Final Blog Reflection

Final Blog Reflection

In looking back over the past reflections from the course of the semester, it’s very interesting to see the development in my thinking about community-based research. Initially, I had very little knowledge about what this realm of study entailed, and I primarily learned about it through the initial readings assigned in the course, particularly in reading Strand. Then, as we moved on throughout the course, I was introduced to other authors and readings that spelled out the differences between service-learning and community-based research.

Admittedly, I had generally not been aware of the differences in the beginning of the course. However, after moving through the course, I’ve been able to recognizes that service-learning often lacks the connectivity between community partner and student that community-based research makes a focus of its work. Essentially, I’ve found that service-learning is less of a “partnership” than community-based research. As simple as this sounds, this has been a big development for me. I remember in one class, we discussed the differences between doing service projects, and working with a community organization to learn about their goals, and to form a common goal. We learned that the intentions of these two methods differed greatly.

As a side-note, I’ve always been an avid advocate of service. However, this class has exposed me to an even better method: CBR. I remember vividly realizing this in the week of February 19^th, when we discussed Goldbard and Strand, and the differences between traditional research and CBR. The others simply seemed to lack a true connection and true partnership that CBR so effectively got across.

What I have found most significant however, in looking back at the course, is what I learned through working with The Bridge on my group’s final research project. It was through this partnership with Greg that I was able to see the qualities of community-based research in true form. I remember the moment that I realized this was in our first meeting with Greg, when we initially pitched our idea. I remember how excited he was to see the potential of our project, and I was able to see quite literally how the project would structurally affect The Bridge for the better.

Similarly, what set the meeting and the entire project apart from past service projects that I’ve been a part of was that we met at as a group with Greg, and pitched our ideas, but more importantly, we listened to his. It was less of one person telling another what they wanted done, and more of a dialogue. This made me feel like it was a true partnership, and not simply service. This concept played out throughout our CBR project. Initially, in looking back at the blogs, our initial project for The Bridge entailed reworking the funding process and their grant applications. However, it became clear that this wasn’t an immediate need of The Bridge, and instead, we focused on the application process. Even toward the final days of our project, we had wanted to survey contributors. However, after listening to the concerns of Greg and the board, we scrapped this idea. All of these developments came only after communicating with The Bridge and listening to their needs and their concerns.

In looking at my blog entries, I notice that another major development in my thinking about CBR came when looking at case studies of past and current CBR projects as well as looking at the readings by Goldbard, Lovelace, and Schwarzmann concerning the complicated concept of “culture.” These readings were extremely helpful, while at the same time frustrating. They were frustrating in the sense that they complicated an issue that I thought I had pretty much figured out in my other SOC classes. Essentially, they argued that culture is so broad and complicated to define, whereas my other classes have always given a set definition of “culture.” However, in this same sense, they were very helpful in that they helped me realize that there is no set culture, and that so many different variables go into creating an person’s, an organization’s, a community’s culture.

Finally, in looking at the case studies, we learned about social capital, and the importance of building it when working with community partners. Moreover, with these case studies, we were able to learn about multiple CBR projects that have been successful, inspiring our own. This, in conjunction with tips on what not to do from a guest speaker earlier in the semester, helped guide our project overall.

CBR Group Work Week

Group CBR Work-

This week, I have focused solely on the the Group CBR Project. There was no class this week, in order to allow us time to focus on perfecting and finalizing our group projects (Thanks, Carey! ).

Our group has since come up with a solution to our lack of sociological data. Instead of surveying contributors to get an idea of how the funding and how the submission process should potentially work, we’ve decided to informally interview other community arts and traditional arts centers in order to compare what their criteria is for the submission process, what their applications look like, and how exactly they work through selecting artist exhibitions.

We were all responsible for contacting multiple point persons within various community arts and traditional arts organizations. In contacting these respective organizations, we were attempting to get a sense of these organizations’ structure of choosing submissions. At the same time, for personal research and also as part of the group research, we asked the organizations how their selection process related to their overarching, respective mission statements.

After gathering the results from these organizations, we were able to create a pool of criteria that we could pull from in forming The Bridge’s selection process. Major points that we’ve selected to focus on are the following:

“Has ability to engage non-artists in all aspects of the creative process.”

“Available and willing to be actively involved during exhibition.”

“How is the art socially relevant to the community in which the artist lives?”

“Is the proposed project unique to the Birdge’s setting?”

In addition to this, our group is in the works of developing a structured way of selecting organizations based on this criteria. Overall, the project has come together very nicely, and I feel like Greg is thoroughly excited to see how our final product turns out.

Week of Case Studies/Group Work

Classwork/Readings-

In class this week, we discussed case studies that touched on the subject of cultural tourism. We discussed the concept of multicultural capital, which we defined as “an interest in trying to make contact with those who are different from them; wanting to connect in order to better oneself, to add to one’s resources.” Basically, community arts organizations among other social organizations come up against the issue of economic capital vs. cultural capital.

One area where this was most apparent in the readings was in the article, “LA Commons” by Mack. The article discussed working on multiple community arts and development projects in Los Angeles. The main characteristic of the projects discussed in the article was that multiple communities were bridged. In one specific project, the UCLA student community, high school artists, and low-income neighborhood residents were all involved in

Group CBR Work-

In our group CBR work this week, we ran into a major roadblock. In our initial meeting with Greg, he seemed excited about the application revision, but we noticed at the time that he was reserved about the surveying of contributors. He suggested that we contact an expert within the UVA system about guidelines for surveying donors. However, once we received advice, Greg said that the survey would have to get approved by the Board of Directors, which would meet after our final product was due.

Thus, we’ve found ourselves in a tight spot. He said he would work to get the approval of the board, but by the time we received the okay, it would be too late.

Individual Work-

In terms of my individual research project, I’m similarly at a stand-still. Because I was relying on the data from the survey to answer my individual question, I’m not sure if I should continue with my original idea or if I should switch gears. I feel somewhat nervous, frankly, because five pages are dedicated to data that we’ve gathered from our own group research, and there is little to no data to speak of.

At this point, my question remains relatively the same, but I’m thinking of tweaking it and doing a case study comparison of two organization’s missions. Ultimately, I want to show the comparison between the mission statements of traditional arts organizations and community arts organizations, and see how the application process reflects this. Thus, I will choose one or two of each category, and look at how their respective mission statements are reflected in the application process. The trouble that I’m having is operationalizing what exactly constitutes a “community arts” organization and a “traditional” organization. This is something that isn’t necessarily coming up in research thus far.

Case Studies and Meeting with Greg

Classwork/Readings-

For Monday, we had three readings by Goldbard, Lovelace, and Schwarzman. All three articles discussed different viewpoints on the concept of “culture.” Based on the readings, I like Goldbard’s interpretation of culture the most. She writes that culture is everything that nature isn’t. Moreover, humans create nature, thus making it ever-changing. The definitions of culture that all three authors offer are very broad, and different. This is important to note, because culture is broad and complicated. One example presented in one of the articles is the fact that one person can be represented by a number of different cultures. A person can be both Russian and Jewish, creating a unique culture from anyone who is perhaps French and Jewish. Thus, culture is very complicated, and cannot be defined by a simple answer. Something that we discussed in class was where art fits into culture. Is art a representation of culture, or is culture a representation of art?

Also, for class on Wednesday, we looked at three case studies that we had read. These case studies were all three very different. One was focused on arts in the prison system; another was focused on arts used with those who have disabilities; and the last was about digital media and the arts. In class, we worked with these three studies in order to find similarities between them and our own CBR project. Our group found most of the similarities with the missions of the organizations and that of the Bridge PAI. Finally, we worked on our own research projects to operationalize the definitions of our variables.

Group CBR Work-

Our group made significant headway this week on our project. We met with Greg, and laid out out entire proposal and our goals for him, discussing both the application revising and the survey. He was extremely excited about both, specifically the application revision. We were able to fuse ideas, and come to a working conclusion for our project. We basically decided that we would revise the application by beautifying it and simplifying the actual form. More importantly, we would make it so that Greg is no longer the point of contact for all applications, in order to lessen his load. To do this, all applications will be directed to specific point people based on the media type (e.g. music, art exhibits, etc).

Finally, Greg was most excited by the fact that this will now be more in line with the mission of the Bridge. He talked about how the previous process generally only involved word of mouth, which doesn’t necessarily bridge communities. By making the application available to everyone and requiring everyone to turn it in, this makes the whole system more democratic and available.

Individual Work-

Individually, I’ve been continuing research on community arts’ missions, and seeing how they fit in with the actual results. The trouble that I’m running into is that there is very little academic literature on this subject, making it difficult to compile data. Moreover, I need to define “effectiveness” and specify how to measure this. Hopefully within the next few days, I’ll have all of these kinks worked out, and be able to move on with my project.

Week of Data Analysis Workshops

Classwork and Readings-

This week we had no assigned readings, but instead had data analysis workshops in class. These were extremely helpful, and covered quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques.

The most helpful presentation was on the first day, Tatiana’s group. The group discussed interviewing techniques as well as general sociological research techniques. These will be extremely helpful in both the group CBR project, as well as my individual research project.

Group CBR Project-

Our group met this week, and analyzed the current application for submissions for artwork at The Bridge. We also sketched out what we would like to see in the application in preparation for our meeting with Greg, scheduled for next week. Essentially, we felt that the Bridge’s application included too many pieces, likely discouraging artists from filling it out. Moreover, we noticed that the application was not available for immediate access online.

We plan to move the application online, both to be filled out online and to be printed. We also plan to focus the application on the mission of The Bridge, which is to bridge communities. We want to ensure that artists’ exhibits truly do intend to bridge communities and bring them together, so this will be a major focus of the application. Also, we plan to keep much of the original application in-tact, but simply to beef it up and beautify it.

We’re meeting with Greg the following week in order to get a sense of what he specifically wants and to get a list of all Bridge contributors. Also, we’ve finalized the survey, and once we get the list of contributors, we will send it out via email. After a few weeks, it is our hope that these views of contributors and the views of Greg and other members of The Bridge will match up, thus making the application a collaboration between the community and The Bridge.

Individual Project-

Individually, I’m working on continuing research. Based on my research, I may tweak my question somewhat. I’m working to make it more general, and applicable to multiple community arts organizations. In doing so, I’ve found through research that not all organizations have mission statements, and that it is even difficult to define what is exactly a “community arts” organization. However, I’m looking to do an intensive research project by looking at multiple community arts organizations in Virginia, and analyze their mission statements and corresponding arts projects.

In conjunction with this research, I’m looking at specific information from the survey that we give The Bridge.

Week of Literature Review Presentations and CBR Seminar

1) Readings and Seminar Sessions-

This week and last week, there were no specifically assigned readings but we had readings assigned by fellow class members. The previous week, our class had the opportunity to attend a guest lecture in the Service in Society Series by Professor Nisha D. Botchwey in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning. The seminar was very informative, focusing on “messy” local community projects that are right up our alley for this class. Coming away from the lecture, I’m more energized and ready to focus on our current CBR project with the Bridge.

From the lecture, I learned a great deal about what not to do in a CBR project. Essentially, the major difficulties that come with such projects involve graduating students that have no real investment in the organization with which they are working. Moreover, something that has come up repeatedly both in class and in multiple readings is making sure that we keep in mind the goals of The Bridge, and that we are working to further their goal more so than our own.

2) Group CBR Work-

With the group CBR work, our group has made many advances. We’ve started to set up an appointment with Greg in order to discuss what the survey should look like. In addition, we’ve begun to craft the survey that we will disseminate to artists and contributors to the Bridge. The survey covers the following questions, among others:

1. Of the following, which artistic activities interest you: (Check the following: Musical performances, Film, Theater, Painting, photography, Other)
2. List your personal interests (Maximum of 5)
3. Are you apart of a Charlottesville community organization or local volunteer work?
4. The mission statement from The Bridge reads: “Our mission is to bridge diverse communities through the arts.” As a member of your own community, what surrounding areas or people would you like to connect with/to?
5. Future ideas for The Bridge?

In this way, we hope to see how the needs and wants of the Bridge and artists with the Bridge can be joined with and strengthened by the needs and wants of the art contributors and thus surrounding community.

Individual Project-

On my individual project, I’ve focused on finding further outside sources, as well as broadening the scope of my project away from simply The Bridge. I now want to look at how organizations truly meet the needs of the surrounding communities as they claim they do.

Week Update #3

1) Readings and Seminar Sessions -

This week, we read Goldbard but discussed both Strand and Goldbard. In my opinion, I found Strand’s points to be the most interesting, and this feeling of mine was strengthened after discussion the material in seminar.

I’ve always viewed research with the traditional university view as Strand discusses, and the concept of Community Based Research is a very new, and sensible idea for me. UVA always harps on research, research, research, as well as service-learning, service-learning, service-learning. However, I now realize that separately, these concepts fall short because they don’t incorporate the needs of the outside community with those of the the UVA community. The concept of CBR seems to get at the heart of the issue, which is focusing on the needs of both communities, and bringing them together. I honestly find it to be the perfect solution, and I’m interested to see how it will continue to play out.

Also, thus far, we’ve generally discussed the successes and the positives of community arts, but this week, in looking at Goldbard, we were able to take a look at the discrepancies and the criticisms. Moreover, we looked at two other concepts, creative capitalism and social entrepreneurs. Both seemed interesting, but in my opinion neither seem to get at structural change. On the surface, the idea of businesses doing a few projects to “change” the surrounding community seems rosy, but I feel that in reality, it’s simply a band-aid. I feel that the intention might genuinely be there (although specifically with creative capitalism, I question this), but what needs to happen instead is true, revolutionary structural change that will ultimately result in a transformation and elimination of inequalities.

2) Group CBR Work -

This week our group focused our topic and came to a final end product that we hope to conclude with for the Bridge. Essentially, we are hoping to develop an application that will help Greg determine which art projects the Bridge should support, based on its mission, “to bridge diverse communities through the arts.”

We formed our preliminary plan of attack, which is to somehow gain a greater sense of the needs of the surrounding community, as well as the goals of the Bridge, and then from there, to formulate an application. We decided upon this mode of attack as a result of the Bridge’s transition to non-profit status.

3) Individual Work:

In terms of my individual paper project, I hate to admit it, but I’ve placed further research on my individual topic on the back-burner for the greater part of this week in order to focus on the readings as well as the group work. However, I am consciously thinking about how I can mold my topic into a less broad question, and how I can intertwine it into my group research. I’m thinking that I may have to scrap it and focus on a question that more directly relates to my group work in order to consolidate research.

In class, we did a good amount of group work, and I worked on the question concerning social justice and wars within cultural arts. Personally, I was somewhat confused how the reading tied in with this question specifically, because I didn’t get a sense of outright “wars” from the author. However, after delving more into the readings and talking with group members, I was able to see how the wars were more subtle (e.g. generational and country-country “culture wars”).

Week #2 Update

1) Readings and Seminar Sessions -

The reading this week was on Strand, and it introduced the concept of Community Based Research. Due to the conference, I missed the seminar in which we discussed the reading, but I was able to gain a great sense of CBR. In my opinion, Strand offered a very descriptive introduction to CBR and a well-thought out criticism of traditional university research.

2) Group CBR Work – Our group (Josh C and Helen Y) chose to work with the Bridge. Thus far, we’ve focused our project on the non-profit aspect of the Bridge, and the application process and criteria involved in starting up as a registered non-profit. We decided that we would assist in any way possible with their grant applications, and we would help plan their annual fundraising campaign.

3) Individual Work: Assess your discussion contributions for the week and offer a brief progress report on your individual seminar paper project.

This week, I was unable to attend class on Monday, due to weather in D.C. preventing me from traveling into Virginia. However, based on the reading, I would choose to fund Option #3 “Art Cures Nasty Habits”. In my opinion, this provides the greatest opportunity for learning on both sides. By allowing the State Department and locals to collaborate and put on the show together, both sides will learn through both the stories being performed, and the stories of those working for the State Department. I would also fund Option #5 “Artist Heals School/Community”, because this has the most potential for creating a lasting impact across generations. I feel that it gets to the point of raising awareness around the issue of racism in education. This is something that I feel very strongly about, and I feel that this idea is a different approach from many of those that have been used in the past (and largely have not been effective).

Week #1 Post

1) Readings and Seminar Sessions -

In this week’s readings, we looked at what exactly community arts is, and all authors that we read seemed to dance around the subject. This made me realize that it’s not something that can easily be defined. Goldbard writes that it describes the work of artist-organizers and other community members collaborating to express identity, concerns and aspirations through the arts and communications media. Moreover, she says it builds individual mastery and collective cultural capacity, while also contributing to positive social change. This is the most concise definition offered, and it seems to have played out in both visits to the Bridge and to Gallery 5.

In both of these visits, the owners of the galleries seem to be working to raise awareness in their respective communities on various issues, in order to effect social change of some sort. For example, Gallery 5′s current exhibit is a display of what love is, and what hate is, in the words of the surrounding community. In this way, they’ve truly raised awareness about LGBT issues in the surrounding community.

2) Group CBR Work – TBD

3) Individual Work: TBD