Key Organizations

Popular Education: Organizations and Associations

Alexandra Barrett

Ball State University

Adult and Community Education (Spring -- 2017)

Dr. Bo Chang

Table 1. Comments on Course Group Blogs

Name	Commented On
Alexandra Barrett	Group #2
Alexandra Barrett	Group #4
Alexandra Barrett

Introduction to Organizations

Catalyst Center

            “Applying a popular education approach,… the Catalyst Centre sought to challenge this [racialized oppression] through an arts practice that collectively and critically examines these everyday experiences, with apolitical vision that acts in the interests of those who are marginalized.  The Catalyst Centre, a Toronto-based popular education center founded in 1999, spearheaded this vision.  Our mission is to ‘celebrate and promote innovative learning, popular education, research and community development to advance positive social change’” (Barndt, 2011).

Personal Legacy Projects

            “Like the Catalyst Centre’s Telling Our Stories project, the Personal Legacy work has targeted emerging artists and has been developed to address the intersection between art and social movements from specific to culturally rooted perspectives.  It challenges participants to draw from the rich tapestries of their inner lives as a source of creativity and as an action towards understanding others” (Barndt, 2011).

UCLA – ArtsBridge

            “The ArtsBridge program… is located at UCLA’s School of the Arts and Architecture in Los Angeles.  ArtsBridge helps participants create pathways in the arts and higher education by fostering closer contact between public schools and universities…. South Los Angeles has experienced a long history of struggles that have transformed the racial and ethnic landscape of the region; from First Nations’ communities’ painful experiences with Spanish colonizers, to the war between the United States and Mexico, to the institutionalization policies through Jim Crow Laws.  History is the backdrop for current struggles for educational and justice…. [ArtsBridge programming works to integrate and address such struggles within its context]” (Barndt, 2011).

Programs and Learning Activities

Catalyst Center

            The Toronto-based Catalyst Center appears to function as foundation piece for several different projects or programs that are in alignment with their core goals related to social justice, multiculturalism, etc. through arts-based Popular Education programs.  Additionally, the promotion of such issues is fostered through several other branch activities in the areas of teacher trainings and workshops; community consultations and developmental planning; and participatory research and evaluation.  “Our mission is to ‘celebrate and promote innovative learning, popular education, research and community development to advance positive social change’” (Brandt, 2011).  The following provides a sampling of typical projects and learning activities supported through the Catalyst Center:

·         Train-the-Trainer Workshop(s): “The collaborative train-the-trainer process brought [the participants] together for a three-day workshop to share the art forms and processes that would be used when engaging communities, and to learn popular education approaches to add to the artists educators’ existing tool kit of educational techniques….  Then [the participants] located [themselves] in the context of history of art and social justice.  [This was done] collectively by creating a timeline of art and social justice work, including personal, community and national/international events, as well as people and ideas that have inspired art and social justice” (Brandt, 2011).

·         Percussion Breaking Project: “The objective was to create a safe environment for the young women to express themselves through dance, and have a forum to discuss how they felt about the challenges they face as young women in today’s society…. Through dance and education it became an empowering and enjoyable experience.  The girls in the workshops learned about Cuban and hip hop cultures, and how they are related…. They discovered the correlation of Black and Hispanic cultures with hip hop and the expression of urban youth for more than thirty years.  More importantly they came to see that it was their culture to embrace and promote, and that there is a place for them in this male-dominated art form or field” (Brandt, 2011).

·         Script Writing for Youth of Color: “[The] project was a theater workshop for youth of color between the ages of twelve and eighteen, through two community centers in downtown Toronto.  [S]tudents wrote monologues based on their personal stories, and [were] offered tools on directing, acting and stage management. In small groups the youth shared their work and turned this writing into a script that was performed.  Many themes were about youth culture and the challenges of being a youth” (Brandt, 2011).

·         Telling of Stories through Film Production: “[The] project took the form of a short film produced and directed by two youth from the Parkdale neighborhood in west Toronto.  The film content was entirely scripted by the youth and related to issues of self-empowerment, respecting diversity, and reaching personal goals….  The youth involved had very interesting stories to tell in relation to their personal journeys and family situations…. The short film(s) showed clips of the communities where they live, and gave them a chance to speak about why they are proud of where they come from….  [The] project showed that art by its nature is political, and watching in this way shows the empowerment of people, which is the core of social justice” (Brandt, 2011).

Personal Legacy Project(s)

            “[The Legacy Project(s) are] for aspiring community artists who might feel distanced form their own histories and communities, the Arrivals project fosters access to their histories, to transformative ways of working with their communities, and to opportunities for building those communities.  And it gives communities access to arts opportunities facilitated by locally based emerging community artists” (Brandt, 2011).  The Legacy Projects appear to be varied somewhat in precise focus or usage environments; but all with an underlying purpose and method, “Personal Legacy is a physical/dramaturgical process based on a combination of West/Central African dance, ritual, and story traditions – where the teller/dancer and the story/event are in a dynamic and changing relationship.  Evolving out of these traditions, the Personal Legacy work is an embodied process exploring Ancestry” (Brandt, 2011).

            Additionally, it seems that the use of research on and exploration in using personal ancestry is a way of self-identifying factors that may or may not contribute to the participant’s position with respect to social justice issues and empowerment.  “What makes the Personal Legacy work unique is its application in a cross-cultural or ‘multisporic’ (rather than diasporic) setting… the exercises themselves… demand attention to one’s own definition of root culture – [making] the work universal and accessible” (Brandt, 2011).  The process itself for the learner functions in a three-phase format: the research phase, the embodiment phase, and the group discussion//feedback phase (Brandt, 2011).  The crux of the projects for the individual is to identify with a “legacy person” who either was a true existing person from the learner’s family lineage or a representational figure that could have been from their own family history.  Through exploration of the legacy person the learner gains a better understanding of his/her roots and how this ancestral reference point has or is impacting their current life experiences.

UCLA – ArtsBridge

            The programs and/or learning activities offered through ArtsBridge appear to be two-fold.  The programs are facilitated through partnerships between universities and local K-12 public schools.  The university students are trained to function as facilitators for arts-based programs typically functioning in K-12 public schools that are low-income, marginalized or otherwise depleted of arts-based activities.  Hence, the first part of the ArtsBridge programming support teach-the-teacher workshops and trainings to prepare prospective students for facilitating the arts programs within the K-12 schools.  The second part of the ArtsBridge programming is the actual facilitation of the classes/workshops with the children.  Various types of arts-based programs are offered: visual art, design/media arts, dance, architecture, music, drama and media studies (Brandt, 2011).   Although the ArtsBridge programs are offered in a number of cities – with various university partnerships – that all contain elements associated with social justice, community building, individual empowerment, and so on and so forth.

Comparison

Catalyst Center

            The Catalyst Center and related programming and/or projects all seem to have common threads as elucidated by Brandt (2011): “First, it is important to explore new ways to engage communities through collective artistic production processes and to overcome key obstacles…. Secondly, the importance of creating processes that meld art and social justice, in a context where much social conflict remains beneath the surface and unacknowledged, we need to be able to talk about racism, violence, and personal empowerment” (Brandt, 2011).  Although the various projects appear to be taken in differing formats for knowledge creation and expression they all would be considered in alignment with the practices and methods espoused to by such Popular Educators as Freire and Horton.

Personal Legacy Projects

            The Personal Legacy Projects appear to be very similar to the models described within the literature process.  The projects clearly follow the description of what constitute Popular Education philosophy and practices.  The focus on the projects seem to be social justice, community development and empowerment, individual self-awareness and esteem building with respect to culture, place and origin.  Family heritage and personal roots or origin are at the heart of the various legacy projects: “Despite its obvious applications in a training context, the power of the [legacy project] work is best demonstrated in its artistic and community development applications, … The Personal Legacy work, using all aspects of self – the emotional, the spiritual, the physical, and the intellectual – not only encourage intergenerational exchange but uses this exchange as a catalyzing force for personal and community development” (Brandt, 2011).

UCLA – ArtsBridge

            The ArtsBridge programming appears to be most closely aligned of the three programs/organizations profiled – in relation to Popular Education philosophy and methods.  The ArtsBridge program offers a wide variety of methods for conducting the learning experiences that are customized to the target audience or participants and what their specific needs are with respect to the overall goals of social justice and community empowerment.  Similarly, given that there is such diversity in methods drawn upon for knowledge creation and knowledge expression there are more ways in which the learners themselves can participate; thus this is the most inclusive of the three programs profiled. 

Implications

Catalyst Center

            The Catalyst Center and the related programs may offer the best resources for educators interested in Popular Education programming and/or curriculum design.  They seem to offer a wide variety of projects and programs that have already been successfully packaged and documented for educators to use as study guides.  The wide variety of arts used in the programs also offers a great number of ideas and practices that should allow for most any educator with even limited arts background an opportunity to learn and incorporate such into his/her own teaching environment.  That being said, I think that the nature of the programs offered can be used as examples that might inspire educators who are interested in working in the area of Popular Education to seek out and master one or more forms of artistic expression as possible new education related skills.

Personal Legacy Project(s)

            The description of the various personal legacy projects indicates that these types of exploration could be scaled up or down to be used, both either stand-alone programs, or as add-on components to existing learning activities.  The use of activities or programs similar to the personal legacy programs are likely to be most appropriate for adult educational settings; as less mature learners would not likely get as much out of the experiences.  However, a version appropriate for older children would certainly be a strong possibility in the right setting.  Additionally, many of the personal legacy projects described, seemed to be requiring little to no additional special equipment or tools to facilitate; whereas the programs from the other two organizations seem to require more involved set-up equipment.  Simplicity of facilitation and general applicability to most adult learners would be strong benefits to this particular learning model.

UCLA – ArtsBridge

            The programs offered through ArtsBridge seem to have two focal points – with one area focused on training for arts-based educators, and the second are focused on providing learning for children.  It seems that the training program for educators would be of high interest to most educators interested in facilitating learning using the Popular Education model.  Although, being able to participate in actual ArtsBridge facilitator training seems isolated to university partner students; the model for the trainings could be used to create similar educational opportunities.  Similar to the facilitator trainings, the ArtsBridge children’s programs would likely only be accessible to those students in the particular schools where ArtsBridge is operating.  However, the methods/techniques and learning goals of these programs are highly transferable to other settings; and as well could be designed for use with adult learners as well as children.

Conclusion

            While conducting the research of various organizations, associations, and related programming using Popular Education as a grounding framework, I found very few organizations that were fully and solely referring to Popular Education as there only type of work or education offered.  What I did find were a wide variety of Popular Education programs or projects that were being sponsored by this or that organization.  Similarly, I often found that several Popular Education projects would be linked to or in partnership with each other to form associations.  These associations seemed to have long standing relationships of many years in some cases, while in other cases the associations would be for a very short time with respect to particular focus or goal.  The three organizations I chose to focus upon referred to themselves as projects but appeared to have structures that were the most similar to formal organizations, in that they seemed to have distinct entities with sitting boards, foundational support, business like structures, and so on and so forth. 

                                               

Table 2. Summary of Popular Education Organizations

Focus	Catalyst Centre	Arrivals Legacy Project	UCLA - ArtsBridge
Year it was Founded	Co-founded by numerous board members and participants approximately 1999.		First program partnership launched in early 1990’s with David Starr Jordan High School in Watts.
Mission and Goals	“The ‘Catalyst Centre One-Stop Pop-Ed Shop Worker Co-op’ is a collective of educators committed to democratic, social justice education and community development. Popular Education is a movement, a practice and a theory of social change that is based on learning and committed to resisting unjust uses of power” (Catalyst Centre website).	“The aim of APLP was to facilitate creation through the exploration of artists’ own personal ancestry: to bring participants into alignment with their own authentic cultural-historic bodies, to explore and unleash the knowledge, history, and legacies carried within, and to engage these as the basis for subsequent character development and creative work” (Urban Ink, 2014).	“[To address] cultural reclamation and reinvention by creating culturally and socially relevant learning opportunities for youth that are often misrepresented in, excluded from, dominant educational and artistic paradigms.[To support] participants both to affirm and support their own knowledge through culturally relevant curriculum” (Barndt, 2011).
Main Programs	ü  Consulting and collaborative creation of programs ü  School of Activism, workshops and events ü  Resource library ü  Research assistance and action planning	ü  Ancestral recovery focus ü  Three-phase process ü  Research phase ü  Embodiment phase ü  Group discussion/feedback phase ü	ü  Community building through arts education ü  Social justice support through arts education ü  Music based programs ü  Arts-based learning programs ü  Movement literacy based programs ü  Media studies based programs ü  Theater based programs ü  Spoken word based programs
Organization of Programs	ü  Foundation, board of members, volunteers, p-t employees with all involved in activities ü  School for educators and teachers of Popular Education ü  Research work done by Catalyst Centre workers ü  Consultancy program for community and other organizations ü  Non-profit status	Many different programs or projects with similar goals but differing formats used ü  Personal Legacy Project ü  Vermillion Project ü  Ribcage Project	ü  Collaborative partnership between universities and local public K-12 schools ü  Customized program offerings based on community needs ü  Partnerships with other similar minded programs and organizations
Goals addressed by Programs	ü  Environmental Sustainability ü  Food Scarcity and Quality ü  Social Justice ü  Human Rights ü  Democracy ü  Animal Rights ü  Participatory Learning and Research	ü  Knowledge construction and expression through culturally relevant performance tradition(s) ü  Community development and integration ü  Artist support focus ü  Racial/ethnic diversity and multiculturalism	ü  De-colonization support ü  Immigrant support ü  Racial/ethnic equality support ü  Poverty and food scarcity remedy ü  Educational and social justice support ü  First Nations’, Latino, African-American, and Pacific Islander focus
Comparison	ü  Very similar to some of the Popular Education programs described in the Literature Review process that were not considered true practitioners of PopEd ü  Instead seems to be using the philosophy and some methods of PopEd but not fully embracing what Paulo Freire or Miles Horton had described	ü  Seems to have been developed with a very specific type of participant in mind; one who would be drawn to the arts-based focus ü  Appears to be more individually, or internally focused on the learner for self-exploration and reconnection to self through personal historical research ü  Focus of programming seems more targeted towards dedicated population as opposed to the population informing the type of programming required	ü  Program goals and mission statement appear to be very much in alignment with Popular Education models found in literature review process ü  Program curriculum, structure, methods, and focus akin to Popular Education models ü  Use of collaboration with University students as program facilitators very similar to Miles Horton model
Implications	Represents an interesting example of how educators and facilitators from related fields could use PopEd as a framework for doing consulting work, or facilitation of other training workshops using the PopEd methods, not sure of how valuable this is as an example for community educators or adult educators focusing on social justice through educational means.	Gives educators a sound example of how to design a program for a pre-determined targeted population with specific learning criteria focused upon This might be an example of one branch of programming that could be offered within a more comprehensive umbrella suite of more varied programming to meet a larger more divers overall population	Serves as an excellent quality example of ways in which arts education and arts practitioners can utilize the arts to support community development and/or empowerment, and also to support social justice causes integrated with Popular Education model

References

Arrivals Legacy Project (program) website documents.  Retrieved from:     http://arrivalslegacy.com/home

Barndt, D. (2011). Viva! Community Arts and Popular Education in the Americas.  State   University of New York Press, Albany.

Catalyst Centre website documents.  Retrieved from: http://www.catalystcentre.ca/

Shimsshon-Santo, A., 2010. Arts Impact: Lessons from ArtsBridge, Journal for Learning through the Arts.

Unknown author, 2014. Arrivals Personal Legacy Project.  Urban Ink, Stories that Inform Us.