Tell us about Yourselves

I strongly believe that we need to creatively re-imagine how we relate to each other and the world, as this can inspire and bring hope to those around us.

Adam: I’m a 25 year old social artist, facilitator, and youth worker living in Oakland, California. In 2000, at the age of 13, I attended a Power of Hope summer camp. For the first time in my life I was encouraged to take creative risks and make myself vulnerable in front of my peers. In one week, this experience allowed me to open my heart up to other people. I came home and something was different. Something had cracked open inside me. I went back every year until I turned 18. At that point I became one of the youngest counselors to attend the camps. After I graduated college I moved to Seattle to work for Power of Hope full time as an Americorps Volunteer.

This organization has shifted my life. It led me onto a path of empowering young people. Since High School I have worked for Outward Bound At-Risk in Alabama, Power of Hope in Seattle, and Generation Waking Up here in Oakland: organizations that empower youth using creativity and adventure and challenge them to step up as leaders in their lives.

Julien: My name is Julien, I’m 25 and I was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. My mother introduced me to environmental and social justice issues at a very young age, and ever since then I’ve sought to integrate these ideas into who I am and what I do. A few years back I began to explore using art and creativity to respond to the issues we face: replacing car engines with twelve-foot-tall fruit trees and then parking them around the city; co-creating short films with Israeli and Palestinian youth; painting houses slated for demolition in multi-colored acts of celebration. I strongly believe that we need to creatively re-imagine how we relate to each other and the world, as this can inspire and bring hope to those around us. Who knows, maybe it’ll even change the world.

How did LATE NITE ART come about?

A: Julien and I attended the Heart of Facilitation training program in 2010-2011. For our final project we co-facilitated a collaborative arts workshop. Our intention was to create a workshop that brought together a diverse range of people and encouraged them to explore their relationship with their own creativity, and also the role of collaboration in their lives. After one of our participants, a 76-year-old woman, told us she was so inspired she was going to “go home and start drawing for the first time in 30 years” we realized we were on to something.  A few months later Julien and I co-facilitated the workshop again for an inter-generational group of people from more than 6 different countries. Following the workshop an idea was presented to integrate local food and electronic beats, and create a facilitated art party. An idea was born! In September 2011, Julien began holding LATE NITE ART in Vancouver, B.C. and will be hosting the 14th installment this week. In 2012 Adam started hosting LATE NITE ART in Oakland, CA.

What’s the hardest part about getting a social art project started?

J: The hardest part about getting started was promoting the event and convincing people to give something different a try. Vancouver is a super busy place and we are continually competing for people’s attention amongst all of the other cool things that are going on here.

A: Thinking about LATE NITE ART as a business has been challenging; making sure my costs do not outweigh the proceeds.

What is social art?

Creativity is not separate from us. It is not an “extracurricular” activity and it is not something that some people have and others do not.

J: To me, the term ‘social art’ denotes an element of service that’s integral to one’s work: to other people, and to the earth. I think all art is inherently social and political, but ‘social artist’ takes this one step further in acknowledging the social and political responsibility in one’s work.

A: We have forgotten what art and creativity means in our culture. Creativity is not separate from us. It is not an “extracurricular” activity and it is not something that some people have and others do not. Creativity is intertwined with every aspect of our lives. It is the unique and imperfect qualities we embody as a human race. Our creativity is our freedom, our expression, and our innovation. I believe all humans are deeply creative. Every one of us has an inkwell of creativity that cannot run dry. Creativity brings us joy!

A social artist is like a spider. Their web is large and they are connected to many communities. They build community using their creativity, and bringing people together is their art. They are the bridges that connect people across divisions, and the glue that holds them together.

J: I think it’s crucial for us to creatively respond to the things that impact our lives. When we can’t authentically engage with the people and places around us, then we’re not able to fully be human.

If you could go back ten years and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?

A: Trust yourself.
J: Hmmm, this is like a LATE NITE ART question! I could draw you my response…

Can you name a social artist that you admire?

A: Cherine Badawi is a social artist working for Generation Waking Up and Integral Trainings in Oakland, CA. Cherine has devoted her life to developing and facilitating experiential social justice and conflict resolution programs for young people around the world. She facilitates conversations and processes around race, power, and privilege in a loving way that shifts people’s consciousness and personal beliefs in a profound way.

J: Locally: Nadia Chaney, regional PYE coordinator in India, is a social artist empowering community voice through radical dialogue. Much of her work focuses on issues of identity, diversity, participatory process, and non-violence. She works as a poet, emcee, musician, arts-empowerment facilitator, social justice activist, text editor and writing coach.

Melanie Schambach is a Vancouver social artist who intends to challenge painting into activism by encouraging critical thinking and discourse through painting and interactive painting. She lived fifteen years in Cali during the Colombian Civil War, five years in Guatemala City, and eight years in Canada. Her paintings explore subjects concerning social struggles people resist in South America. She attempts to open a voice for these people, and also honor these cultures constructively.

Internationally: Francis Alÿs, Annelys de Vet.

LATE NITE ART will be hosting a special fundraising event in Oakland on the 7th of June, 2012. The event will be in aid of Young Women’s Leadership Training in Bali. For more information visit LATE NITE ART on Facebook.

Photos by Sara Dent

Welcome to the PYE Facebook live web chat everyone – it’s Charlie Murphy here. Really happy you could join us!

This is the first time we are doing a web chat of this kind. We want to deepen the dialogue about programs for youth and working with young people in creative ways and learning from each other. Ask me anything you like. No question is too small. Questions could be about using the arts and creativity in your work, about facilitation and how to develop a career as a facilitator.

Eric Mulholland: How do you help bring out a young person in the group who is obviously withdrawn? I have this one youth who seems to resist even the most creative activities and I am really frustrated at how to engage her.

Charlie Murphy: Hi Eric, I find that for youth who are really hard to engage in a group it really helps to see if you can have one on one contact that will help them feel safer, particularly in programs for youth. Through that you can help them identify a next step. The important thing is not to give up on them and recognize that even though they might not show it they are searching for a way in. So much depends on the attitude that we hold toward the youth – the place that we come from. I encourage you to find the appropriate next level of creative risk for that person.

Eric: Yeah – that’s great advice and it make sense. I do find less resistance when I can just sit down and have a heart to heart with people so this is a good first step in finding out where this young person is coming from. Thanks.

Peggy Taylor: What are some common themes of concern you see with youth in the various countries you are working in?

Charlie: Hi Peggy, some of the biggest concerns I see have to do with a general state of the world, both environmentally and socially. There’s a big concern amongst youth in many countries about political corruption.

I also find that people want to live meaningful lives and it’s a struggle to make ends meet and to find or create work that feeds your soul and serves the community.

Kate Thompson: Such great comments. I find also with the isolated youth, to keep showing up in authentic ways with them and that they then show up, also eventually the youth will see their strong point and pull them forward.

Sometimes I struggle to keep the creativity flowing and that is usually my head/ego. I find if I touch in with my heart and let go, I am singing or writing or making art.

Also volunteering on a program for youth helps, because there are always opportunities for the creative to emerge. I wish there were an art barn for adults with their creative projects.

Charlie: For those of you who don’t know, at our camps we always have a space called the art barn which is a large space with tables and tonnes of art supplies where people come and hang out, make art and connect with each other. It’s always one of the most chill and fun places at camp.

Kate, maybe you can create that art barn – an art barn in every neighborhood. Wouldn’t that be great?

Check this out. Look at what two Power of Hope youth who became staff started in Vancouver and San Francisco – bringing the art barn experience right into their community: http://lateniteart.com/

Kate: I would love to start an art barn. I’ve also have been doing some volunteering @ Coyote Central and their new facility is amazing…creativity wheels are turning.

Peggy: I met with a delegation of French youth workers the other day and we talked extensively about youth employment issues. Two different gems: one is to identify where employment exists and point youth to it. Part of that is to change attitudes about manual labor so it’s not all seen as bad.

The second viewpoint was around setting up programs for youth which help them gain creative and emotional skills so they can find their own opportunities. What’s your take?

Charlie: I would say that both of those gems make a lot of sense to me. I place a lot of hope in the power of human creativity and the importance of turning young people on to their innate powers early on – to see themselves as creators of the kind of world they want to live in. I believe in entrepreneurship and I think that creativity is at the heart of entrepreneurship.

Nugo As: Hi Charlie, would you visit Bhutan someday ? Very much interested in Creative facilitation training.

Charlie: Hi Nugo, so glad you are on the chat. I have spoken with several friends who have traveled in Bhutan and I think we would have so much to learn by collaborating with you and your colleagues there. We would be open to explore the possibilities of partnering with you to run a program for youth there.

Nugo As: At the moment we have two outreach strategies:
1.Youth Cafe-We recognize that young people need a safe place to go. We accept that each person may have different needs and reasons for coming to our youth café so we try to support all of the people who come through our doors. We respect and acknowledge the rights of each individual.
2. Kids Club-Provides children with ongoing & integrating value frame works which will become part of their referential system as they grow up.

Charlie: Nugo, the ideas you’ve shared sound very powerful. A safe space is where so much can begin. Do you currently promote any art activities in this safe space that you are creating?

Nugo: We watch a themed movie and then hold a discussion about its theme.

Charlie: I think watching films and discussing them can be a good thing. I have also found that people really respond to being creatively challenged. Maybe after they watch a movie you could give them simple art materials and ask them to express themselves on a theme related to the movie before they speak about it.

Vanessa LeBourdais: At DreamRider Theatre we are developing a classroom game for elementary teachers to lead, where most of the activities are arts based. I’d be interested to know simple ways to help teachers engage shy students to participate in group activities.

Charlie: Hi Vanessa. We believe in the concept of turning up the heat slowly. What I’ve found is that beginning with a simple group body rhythm can begin to loosen up everyone in the group including the shy people. Things like asking them to mime something they love to do seems to be an easy next step. There’s a whole host of theater games which are geared towards that very entry level of creative risk taking. I would imagine you know many of these.

I want to encourage everyone to go to your website and watch some of the clips of the theater work you do in schools as part of their program for youth. I think it’s incredible!

http://www.dreamridertheatre.com/

Hannah Rebecca Martin: I just led a creative facilitation training session with my staff – passing on some PYE wisdom from a workshop in January I attended with you Charlie! Quite a few of them were asking how to introduce creativity into very formal settings, business meetings with stakeholders etc. Do you have any suggestions?

Charlie: Hi Hannah, it’s great to hear from you and great question. Even though so much of what we do depends on the setting, in my experience I have found you can get away with a lot. It has to do with the art of setting the context. You’ve asked the question that could be the starting point for a whole new conversation but since we are rapidly coming to the close of our time let me just say that you can take great creative risks with a group and have them do things completely out of the box for the setting if you can relate it to their context and what benefit might be derived.

I have so appreciated the questions and the comments. I wish everyone well in their life and their work and I look forward to the next opportunity we get to connect. Onward with the creativity revolution.

I had different emotions before we set off this time. The sense of excitement was still there but I was also aware that we were going back to a garden where we had prepared the soil and checking to see if any of the seeds had taken root.

With these thoughts in mind Charlie Murphy and I made our way to Brazil for three weeks of non-stop work. We had two aims: to deliver two public Creative Facilitation Workshops and to reconnect with people we had met last year to create a core group of 10 individuals who could become Lead Facilitators to run workshops and spread the Creative Community Model in Brazil.

We had 40 attendees for the Creative Facilitation Workshops. This included people from very mixed backgrounds and professions from front-line youth organization workers to young social entrepreneurs, business people, psychiatrists and artists. Working with new people is an essential part of what we do and is always very exciting. I love seeing the impact of the Creative Community Model and planting seeds that we hope will blossom in the future.

So, how did Charlie and I fare in growing this tropical garden and spreading the Creative Community Model?

Pretty well, I’d say. Here’s why:

• The Lead Facilitator training was a rich and creative experience. We have a group of 10 fantastic individuals who are already meeting regularly to sketch out the next opportunities for applying what they’ve learned. This means that we hope to see a second wave of work being done to spread the Creative Community Model in Brazil as the people we’ve trained begin to train others.

• We added a brilliant new repertoire of activities and songs to our bag of resources. Look out for new songs from indigenous Brazilian tribes coming to our next Creative Facilitation 1 trainings!

• Juliana, our Brazil Community Mobilizer is working hard to get three camps off the ground this year, in addition to several public and corporate trainings. She is strengthened by the community of Lead Facilitators who are working with her to source new opportunities.

• We have a full calendar ahead of us in Brazil and by the end of the year we will have finished training our Lead Facilitators to unleash the full power of the Creative Community Model in São Paulo and beyond!

• Last but not least, we made countless new friends who we would like to thank for sharing their creative energy with PYE and adding so much to this work. We have a feeling that these new blossoms will grow into a dense and creative Brazilian jungle in no time!

- by Silvia Giovannoni

Over the years he has worked as a social artist with women, youth and children from low-income communities in Indonesia, India, Nepal, Guatemala and Brazil. Daniel’s work reflects his strong commitment and sensitivity to human relationships and social dynamics.  He believes that every person has assets and talents, so providing a safe place for people to discover their own voices and sense of empowerment is the most important thing for him.

What has been the hardest obstacle to your work as a social artist?

Recognizing that I had to first look inward and understand my own cultural frameworks before I could begin to understand others. Through sessions of music and art therapy I experienced an in-depth journey that helped me to better understand who I am. That ended up being a benefit to myself and to those around me. My creative journey is still very active and I feel nothing is ever complete.  For that reason I use my down time constructively, and try to nurture different facets of myself as an artist.

What does the term ‘social artist’ mean to you?

For me, social artistry is about allowing, understanding, and nurturing from within. It’s about really finding out who you are and using that to create enriching, inspiring, and uplifting moments for others and for yourself. I think that social art has a real ripple effect. Again, that starts from within. Stretching yourself beyond your usual boundaries creates opportunities greater than your daily life experiences.

Being one with the energy that is flowing through you is the beauty of creativity. This is our constant challenge as social artists, to stay connected to that flow of energy, while taking the risks to truly discover ourselves and others on deeper levels.

How would you describe your experience with PYE so far?

I have attended PYE facilitation sessions in Sao Paulo and so far I have found the organization to be very nurturing. I believe very much in the power of the ripple effect to affect the lives of young people around the world and through PYE I have got to meet wonderful individuals that are contributing to this movement.

How do you imagine your work with PYE impacting your work as a social artist?

Over the years doing this work I have occasionally felt quite isolated and unable to communicate what it is that I am trying to do. I’ve also struggled to gather the tools I need to carry out my work. PYE have provided me with a community of social artists and have encouraged me to create my own tools and to improve the work that I do. I’m really excited to begin sharing my work with a group of like minded individuals who have the same goals that I do. For me, PYE provides a trigger for evaluation, exchange, engagement and coming together.

How important is creativity in our lives?

Creativity is our lives, without it we would be left with a fairly drab picture.

Creativity is linked to recognizing that we all have a healer within – a magician, an actor, a storyteller, a visionary capable of  recognizing new trends, new patterns.  Every day we are given opportunity to see things in an extraordinary way, but it’s up to us whether we grasp that opportunity  or not. Creativity can be found in all corners and aspects of life, and that is what makes it so rich.

If you could go back ten years and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?

“I would tell myself: ‘do not take yourself too seriously”.

Over the years, I’ve realised that we often have a tendency to become what others want us to be rather than just being ourselves.  I guess children are the best teachers for how to change this. One of my friends recently sent me this little line:

‘While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.’

Can you name any social artists that you admire?

I admire the ability of many artists to transpose their art with communities they serve.  Communicating, understanding, listening, and providing space for creation within communities is wonderful. For this reason, I admire all artists that are known or unknown participating in changing the world, one person at a time, one community at a time.

Here are just a few social artists I love for what they do:

Alex Heywood of Kid Powered Media , a small NGO from Canada working in India in slum communities and providing youth with the chance to write, act and produce movies that are socially relevant to them. Alex and his team also propose a very hands-on type of approach with the communities.  Great initiative!

Faith Goncalves, of Music Basti. Faith started the program in 2008 to provide music to children and youth living on the streets of Delhi. This program is conducted in 5 slum areas of the city and implemented with the support of professional artists. They have now produced a CD with songs written and sung by kids from different slums of Delhi.

Sullivan Camargo  from Arte em Itaporanga close to Porto Seguro, Brazil. Sullivan is a wonderful naturalist painter and a great social artist. He puts his art to the service of children and youth of the small indigenous community where he lives by giving them opportunities to explore, discover and be in touch with their own creativity. The program is connected very strongly to the community, the environment and discovery.

Nancy McGirr of FotoKids Guatemala, a project started with kids living in the poorest regions of Guatemala. This project has grown and now offers over 100 children opportunities to develop useful, employable skills as a means to self-exploration, expression, and discovery.

This list could go on and on. I feel over all that the person that inspired me most was my mother who introduced me to music, art, sculpture, theater- she had the ability of creating these special moments for my sisters and I, giving us the ability to dream, to travel and think outside of the box.

Find out more about Daniel Lalande and the work he is doing.

If you would like more information about social art drop by and have a chat with our online community on the PYE Facebook group.

How Can Social Artists Get Started on Social Media?

Choose your platform

Whether your a social artist, a visual artist, or just a business person trying to promote your company, starting out in social media can be daunting. There are a number of different social networks and platforms to choose from when you are starting a social media campaign, and it feels like new platforms appear every week.

The very first step in developing a social media presence is to decide which platform is best for you. You can pick one platform and focus solely on that, or you can pick a variety of different platforms which will work together. When choosing which social networks you would like to use remember to be realistic. Maintaining a presence on each individual network will require your time and attention, so think about how much time you would like to dedicate to your social media campaign and choose which networks to use accordingly.  You can add new social networks at any time so it is often best to be conservative at first.

Social networks are like parties. They are great places to meet people, get information and network with potential friends. You can inform people about who you are and what you do and make great connections that will help you in every aspect of your work.

Networks

Facebook – The Global Gathering
Facebook is the King of the social networks at the moment and for brands and businesses it is the most important resource for letting people know about who they are and what they do. There are currently over 500 million active users on Facebook. 1 in every 13 people on earth have a Facebook profile.
Pro: Facebook is the biggest social network in the world with the biggest potential audience for your message.
Con: Because Facebook is so large it can be hard to be heard above the noise.

Twitter – The Speed Date
Twitter is the second most popular social network in the world with over 175 million users. Twitter conversations are open to everyone and you have no control over who follows you or who reads what you are saying. If you are interested in keeping up to date with a particular industry or group of people, then Twitter is a great way to do it.
Pro: Twitter is an open platform so it’s a great way to broadcast information about who you are and what you do.
Con: Twitter is often seen as a niche social network and you will find that many people who you want to contact do not use it.

LinkedIn – The Work Drinks
LinkedIn is a professional network that is aimed at helping you to make business contacts and to promote yourself and your career. LinkedIn is often seen as being a little bit boring and is often neglected, but for people who us it well it can be a really great tool for connecting with like minded people who work in your field. You know what they say – it’s all about who you know.
Pro: A great way to find people who are doing similar work to you and who you could benefit from connecting with.
Con: It doesn’t have the bells and whistles of Facebook or Twitter and is often seen as being a bit boring.

YouTube – The Open Mic
YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google and 48 hours of content are uploaded to it every minute of the day. Having great video content is a really important part of having a strong web presence and websites with video are said to be five times more likely to be read.
Pro: Hosting great video content on YouTube can provide a shop window into your work that demonstrates exactly who you are and what you do.
Con: Creating good video content takes time and skill. You need to know how to capture, edit and upload your content.

Blog – The Conference
Keeping a blog is a great way to let people know what is going on with your organization and to publicize the latest news and events. There are several easy to use programs that can help you set up and run a blog including Tumblr, Posterous, WordPress and Blogger. A second huge benefit of keeping a blog is that it will help you to appear in Google searches. Google regularly scan blogs to find out what they are about. If they think that what you’re writing about is relevant, they will point people towards your writing.
Pro: A great way of getting your voice heard by appearing in Google.
Con: Keeping a blog can be very time consuming and requires writing loger articles on a regular basis.

Google+ – The Cocktail Party
Google launched their own social network in 2011. It still hasn’t taken off as Google would have hoped and it’s nowhere near as busy as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. However, some people like the intimate setting of Google+. It can be easier to get your voice heard on this platform as there is a lot less competition. A huge added benefit of Google+ over Facebook is that everything you post is indexed by Google, meaning that it could help you to appear in search results which makes it much easier for people to find you.
Pro: Google+ is a great tool for helping you to show up in Google searches.
Con: There are not many active users on Google+ so it can be difficult to get conversations started.

Pinterest – The Art Opening
The newest kid on the block, Pinterest has grown in popularity very rapidly. Think of it like Twitter but with pictures instead of words. Pinterest allows you to collect images and pictures in one place, creating virtual ‘mood boards’ that can help you showcase products or events or visualize how you would like something to look and feel. Pinterest is very popular with people who are planning weddings, furnishing a new home or putting together a new wardrobe because it helps them to gather inspiration.
Pro: A visual showcase that helps you express the look and feel of something beyond the written word.
Con: This is not a social network that suits everyone as many people do not have a visual aspect to their work.

Determine Your Goals

Before you set up your social networks it is important to establish your goals and have a think about what you would like to achieve from a social media presence. In turn this will help you to be gain a better understanding of which networks will suit you best.

The most common reason for using social media in a professional capacity is to increase your profile online and to reach new customers or business contacts. With so much of our lives being lived online these days it is important that you do everything you can to help people who you could work with find you. Any business can benefit from having a bigger profile, whether it has 1 employee or 1 million employees.

Another common reason for using social media is to connect better with existing business contacts. Social media can help you to stay in touch with people you work with, add value to their relationship to you and even remind them that you are there so that they are more likely to return to you in the future.

Choose your areas of Interest

Have a think about your unique areas of interest and the areas that your work focuses on. Social media is extremely useful in helping you to tap into communities of people and to have a voice in debates and conversations that are relevant to you and your business. The digital world allows people from all over the world to connect and create communities with like minded individuals with similar interests to them. Many of these communities will be actively talking and sharing information on social networks.

With social media you can find these communities and use your experience and knowledge to participate in them. You will then be visible to a very targeted group of people who are potential customers or business contacts. For example, if you are a painter or artist who is selling your work, you will be able to find groups of people who are specifically looking for new artists. Traditional advertising and marketing often involve attempting to shout very loudly into a crowd of all kinds of different people, hoping that the relevant audience will hear you. Social media marketing is much more targeted, so you can talk more quietly and be heard more clearly.

PYE’s Tips for a Successful Social Media Campaign

So, now you are at a point where you have set your goals, chosen the social networks, or combination or social networks that are relevant for you and you are ready to get started. Don’t panic – social networks are relatively easy to set up. They are created to be user friendly.

Follow the steps, set up a basic profile and then start exploring. The best way to get familiar with any new social network is simply to start playing with it. Don’t be afraid to click on buttons to see what they do, treat it like a toy and feel free to make a few mistakes in the early days. If anything concerns you or if you are unsure about anything try searching in Google for an explanation or solution. There are bound to be hundreds of people who have been in your situation before and many of them will have written about their experiences. Google can be a fantastic tool in helping you to find solutions to any problems you have online.

Another really useful thing to do when you are just starting out is to find like-minded people and to see how they are using the social network. Have a think about people you admire, people who do similar work to you or people who you know and take a look at their page to get some inspiration and insight into how to use social media well. If in doubt, Skittles, Red Bull and Coca Cola all have fantastic social media campaigns across a variety of platforms so take a look at what they are doing.

Top Tips:

• Learn to listen. Remember to engage with your audience. If we go back to the social media as a networking party analogy, you don’t want to be the guy at the party who is just handing out business cards and talking about himself. Networking is all about listening and finding connections. Start conversations, ask people about what they do, offer advice and listen to what is being said. Simply posting update after update about your business isn’t going to have the results you want.

• Keep it Creative. As with any relationship, it’s good to keep your social network conversations interesting and surprising. If you’re a creative person then think creatively about your social media campaign. Try to think about how you can really engage people and what you could do to spark their interest and get their attention. In the past companies have done everything from asking customers to design their new packaging, to making songs about their followers and posting them online.

• Post Regularly. Make sure that you are an active part of the conversation and that you keep your audience engaged by committing to regular posts and updates. Try to commit to a schedule. For Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest daily updates are advisable, while for blogs, LinkedIn and Google+ one post a week is probably enough.

• Build a Community. Work on building an active community in your social networks. Open up the floor and ask them to create some content.

• Always be Honest and Open. When you set your business up on social media you open up your business for public comment. Some people can find this quite daunting and it can be tempting to delete any negative posts that appear on your social media profiles. This temptation must be resisted at all costs as it will appear to others that you are not interested in learning from mistakes or listening to your customers. Instead, deal with the negativity openly and honestly. Do what you can to ease the concerns, offer explanations and most importantly, always be open and honest.

• Ask and Answer Questions. As part of your commitment to engaging your audience make an effort to ask questions and talk to your followers. Allow people to talk to you and always answer any questions that you receive.

- Katie Jackson

Here’s a look at just a few of the youth organizations who were represented:

• Machik, a group that runs a 6-week camp for youth in Tibet each summer
• the Gandhi Brigade, a social justice-based youth organization;
• the Star Child Relief Organization, a program that runs a camp in Romania each summer for children living with hemophilia
• Groove Camp, a musical day camp for teens
• the Latina American Youth Center, a multi-cultural, multi service agency
• Class Acts, an organization dedicated to getting arts and music in schools
• the Interfaith Families Project that serves families from mixed Jewish and Christian traditions

Social enterprise groups included:

• Time Bank, a national alternative currency program based on the fair exchange of time and talent
• Achieving Change Together, a group that helps social entrepreneurs with strategy and messaging
• Blessed Coffee, a community-based business that sells coffee imported from an Ethiopian coffee cooperative

A huge thanks to social artists Larry Ravitz and Marika Partridge who sponsored the training and to Marika for doing the organizing. A director of the National Public Radio Show ‘All Things Considered’ for 15 years, Marika is now spearheading an effort to open a community radio station in Takoma Park, Maryland.

Spending two days with this sparkly group reminded me of how powerful the arts are in helping us bridge divides of ethnicity, class and age; helping us to generate joy and motivate people to band together to work for positive change in their communities.

Marika and Larry have already put out a call to all of the local participants to gather for a potluck dinner to explore ways to collaborate and I can’t wait to reconnect with this special group of social artists and youth organizations again.

by Peggy Taylor (Director of Training and Co-Founder of PYE)

Both events went really well and we were hugely inspired by the passion and commitment of the social artists that we met as well as by their stories of how art and creativity were being used to improve the fortunes of thousands of young people across the country.

Creative Facilitation Training, Bogota, Colombia:

Skills exchange, Medellín, Colombia:

If you’re a social artist working anywhere in the world then please do get in touch and become part of our worldwide network or creative people using their skills to create a more positive future for everyone.

PYE Facebook

PYE Twitter

PYE LinkedIn

- by Katie Jackson

Do you fancy getting involved?

This month PYE’s Creative Community Model will be used in workshops in four different countries: England, Columbia, Brazil and the USA.

March 26-27 PYE Creative Facilitation Training, Bogota, Columbia

March 31, April 1 PYE Creative Facilitation, Washington DC, USA

March 31, April 1 LIFEbeat Arts Practice Training, Bristol, UK

March 31, April 1 PYE Creative Facilitation, Sao Paulo, Brazil 

Can’t make it to any of those trainings? Not to worry, our UK partner LIFEbeat will be running a training weekend in May and we will be scheduling more dates for international trainings very soon.

May 19-20 LIFEbeat Arts Pracrice Training, London, UK

Or would you rather bring PYE’s creativity-based approach to your organization? If you work with young people and are interested in learning more about our Creative Community Model then we can also organize customized trainings. Contact Gwyn Wansborough to find out more – gwyn@pyeglobal.org.

Since its formation 3 years ago, PYE has grown and evolved in exciting and unexpected ways.  We are now working in partnership with communities in seven countries to bring what we know about creativity and arts-based youth engagement to enhance their work with youth.

In our travels we have met thousands of practitioners representing hundreds of organizations around the world doing incredible work, looking for new ways to develop their creativity and facilitation skills and to connect to their counterparts in different countries (and we know there are more where they came from!).  We began to see a ripe opportunity to connect the dots in this fragmented field so that we can share, exchange and collaborate to strengthen arts-based transformative youth work across the globe.

So we started looking for expertise to help us in our quest to develop ourselves as a socially engaging brand and create new spaces where we can interact and grow our community.  Enter Visceral Business, leaders in developing socially engaging brands and authors of the Social 100 Charities Index (which is a must read for Charities in the same quest as PYE – available at http://visceralbusiness.com/). We went back to the origins of PYE – our mission to awaken the purpose, power and possibility in young people” and defined 4 values that we feel underpin all of our work: resourcefulness, creative energy, authentic community and inspiring others.  Visceral Business hooked us up with Brightspark Creative who translated these new brand elements into a visual identity that you now see in our logo and website.

We still have work to do – we will be launching the community space on the website in the coming weeks – so watch this space!

We invite you to join us – there are now more ways to engage with PYE – join us for a training, connect into PYE’s international of network of practitioners, and share the important work you do.   Let us know your impressions and feedback on our new brand and website – we would love to hear from you.

Dream A Dream is an award-winning charity in Bangalore India that provides critical life skills training to children from vulnerable backgrounds.  Their own dream is to equip 240,000 children with essential life skills over the next five years. They chose PYE’s Creative Community Model as a key piece in their strategy to scale.

“Our new partnership with PYE has come at a critical juncture to help us achieve our vision,” says Vishal Talreja, Co-Founder and CEO Dream A Dream and Ashoka Fellow.  “PYE Global’s Creative Community Model has enabled us to train our staff, build sound principles of engagement, and create a scaleable, replicable model for life skills development for our organization.”

In November and December 2011, PYE senior trainer Nadia Chaney led trainings for DAD staff and partner organisations skilling them up to lead programs based on the Creative Community Model and train others.  She supported DAD staff as they led a camp for 34 youth based on the Creative Community Model. She worked with the DAD to develop an arts-based curriculum for teaching life-skills.