticipants: 2+ Listening tool: cards
How it works:
Organization:
Process:
How it works:
- 1.The facilitator gathers people and places all ten cards on the table, showing the ten principles of cooperation. Each card has one principle of cooperation on the back of the card, and the definition of that principle on the other side.
- 2.The facilitator asks a participant to mix up the cards and pick one.
- 3.The participant will read the card they have picked aloud to the group, and talk about what that principle means to them.
- 4.The group can talk about how they sense or don't sense that principle of cooperation in their group, and how they might emphasize that principle in their group, even more.
- 5.Another participant picks a card, reads it aloud, and talks about what it means to them.
- 6.Repeat.
Organization:
Cincinnati Union Co-op Initiative (CUCI) is a non-profit that partners with individuals and organizations to create worker-owned businesses that sustain families and help create an economy that works for all. Cincinnatiunioncoop.org
Process:
LISTEN exhibits objects made by artist Caroline Woolard in dialog with four Cincinnati-based organizations. Each object is a response to an organization’s unique way of listening: a storytelling game with small bronze objects for MORTAR and Cincy Stories, cups for the Welcome Project, and a card game about cooperatives for CUCI. www.wavepoolgallery.org/listen-with-caroline-woolard/
Caroline Woolard worked with Kristen Barker, Olivia Nava Meinerding, and Maria Dienger to add illustrations and design to improve CUCI’s existing game.
Materials: Each card is 3.5” x 4.5” and the test cards are printed by Micah Hornung. Future iterations of these cards will be available online as freely downloadable PDFs and for purchase through CUCI and Wave Pool.
MORTAR AND CINCYSTORIES
Purpose: This is a game that helps participants get to know one another.
Timing: 30+ minutes, depending on the group
Participants: 2+
How it Works:
Organizations:
Process:
Materials:
How it works:
- 1.The facilitator asks the participants to close their eyes as the facilitator buries the objects in the box so that only the spheres are showing.
- 2.One participant selects an object and picks it up.
- 3.This person tells a story based upon the object they are holding.
- 4.Another participant selects an object and tells a story based upon that object.
- 5.Repeat.
Organizations:
MORTAR exists to ensure that all entrepreneurs and small businesses, regardless of socioeconomic status, gender, race, or background, have an opportunity to participate in the rejuvenation of our city. wearemortar.com
Cincy Stories exists to build community through story. We do this by hosting live storytelling events, creating people based documentaries and working in neighborhoods to engage communities using the tools of story. cincystories.org
Process:
LISTEN exhibits objects made by artist Caroline Woolard in dialog with four Cincinnati-based organizations. Each object is a response to an organization’s unique way of listening: a storytelling game with small bronze objects for MORTAR and Cincy Stories, cups for the Welcome Project, and a card game about cooperatives for CUCI. www.wavepoolgallery.org/listen-with-caroline-woolard/
Caroline Woolard worked with Allen Woods, Derrick Braziel, Chris Ashwell, William Thomas, and Shawn Braley to imagine and implement this game, which is loosely based upon an event that they held together, where friends and neighbors brought in objects that are significant to them. The objects were designed by Caroline Woolard and sit in poplar boxes handmade by Scott Bellissemo.
Materials:
Each object is roughly 1′′ × 2′′ × 1′ ′and is cast in stainless steel infused with bronze, with a final composition of approximately 60% steel and 40% bronze. The objects went through an electroplating process that deposits a 0.1 micron layer of gold on the outside of the objects. Due to the electroplating process, the gold may wear off with friction, over time.
WELCOME PROJECT CUPS
How it works:
Organization:
Process:
Materials:
How it works:
Drink tea with an open heart. Notice that the cups have two sides. When turned over, the underside of the cup becomes a vessel for a flower, a candle, or a water-clock.
Organization:
The Welcome Project's mission is to engage, integrate, and empower marginalized and at risk refugees and immigrants by providing community connections, employment, education and skills training.
Process:
LISTEN exhibits objects made by artist Caroline Woolard in dialog with four Cincinnati- based organizations. Each object is a response to an organization’s unique way of listening: a storytelling game with small bronze objects for MORTAR and Cincy Stories, cups for the Welcome Project, and a card game about cooperatives for CUCI. www.wavepoolgallery.org/listen-with-caroline-woolard/
This limited edition of ceramic vessels was designed by Caroline Woolard over the course of a year in dialog with Welcome Project members Zoila Martinez, Lourdes Martinez, NarMaya Rai, Bibi Rai, Binta Rai, Sarmila Rai, Purni Rai, Mariam Al-Zoubi, Fabiola Rodriguez, Krishna Ghimire, and Angele Mputu. These ceramics continue Caroline Woolard’s study of functional objects for contemplation and collaboration. The cups were wheel thrown by ceramicist Josephine Heilpern and are sold in sets of four in poplar boxes handmade by Scott Bellissemo. The dividers in the boxes were made by members of the Welcome Project. This is a limited edition of thirty boxes, with four cups per box, for sale at Wave Pool. All profits go to Welcome Editions and feed back into the growth of the Welcome Project, a collaboration between the non- profit organizations Wave Pool and Heartfelt Tidbits.
Materials:
Each vessel is a wheel thrown cup in speckled clay. The interior and exterior is glazed in high gloss green with black speckles. The bottom is a high gloss black with a blue lotus flower. The exterior is decorated with bright blue and green shapes. The size is approximately 4.25 inches tall x 3.25 wide diameter. Each item is handmade and has slight variations in size and finish and color. Food safe and made for everyday use. Hand washing is recommended. Sold in a set of four in a handmade poplar box.
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