11 Creative Diversity

Creative Diversity

A new website called Creative DIVERSITY, is soon to be launched as
www.creative-diversity.com

It is expected to become a major online resource, a service and a forum for people who are interested in the analysis, interpretation and application of artistic and cultural expression relating to diversity, leading to innovation and celebration for London 2102 and for the country as a whole. Creative Diversity expects to draw its material from a wide range of sources and to encourage active participation by teachers, students, librarians and parents.

A new blog, known as Creative Diversity Recruitment can now be accessed by using this link:
http://creativediversityrecruitment.wordpress.com The blog aims to help with the recruitment of

• creative staff for arts and cultural organisations
• trustees and professional advisers to join the boards of arts organisations
• teachers and librarians seeking educational links with arts and cultural providers
• students wishing to join study groups and projects offered by many arts organisations
• any of the above who wish to propose projects and programmes to organisations working in the field of cultural diversity.

For further information and details please email Kalwant Ajimal using the address provided in the left column of this blog, listed under 'About me'.

10 Another Look at Diversity

Cultural Diversity and Ephemeral Arts

The study of ephemeral arts provides very interesting pathways for the understanding of diversity. These arts are unique for several reasons. The study and celebration of time based culture links the student to communities, how their traditions relating to common events - birthdays, childhood, coming of age, weddings, childbearing, becoming old, buying a house and even the act of dying reflects different beliefs and values.

The celebration of major events in the religious and economic calendar further inspires community artists and lay members of the community to use various forms of expression in order to communicate their messages. They may also mix different artforms - music, dance and drama to create cultural entertainment for their audiences. The celebrations may be further enhanced with the making of special crafts and decorations that are connected with the events. In other cases masks and special cultural gifts such as jewellery and body decorations are also made and handed out to selected people in the audience to complete the interpretation and enjoyment of the event.

The main outcome of this process of study is that communities have more in common than they are different. If this was always true, the study of ephemeral arts would be quite narrow and basic! What makes the examination of ephemeral arts interesting is how some programmes, events and community functions can become 'distinctive' either because of the visual images created by the artists or how special meanings may be attached to the events.

Where cultures grow and develop in response to other cultures and the environment, there is a need to promote diversity.

9. You do not have to wait for Christmas!

This is picture is taken from a Waitrose supermarkets advertisement promoting the sale fruit and vegetables around Christmas time!

I think it presents ideas for making a very clever use of common 'materials' and is also an excellent source of inspiration for students to create their own pictures. A possible project for classroom activity is, a) show the picture to students, b) ask them to collect whatever fruits they think they can use to create their own picture, c) depending on their age, supervise the cutting of fruit into slices, d) use a clean white board to assemble the items to create this face or another variation selected by the children and when the work has been photographed and recorded, encourage the children to eat the pieces provided it is safe for them to do so. Concerns for safety could include the need for care relating to hygiene but also ensuring that children do not suffer from any allergies connected to fruits and nuts.
The topics related to the project can vary from ephemeral art to healthy eating connected to properties of fruit and vegetable. If you can think of other options please write in using the email given on the left or leave a comment.

8 One of my favourite pictures!

This is a photograph of a mousepad that I bought in a computer shop a few years ago!
I believe that it is an aboriginal art, created by putting together beads, slices of fruit, patterns and possibly ribbons made of fabric. But I could be wrong!

What do you think?
If you have seen this before or have a better description of the picture and its background, I would be very interested to hear from you. If you do not want to leave a comment but prefer to send me a private reply via email please do so. Please send your comment to kalwant.ajimal@btinternet.com

7. Investing in creative diversity

Ephemeral Arts as an expression of 'creative diversity'

The cultural environment is segmented into three categories to celebrate diversity as a driver for the Ephemeral Arts:

• The collective and civic forms of culture includes heritage, museums, cinema, concerts, performing and visual arts. These activities have implications for collective cultural celebration affecting regeneration and social policy. Ephemeral arts may be used to programme major festivals and attract community initiatives
• The individual cultural activities are defined as artists-led work, practical workshops and use of television, video and multimedia to extend the audiences for ephemeral arts
• Educational activities provide creative expression for the ephemeral arts. these activities are used selectively for learning, teaching, and research. School based Festivals also offer scope for integration into the national curriculum.
• The scope and significance of Ephemeral Arts for audience development. How are the ephemeral arts defined and presented for linking them to annual fairs, events in the cultural calendar and school programmes.
• How the arts differ depending on definitions and their operations
• How audiences can participate.
• How to create new audiences for more challenging work.

6. Ephemeral Arts for Timebased Cultural Celebrations

Examples of Ephemeral Arts
Here is a wide range of ephemeral arts produced by many cultures. There are some fascinating pictures on the website. Please see www.ephemeralarts.com

WELL
DRESSING MEHNDI MASKS DOLLS ALPANA MURALS

WALL PAINTINGS RAKHI ARM BANDS MOSAICS

MIRROR ARTS

FACE PAINTING FLOOR ARTS FANCY Festival Dress

MASKS

CLAY ARTS HOUSE DECORATIONS

PICTURES Using Rangoli Patterns

FLOWER ARTS FESTIVAL COSTUMES POTTERY

HAND MADE GIFTS and CRAFTS for special celebrations

TREE DECORATIONS RANGOLI GARBA POTS

HANGING BASKETS

5. How the Festival is Created in Schools

How the Festival is created in Schools and in the community?

Artists and community workers employed by Asian Arts Access create the Festival in your school and the community. This is done by:

• Providing the background to ephemeral work and by offering an appreciation of cultural diversity and the environment
• Encouraging culturally diverse children and teachers to work at school with people from different backgrounds
• Encouraging community participation in the Festival and its schools programme
• Encouraging partnerships with local communities, arts organisations, schools and libraries
• Providing experienced artists and practitioners to work with children, teachers and parents
• Creating access to research materials on the Festival website
• Showing films, drawings and pictures of successfully developed arts
• Encouraging children, teachers and parents to use library books, electronic media, websites and dedicated materials provided by Asian Arts Access

Practical sessions for children at school and at home

• Participation in a wide range of ephemeral work, all created from natural materials and inspired by the cultural backgrounds of the artists, teachers and children
• Working with expert community artists and guides to create ephemeral arts using a variety of traditional and modern techniques
• Working with parents and community visitors to create various forms of outputs – mask making and painting, kite making, designing floor-based pasterns, origination of murals and development, face painting for traditional dancers, making of gifts.
• Viewing dedicated films, TV programmes, films showing ephemeral arts in their story
• Using the exhibition developed by Asian Arts Access to carry out course work
• Taking pictures of artists at work to develop own project proposals and ideas
• Exercises to connect the A Festival of Ephemeral Arts to folklore, modern day celebrations and experimentation.

Who would benefit?

• School classes from different disciplines – art, sociology, geography, history and liberal studies
• School children working on their own for important school projects, self study and group work
• Teachers by seeing how expert artists create materials and use them to complete new works
• Parents, teachers and communities who would benefit by interacting through the Festival. It brings the “school into the community” and “ the community into the school”.

Resources and presentation

• Over one or two days, students, teachers and parents participate in and view a wide range of ephemeral artforms.
• Community artists guide students and other participants in creating these arts by using a variety of techniques and materials.
• A dedicated Festival creates opportunities to celebrate folklore, discuss cultural events and understand issues relating to identity.

4. How The Festival is Created in Libraries

Working in Libraries

Artists and local community workers are supported by Asian Arts Access to create the Festival and access to its resources in school and public libraries. This is done by:

• Providing the background to ephemeral work and by offering an appreciation of cultural diversity and the environment
• Encouraging culturally diverse children and teachers to work at school with people from different backgrounds and to use the local Library Services
• Encouraging creative use of various Festival resources
• Encouraging partnerships with local communities, arts organisations and schools
• Providing experienced artists and practitioners to work with children, teachers and parents
• Creating further understanding of research materials on the Festival website
• Showing films, drawings and pictures of successfully developed arts in libraries
• Encouraging older children, teachers and parents to use library books, electronic media, websites and dedicated materials provided by Asian Arts Access and other suppliers.

Practical sessions for children at school and home

• Participation in a wide range of ephemeral arts work, all created from natural materials and inspired by the cultural backgrounds of the artists, teachers and children.
• Working with expert community artists and guides to create ephemeral arts using a variety of traditional and modern techniques. Their work will be featured on the website and this blog.
• Working with parents and community visitors to create various forms of outputs – mask making and painting, kite making, designing floor-based pasterns, origination of murals and development, face painting for traditional dancers, making of gifts.
• Viewing dedicated films, TV programmes, films showing ephemeral arts in their story.
• Using the exhibition developed by Asian Arts Access to carry out course work
• Taking pictures of artists at work to develop own project proposals and ideas
• Completing exercises to connect the Ephemeral to folklore, modern day celebrations and experimentation.

Who would benefit?

• School classes – mainly GCSE and A Levels - from different disciplines which require research skills ie art, sociology, geography, history and liberal studies.
• School children working on their own for important school projects, self study and group work.
• Teachers by seeing how expert artists create projects.
• Parents, teachers and communities who would benefit by interacting through the Festival. It brings the “Library into the community” and “ the community into the Library”.

Resources and presentation

• Over one or two days, students, teachers and parents participate in and view a wide range of ephemeral artform
• Community artists guide students and other participants in creating these arts by using a variety of techniques and materials
• A dedicated Festival creates opportunities to celebrate folklore, cultural events and issues relating to identity.

3. The Mayor of Guildford's Mural

The above work shows what is known as The Mayor of Guildford's Inaugural Mural. The Mayor, Tamsy Baker has been interested in supporting a programme of diversity during her Mayoral term. This project was a collaboration between the Mayor, Guildford Borough Council and Culture South East, which also runs the Common Futures programme.

We decided to create a mural by using an Indian artform known as rangoli. Suzanne Akram, a well known artist, was commissioned to produce the mural for the Mayor's Inaugural Week. Suzanne worked on the brief provided to her and created a mural that depicts the history, traditions, landmarks and diversity of the town of Guildford, which is based in Surrey, England. It had to be expanded to a large size to involve a group of volunteers from the community, who also completed the mural.

The next task was to fill in the colours! This was achieved by using grains, seeds and coloured dust to fill the spaces in the mural and by attaching the materials to the mural boards with a glue. The volunteers and artists worked on the mural for a day and they completed the mural in time for the Mayor's Inaugural Reception. The Mayor was presented with the mural. It is essentially a large rangoli! It is a unique celebration of community input into ephemeral arts. An explanation of the mural's content is available on request. Please email me at kalwant.ajimal@btinternet.com

2. Do it yourself - Butterfly!

This is one of the best images from an ephemeral arts project created during one of the festivals. Created by Madhumita Bose who used petals, small flowers, leaves, coloured rice, sawdusts and sand to fill in a large drawing of the butterfly. For better effect we could have given her a white board to work with! That would have also made the work very portable. Some artists use a thin colourless glue to stick the materials to the board, thereby creating a more longlasting work. But remember, if it lasts for ever it's not ephemeral! The work is a variation of an Indian artform known as Rangoli. But many communities use the floor as the 'medium for expression' and draw patterns which are then filled with colours and materials. Simple.
The website www.ephemeralarts.com provides further examples of rangoli. Do you have a description of a floor art or a picture that you would like to be featured in this blog or our website? Please contact me by email: kalwant.ajimal@btinternet.com

1. Introduction to Ephemeral Arts

Definitions and the expression of Ephemeral arts

Ephemeral arts are temporary or short-lived, based on a specific occasion or event and transitory in nature.

Examples are arts related to the cultural calendar- marking New Year, harvest, change of seasons, religious festivals, events in people’s lives, major events in folk traditions.

Ephemeral arts can be expressed by using the simplest of means and materials to the most complicated designs. The artistic expression can involve a few people or thousands. Most Ephemeral arts are based on artistic expression involving drawing, painting, making things, decorating and dedicating peoples’ homes.

Ephemeral arts invariably use natural materials- sticks, grasses, shells, sand, leaves and petals, nuts, fruits, beans, lentils, rice and ground materials to make special powders.

Ephemeral Arts are celebrated internationally, and in all cultures. Many of the Asian arts described here have British, European, Far Eastern, African and South American equivalents! The blog and the related Festivals, and the website are aimed at celebrating commonalities between cultures.

My aim is to

1. help you to make use of our research and experience to develop your own projects
2. suggest how the website can be used to help with your study and enjoyment of the subject
3. attract proposals from you on further areas for collaborative projects
4. guide students and teachers to access resources for formal study linked with school projects
5. invite senior students and their teachers to consider working on the thematic aspects of the ephemeral arts and to develop new schemes of their own.
6. provide access to our resource packs and touring exhibition. Please also see www.ephemeralarts.com

A more formal programme for educational use will also follow. It is designed for universities, secondary school teachers, senior artists and communities.