Community Focus ? The C-word

Graham Duxbury identifies a role for artists in communicating the ?communities agenda?.

It?s official. ?Communities? have never had it so good. In all walks of life and on all the hot topics of the day we are told time and again that ?communities? must be in the driving seat. We?ve already had a ?new deal for communities? trying hard to turn around the fortunes of some of the country?s most neglected and marginalised areas. We?ve now got community planning, community wardens, community policing and, in the latest round of Government strategies released before the general election, ?communities for health? and even ?communities for climate change?.

Deprivation

On the one hand it?s very tempting to ask who and where these ?communities? are and whether there is any other type of policing than that which serves ?the community?. After all, every one of us can be part of many different communities whether defined by geography, cultural identity, religion or even our hobbies ? hands up all those people in the ?trainspotting community?. It is precisely for this reason that we have to be careful about definitions.

Many of these community initiatives are born of efforts to improve the lot of individual estates or neighbourhoods which face multiple disadvantages ? areas which may have got off to a poor start through bad design and seen this exacerbated by low investment, poor reputation and the concomitant concentration of economic hardship, environmental blight and social breakdown. So when we see a bit of public policy headlined with the ubiquitous ?c-word? there is a danger that many of us automatically switch off because we understand the shorthand ? they don?t mean our communities they mean those deprived communities on the other side of town.

Citizenship

On the other hand, we need to put the semantic debate to one side and concentrate on the real opportunities that this ?communities agenda? presents. Yes, they are opportunities for addressing inequalities and tackling poverty in individual neighbourhoods which face multiple and connected challenges. However, they are linked to wider opportunities to engage more of us more often in thinking about the places in which we live and the views, ideas and feelings of the people that we interact with. In the jargon of the day, this is about active citizenship, democratic renewal and local capacity building.

So, has any of this got anything whatsoever to do with the arts? Some in the arts community (oops, there we go again!) are already saying that?s precisely where the problem lies, that the arts have been overlooked by those developing these policies and initiatives. Meanwhile some in the community development or regeneration sector would come from the other perspective arguing that the arts remain too distant and elitist to connect directly with the issues being tackled. Both views miss the point.

The local agenda

An analysis of the three most recent community-related strategies to appear from Whitehall might at first glance seem to bear out some of the complaints. Five-year plans for housing and neighbourhoods issued by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Department of Health?s ?Choosing Health? initiative and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs? ?Sustainable Development? strategy for the UK make scant reference to the role of the arts and artists. These strategies are all wrapped up in what has been called the ?localism? agenda, more shorthand for a whole range of activity designed to encourage and allow people to have a greater say in the decisions that affect their lives, from how their bins are emptied to how their power is generated.

This is exactly where the arts have a big role to play. The arts make us think, make us explore new ideas and make us consider new connections. Good art reaches out to us, draws us into a different perspective on the world and leaves us changed when we emerge. Connecting that process with the day to day decisions about how we lead our lives and how we relate to our surroundings can bring immense benefits.

A role for artists

The Government wants us all to lead more healthy lives, to be more active and to make better choices about diet and nutrition. Advertisers selling us the products that damage our health have long understood and exploited the power of a single image or a piece of film to influence our behaviour. What better task for artists than to use the same tools to create an equal and opposite effect?

The Government also wants us all to get more personally acquainted with issues of climate change, for the state of the global environment to be an issue that has a direct connection with the decisions we make every day. Communicating climate change at a community or neighbourhood level is now a goal backed by new funding. What are artists good at if not communicating big ideas in a way which leaves an indelible personal impression?

The localism agenda presents big challenges. Where community empowerment is needed most is precisely in those areas where people currently have least capacity to grasp the opportunity it presents. By working together more closely artists, community development workers and mainstream public agencies can bring these issues alive and give people the tools and confidence to make the ?communities agenda? a powerful force for creative and lasting change.