Artists as Activists / Activists as Artists: Our Power as Cultural Creatives to Change the World

 On March 11, Pace e Bene staff person Ken Butigan led a workshop on the creativity and power of nonviolent change for students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago studying visual communication, graphics design and art theory.  One student has a very cool double concentration: playwriting and furniture design!

Every great movement stages a powerful theater production that invites  society to come up on stage and re-write the scriptThe workshop centered on The Two Hands of Nonviolence  — the dramatic, creative tension of No and Yes.

Every great movement for change stages a powerful theater production that dramatizes these “two hands” and invites society to re-write the script of violence and injustice

This “reality theater” production, when rooted in nonviolent people power, dramatized the two hands of change: “On the one hand I will not cooperate with your violence or injustice; I will resist it with every fiber of my being. And, on the other hand I am open to you as a human being.”

This workshop explored the role of creativity in social change — and stressed how each of us has more power than we think to unleash our imagination for justice, peace, and the well-being of all.

The group formed parallel lines and practiced Pace e Bene’s CLARA process — Center, Learn, Articulate, Receive, Agree — by role-playing a conflict between two groups of community members: one in favor of a new gun factory in the area, the other opposed.

By shifting positions three times, participants got an inkling into the complexity of conflict and ways of challenging US vs. THEM attitudes that interfere with reaching an agreement that potentially could meet the needs of all parties.

Finally, the students were invited to create art pieces that imaging the dynamics of the “two hands.”

Click here to see photos from this event on Facebook!

Photos: Amy Smethurst