Peter Block on the role of art

“Reform can’t happen without art”

"Art presents a vision of the world that’s always ambiguous. Ok? If its clear its not art. It’s just imitation. If it’s clear, you may see art with enormous skill and it doesn’t touch you because it’s all clear. So the purpose of art is to document the nuance of experience. And what’s radical in this construction is instead of having people who are good at us drawing for us...maybe the community needs to create the graphic display and the people who have expertise in art are guides, the messengers. And I think its wonderful. Reform can’t happen without art."

-Peter Blcok

Collaborative Chautauqua Map

Click on the map to see a larger version of the image created by Avril Orloff, Mary Corrigan and myself at this year's Chautauqua gathering. Lots more information in the following post...

Chautauqua 2010

I just returned from a magical 3 day gathering called 'Chautauqua' held at the Mount Madonna School in Watsonville CA. "What is a Chautauqua?" you might logically ask. The amazing Ward Mailliard is the ring leader and progenitor of the gatherings, so I'll let him explain. The Chautauqua is an "engagement of people who care about learning...and they center around the essential question, of 'What are the conversations that I want to have that will support my own transformation in the learning process?' and, 'How can I engage in conversations that will support the work that I care most about?'" Over seventy people attended this year to explore their individual and our collective learning journeys.

I was fortunate to be a part of an initial conversation that led to the use of art as a central method for exploring learning and transformation at Chautauqua. Here's Ward again:

"I just had an interesting and thought provoking conversation with Mariah Howard who most of you know a gifted visual note taker and, well so much more as a thinker of creative engagement. We were talking about the Chautauqua 2010 (July 6-8) and how we might deepen, extend and connect the trail blazing that happens there" by engaging "the gifts of music, art and technology to create new frameworks of participation at the event and even beyond."

This year was unique in that there were three Visual Recorders present: Mary Corrigan, Avril Orloff and myself. The three of us found a way to encouraging people to make their own visual records, collages, and group drawings while the 'professionals' collaborated on a large Visual Record of the event which you can see in an earlier post. The other stellar facilitators were Peter Block, Barbara McAfee, Vivian Wright and Michael Jones...a dream team of conveners.

It was a fantastic opportunity to experience the power of art as it relates to creating community, deepening our ways of learning, and transforming our individual narratives about the journey we're on.