Art Activism: Linking Continents, Bridging
Cultures (https://youtu.be/mBxVpMOlia0) was a unique two-week collaborative project between: University
for the Creative Arts (UCA) Pre-sessional English for Art and Design course international
team, UCA Research and Enterprise team, Tabula Fortis in Pace project artists,
Margate Cypriot community, and Pafos 2017 (Cyprus – The European Capital of
Culture) chief executive officer; delivered in August 2015. The niche initiative
was integrated into the university ten-week pre-sessional English for Academic
Purposes course for 53 pre-dominantly postgraduate international students. All
of the students increased their overall IELTS score and successfully progressed
to Creative Arts-related courses at UCA.
The students were invited to work in
multicultural groups in order to explore and address the concept of dialogue
through using Creative Arts as a method of communication to
confront and question established systems. Based on lectures and workshops on
international artists using their art as a catalyst for change, such as JR, Ai
Weiwei, Banksy, Guerilla Girls or Tania Bruguera and collaboration with local
artists, the students not only carried out a thorough academic research and
wrote empowering proposals making a positive difference, but they also
developed the proposals further through inspiring and imaginative performances
and installations, in which they clearly demonstrated the potential impact of
their propositions.
The proposals included pieces breaking geopolitical barriers, such
as: “Project 7.2” – an interactive installation underpinning equality and
diversity (https://youtu.be/8BV6oOST2N4; https://youtu.be/SIGQdm4XLrQ); “The Melting
Pot” – an idea of an international student accommodation integrating both home
and international students through cuisine (https://youtu.be/x5JEVTcGCdY); “The Peace
Maker”– an exhibition and video stimulating connection among people regardless
of their differences, such as race, religion, gender, sexuality or common
language (https://youtu.be/6PwfTTGMPmI; https://youtu.be/hhYDhtvDmNM) or “Freedom”,
in which students expressed their definition(s) of different types of freedom
in various languages (https://youtu.be/KbuVs5UODLs).
Art Activism: Linking Continents, Bridging Cultures project was managed by five international staff members of the UCA
pre-sessional EAP team who provided academic and contextual study input. On the
other hand, the artists, UCA Research and Enterprise team as well as the Chief Executive
Officer of Pafos (https://www.facebook.com/pafos2017/info/?tab=page_info), Marina Vrynidou, dealt with the more hands-on, practical
workshops.
In particular, the artists Anthony Haywood and Uwe Derkensen
enabled the students to contribute to the existing project “Tabula Fortis in
Pace” (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.966752946717590.1073741833.178724528853773&type=3) through inviting students to hide messages for future generations
in a sculpture – a huge round table made of recycled timber. The table served
as a platform to communicate students’ proposals in Margate, where students
pitched and performed their final proposals to a local Cypriot community as
well the mayor of Margate.
The planning of
the project took four months overall as it required engagement of the various
aforementioned community groups as well as logistics of the initiative, such as
booking accommodation, sustenance, catering and transport for both internal and
external guests. The shared cost of the project did not exceed £5000 and was funded
by UCA internal funds from departmental budgets. In addition, the pre-sessional
team developed academic materials supporting the concept of art activism based
on a variety of international case studies enumerated above. The academic materials
were comprised not only of suitable tasks developing all four practical skills
but also encouraged students to conduct a thorough academic research to support
pitching the proposals at “Tabula Fortis in Pace” finale in Margate.
The impact of Art Activism: Linking Continents, Bridging
Cultures project was a huge success as it strengthened not only students’
confidence and made them feel welcome in the UK, but it also exceeded
everyone’s expectations by enabling students to expand creativity in regards
to making a difference in a fun and stimulating way, even though the proposals
were semi-hypothetical.
As the majority of
students expressed in the post-project publication Issuu, the main accomplishment
of the project was that students developed useful
communication skills as they learnt the importance of collaboration. All
learners found the project unforgettable for it allowed them to “learn to
respect differences and other cultures.” Other students saw the value of the
project in the fact that it was triggered by study field trips: “the project wasn’t simply about studying academic
English, but rather discovering, exploring, recording, realising and
understanding the language needed for us to express ideas – the trips were essential
to this process”, noted Chien-Hwan Wang, a Taiwanese student who after the
course progressed to study MA in Architecture (http://issuu.com/ucapsead/stacks/e28bf0e3ad254edbba6eaaddf0d25ae4).
Apart
from the aforementioned proposals and presentations in Margate, students wrote
on their blogs (http://wwwucapsead.blogspot.co.uk), robustly
recorded and documented the process of the project in their visual journals,
and engaged with social media using the course’s official hash tag #ucapsead
(Twitter and the official course Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/432389303597619/).
The project’s
outcome – the “Tabula Fortis in Pace” sculpture has a powerful impact, namely
because it is being taken to Pafos in 2017, where it will serve as a permanent
multifunctional table during and after the European Capital of Culture festival.
The sculpture with students’ messages engraved on the recycled timber in
different languages has a symbolic significance, as historically, Cyprus has
been a place where people from different continents would meet around a round
object that symbolised unity and promoted dialogue and cultural exchange among
people from diverse communities. The students are exhilarated at the
opportunity of other people seeing their messages to make a change.
Finally, there is no doubt the project enhanced international students’ experience through empowering them to use their valuable knowledge and skills, and allowed the course staff to refer to students’ varied pedagogic cultures. The project certainly did not aim at making international students ‘sophisticated learners’ by completely assimilating them in to UK pedagogic culture, but instead, successfully embraced students’ experiences, skills and perceptions to negotiate and communicate creative ideas for change.
We are looking for collaboration and funding opportunities for another edition of the project in July/August 2016. Get in touch if you are interested!
*images: courtesy of Marta Patlewicz (http://thecyclehome.wix.com/the-cycle-home) and Tomasz John
Tomasz John
International Pathway Programmes EAP Co-ordinator
tjohn@uca.ac.uk
twitter: https://twitter.com/tomaszjohn84
twitter: https://twitter.com/tomaszjohn84
