What role does the arts play in social transformation? In what ways does it contribute to peace, development and social justice? These issues are explored in the book Changing our World; Art as Transformative Practice edited by Michelle le Baron and Janis Sarra.
The book is published by African Sun Media and Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS).
This book, among other things, endeavours to break new
ground. It coins the term TAP (for 'transformative arts practice') and refers
to TAP practitioners. A question that arises is whether TAP practitioners
identify as such - whether for example the
late Hugh Masekela would have viewed himself as a TAP practitioner. Since the
label is new, most likely not. But if TAP was considered in terms of its
essence, many on all continents would align with it, the book argues, and many would
likely see themselves as part of the project of fostering the arts as
transformative practice.
In my small contribution to the book, I worked on 'how to
build a TAP field', so such questions came up. A field is when organisations
and individuals see themselves as some kind of 'community' working together to
solve problems and develop certain shared practices.
The theory aside, it is worth mentioning two other points
here. The first is that arts practitioners who acknowledged that art had a role
in the fight against apartheid were much more connected and coordinated in the
pre-1994 period. They worked together in and across disciplines, and, for example,
made their mark in creating pathways for emerging artists from oppressed
communities to emerge and feel supported. The current period, by comparison, is
marked by fragmentation and dislocation. So, we may ask: 'what's to be done?' -
a question addressed in the exploration of how to build a field.
The second additional point is that in this book we put our
heads on the block and link TAP in a fundamental way to Ubuntu. By using the
word transformative, "(o)ur focus is on those (practices) that have embedded
within them a set of values summed up here as Ubuntu and the goals of enhancing
social and economic fairness and reciprocal belonging". In this regard,
when we were working on the book, one of the authors, Kitche Magak, often noted
that ubuntu was both African and universal - although
we acknowledge Africa as the labeler and a place where many practice it more
consciously, the call of Ubuntu has relevance and application the world over.
Magak (in his chapter) stresses the 'humanising capacity of the arts'. And in a
summary of one of our workshop discussions (made possible by Stellenbosch
University), he noted that "(h)umanising arts challenges, confronts and
contradicts dehumanising dominant ideology". I hope this gives some feel
of the content/contents of the book.
The book is published by African Sun Media and Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS).
