ART AND OUR HUMANITY
The Intangible, Elusive and Unquantifiable: Art and our Humanity.
The following essay, written by Tina Ellen Lee*, a model and mentor of and for those who seek to create a fair, equitable and cultured life for and with young people as they come of age to take the reins of power. Her breadth of knowledge and accomplishment is awe inspiring. Her work and this text is so relevant to many of the essays I have previous published. It spells out actual projects, ideas and plans, well beyond what so many of us are made incapable of due to being indoctrinated into obedience and inaction by the prevailing neoliberal cultural norms. Light in the darkness.
All photographs: Robert Golden
From Tina
Anthony Barnett, the renowned writer and journalist wrote this for Open Democracy this year.
“In these dire times,” I concluded, “asking what you can do for others is the best way to reach out for yourself… to be a co-creator of society and never just a consumer. It means always using the power of your intelligence, including your emotional intelligence, to make the call that matters, to ask what we can do for others – with love and justice.”
This could be the cry from the heart of The Complete Freedom of Truth, a long-term programme of arts and social justice work with young people, inspired by a visit to a group of young artists in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2008.
Covid, vast human migration, the climate emergency, species destruction, war, famine, hatred and abuse of women, greed, racism, hatred, corruption, neoliberalism and the dangerous rise of far right dictators, oligarchs, demagogues and tele-evangelistic and other religious leaders, gives us an overwhelming sense of helplessness. Anthony’s words are wise counsel; in actioning them, everything needs to be taken step-by-step.
We move into 2023 with many battles, small and large, personal and communal, local and global. How do we take these next steps?
As a non-profit, small performing arts organisation, and as a registered UK charity, we have had one of the greatest supporters of our work for the last 32 years removed. No, it’s neitherArts Council England, now badly damaged by excessive funding cuts; nor the British Council, similarly dismembered by the same government into becoming a business promoter rather than fulfilling its previous role nurturing soft diplomacy via cultural and human relations. Our greatest supporter was the European Union, with its vast wealth of funding for culture, which (in some cases) has been doubled since the Pandemic. These generous funds are no longer accessible to us, not even as a partner country or what used to be called Neighbouring Countries. We are now on the same level as Russia, at the bottom of the list with no access to funding or partnerships.
What then, do we do next? Many people I know in their 70’s and older, play a vital role in business and society as Elders**, sharing life-long experiences and skills, mentoring, supporting and encouraging. They are vital and relevant and in the arts they are inspiring, skilled and compelling leading lights for so many people.
Do small arts organisations like ours, who have been working for over 30 years, still desire to continue? Artists, amongst whom the majority are freelancers, keep creating till they drop, often surviving on or below the poverty line, driven by the overwhelming imperative to create, and to continually strive for social justice because of that insistent gene inside us that won’t be silent. And where are our individual and organisations Egos in all this?
We have been having this conversation with our Board of Trustees and with artists and young people with whom we have worked closely for many years. Perhaps the answer is, it depends whether you sense you, as an individual or an organization, are still driven, caring and useful and are continuing to work hard to make the world a better place.
We are now reflecting about our usefulness and where our work is heading in 2023 and 2024. The next steps for us this year include:
•a mixture of research and development for new performances and youth arts programmes:
•being involved in practical research with universities;
• creating arts events including concerts concentrating on Human Rights and Democracy;
•and using our skills and networking to support other people and organisations where we can be of value.
Often this means helping with fund raising, but it can also mean
•producing theatre and music;
•organising concerts;
•facilitating workshops;
•helping young people from countries at war or post conflict to find opportunities for further study, as Music In The Community which is working with traumatised children in Ukraine;
•producing a new music theatre project, The Stumbling Stones, based on refugee stories from Jewish and Palestinian, Malawian and Rwandan sources;
•continuing to link European Union organizations with young people in events in which we and they can participate, ensuring they still have access to a broad network of young people, networks and opportunities;
•continuing to encourage and fund youth theatre in Srebrenica and Bratunac, BiH and much besides.
Locally we are part of a group of voluntary organisations and individuals who have worked for over 10 years:
•developing Edible Gardens in Primary Schools in Bridport, Dorset,
•encouraging children, teachers and parents to learn about where their food comes from;
•being part of the STEAM National Curriculum linked to biology, maths, language and the vital need for the arts to encourage creativity. This work continues, although we battle the cuts in education, the exhaustion and lack of time of teachers and the increase in poverty in our area as well as the damage from the Pandemic.
We have also been part of a move to bring music into the classroom, both during and after the Pandemic, helping to manage children’s and teacher’s increased anxiety and stress children. This has been in partnership with Darren Abrahams of The Human Hive and led by Professor Nigel Osborne, while exploring the use of his X-System, which became a vital AI tool for the NHS Trauma departments during Covid.
We will continue to make the call that matters.
*WHO IS TINA
Guest writer Tina Ellen Lee FRSA, Artistic Director of Opera Circus and founder of the international youth arts programme The Complete Freedom of Truth, (TCFT), writes her first TCFT blog of the year.
Opera Circus is a performing arts organisation based in Dorset, England and has continuously produced new works of chamber opera and music theatre, as well as developing youth activism through the arts in the UK and Wider Europe. Opera Circus also works locally in partnership with others supporting music and the development of Edible Gardens in schools and cultural events connected to social justice and human rights. Tina has also produced many of Robert Golden’s documentary films including his latest This Good Earth (distributed by Random Media in the US).
“One of my most loved photographs. What an evening it was.” Tina Ellen Lee.
Tina Ellen Lee FRSA
European Citizen’s Prize
Winston Churchill/Finzi Fellow
Salzburg Global Fellow
New web site launched January 20th 2023
**A NOTE FROM TINA
Robert Golden has filmed and photographed for Opera Circus for over 30 years and for TCFT over 15 years.
Laura Fatini, the Italian writer and director, said that without Robert’s films and images we only know half the story of the work we do.
In 2023 a new documentary will be released, created and filmed by Robert Golden, called Belonging. This has been over a year in the making, although in some ways it began way back through years of Robert working with young people in TCFT.
In 2022 Robert interviewed nearly 40 young people who were participating in TCFT projects from Denmark, UK, Bosnia, Serbia, Italy, Portugal, Mozambique, Eritrea, Kosovo and then online with some who had been introduced to him and had much to say, from the US, Ukraine and Palestine.
The film is called BELONGING, a word that came from the young people during the two Erasmus + projects we ran this year. Freedom is Participation in Power in Kosovo and on Portland, Dorset, UK and Take P-Art, led by Centro Studi Sereno Regis in Torino, Italy. Take P-Art residencies were in Bridport (Dorset), Torino and in Bratunac and Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina. More information on the projects can be found here. These were our two last Erasmus + funded projects due to the loss of our EU membership.
Dear Tina and Robert: wonder full.