by Emily Augsburger, Community Projects Coordinator

As we approach the end of October, the community projects department will begin our project for this exhibition:  Staging Reflections of the Buddha (Staging).  Before I began at the Pulitzer, I had heard about the project through the Brown School of Social Work, and I was completely inspired by the connection between social work and the arts. I am ecstatic to now be a part of the inner workings of this profound project.

For the past few months, we have been busily working with our amazing Staging team as we recruit actors and strategize the epic adventure ahead. Next Friday, we will hold our first workshop with the Staging actors. Agnes Wilcox will lead the process, and our team will work for the next seventeen weeks on the creation of the final performances. I am ecstatic that I am able to bear witness to and participate in the powerful transformation of the human spirit that comes from a project like Staging.  I look forward to keeping you posted on the Staging process as we progress. Cheers!

Welcome to the first in a series of blogs on how we, the social workers at the Pulitzer, develop our community projects. For the past several months our department has been developing the social work programming for the Pulitzer’s current exhibition Dreamscapes. Like many of our programs in the past our community projects department pulls inspiration from the exhibition and uses it as a framework to explore current social context. We specifically look to identify avenues in which the art within the Pulitzer’s walls relates to how we, as St. Louisans, experience everyday life. As we look at the current social climate, we can be overwhelmed by the economy, and how it might affect our aspirations. Taking note of programs offered by Beyond Housing, a local agency that provides support and services for individuals and families growing into their long-term goals, we felt Dreamscapes provided fertile ground for collaboration. For programming, we centered our ideas on dreams and aspirations, and what those might be for youth in St. Louis.  By pairing Beyond Housing’s mission and programs with those of the Pulitzer’s social work programming, we developed the program Blueprint for a Dream (Blueprint) … READ THE REST OF THIS POST ON DREAMSCAPES.PULITZERARTS.ORG.

For a full photo recap of A Sounding, visit our Flickr slideshow.

The homage to the various forms of activation in stylus proved to be a beautiful way to close out the installation last Saturday. As a social worker, I am one who strongly believes in the service of closure, and the finale illuminated the pros to closure. The day catered to the multifaceted story of stylus by bringing those of all ages into our galleries. Babies and children danced to remixed children’s music by Ruckus Roboticus and adults read aloud as they participated in the voice marathon.

It is difficult to bid stylus farewell as it has been in our space and part of our daily lives for the past six months. However, as we waved goodbye, the celebratory acts of the day could not have done it any better.

On Saturday, December 11, we gathered in the galleries of the Pulitzer to celebrate the wrap-up of our high school concordance program. After several months of researching, writing and reflecting upon the meaning of community with high school students from across the St. Louis region, the participating student groups came together to share their experiences with each other and to celebrate time spent on the project. The collaborative schools included: Gateway to College, Nerinx Hall, Normandy High School, and St. Elizabeth Academy, and representatives from the schools joined us at Saturday’s event with their reflective creations in tow. The students reflected on their community research using varying media forms. Nerinx and Normandy each wrote creative writings. St. Elizabeth students created a video entitled “Juxtaposition,” and Gateway to College designed and decorated sneakers based on what the students envisioned for their communities. Needless to say, each student group brought beautiful and creative analysis to their reflections. Read the rest of this entry »

Robert E. Gard

In the third weekend of September, I attended the Gard Symposium in Madison, Wisconsin. The conference was dedicated to the life work of Robert E. Gard, a community arts developer out of Wisconsin. Robert E. Gard is known for his community work in theatre, creative writing and folklore. (To read more about Robert E. Gard and his foundation, please click here). The symposium, inspired by Gard’s life work, called participants to discuss the future of community arts development.

I made the journey to Madison with a friend from the social work program at Washington University (she is also the founder of the Community Arts Initiative at the Brown School). We attended the conference to hear the testaments of those who have been actively bridging the arts with unlikely sectors. The symposium aimed to address “healthy communities” by presenting viewpoints of seemingly different disciplines: economics, sociology, technology, politics, religion and social work. Community arts practitioners responded to each discipline’s approach to a healthy community by offering ideas in which the arts might be integrated. It is important to note that healthy, in the symposium and the social sciences speak, refers to an overall, holistic health.

Though the presenters provided strong evidence of the powerful abilities of integrating the arts into diverse sectors, I was particularly moved by the expressed views of Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton. The Lt. Governor’s perspective was fresh, independent and innovative, as she understood that the arts were not only essential a healthy community but also an integral aspect of democracy. As stated in her paper written for the symposium, the Lt. Governor writes, “[the arts and humanities] provide the creativity and spontaneity and sense of freedom necessary to fuel the ongoing struggle that is democracy. A politically healthy community invests in the arts to ensure the context and conditions that will make it robust and prosperous.” It is my hope that symposia such as this catapult community arts development into common dialogue.

The partnership between the Pulitzer Foundation and the George Warren Brown School of Social Work was established in November of 2007. This past fall, near the second anniversary of the partnership, students at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University (GWB) created a new student group. The Community Arts Initiative, or CAI, was born into a family of a dozen other active student groups. But CAI’s birth could not have occurred at a more appropriate time.

With an influx of admitted students interested in the relationship between arts and social work coupled with the partnership between GWB and the Pulitzer Foundation maturing, CAI’s inception seems to be written in the stars. CAI’s mission explores building awareness of the role of art in social work and public health practice by creating community connections and providing educational opportunities. Read the rest of this entry »

When thinking about social activism, we tend to limit the definition to include protests, sit-ins, boycotts, and marches. Yet such a definition confines our understanding, and we rarely acknowledge activism’s various manifestations. Visual art, music, literature, flash mobs, clothing styles, and deciding which type of coffee to drink further prove social activism’s immeasurable forms. Our everyday choices become steps towards creating change. We can look back to the Civil Rights Movement as a perfect example on the varying expressions of activism. In the movement we see how song, art, literature, and bus rides can change an entire nation. Each time I hear the very first refrain “We shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome someday,” chills cover me. I am moved by the simplicity of the harmony and the lyrics, not because of their clever arrangement, but because I know such simplicity created such power and unity to bring together thousands. Or perhaps I am moved because decades following the movement the song still shakes one’s inner core and commands such hope. Read the rest of this entry »

Emily Augsburger is a Brown School of Social Work practicum student in the Pulitzer’s Community Engagement Department.

Last Saturday, Jenny, Aaron, Craig, Lisa, and I set up a table at the Earthways Green Home Festival with old newspapers and a Plexiglas box ready to be filled with garbage. The morning was cool and breezy, and the news forecasted rain, but we were warmed by coffee and eagerly waited for festival tourists.

Within minutes of the kickoff, we made a friend, whose mom was volunteering with Earthways. Henry, a student from Loyola Academy, became an amazing assistant to the Pulitzer’s booth. He joined our recycling paper task force and eventually became an expert with the hand-crank blender used to make the paper pulp.

Henry, Jenny, and Emily demonstrate making paper pulp and paper out of recycled newspapers. Read the rest of this entry »