Book Review: Art and Upheaval: Artists on the World Frontlines

Art and Upheaval: Artists on the World Frontlines by William Cleveland (Oakland, Calif.: New Village Press, 2008, 352 pp.)

What are the roles that artists can play in the midst of severe violence? How can artists create meaning and empower communities during conflict and war? What are the motivations that lead individuals and groups to undertake arts-based processes at great personal risk? Why do authoritarian regimes feel threatened by creative acts?

These are some of the powerful questions that William Cleveland explores in his timely and compelling new book, “Art and Upheaval: Artists on the World’s Frontlines.” The book is a product of an eight-year journey, in which Cleveland, a leading community-arts practitioner in the United States, journeyed around the world to document and learn from artists working on the “frontlines.” The central focus of the text is Cleveland’s desire to “ … find individual artist’s stories that somehow show how and why the creative impulse rises up … in communities facing extreme social, political and environmental crises-namely war and disaster stories.”

The result is an inspiring collection of powerful narratives about the work of community-based artists resisting oppressive regimes, building community in divided societies, challenging economic and racial discrimination, and rescuing culture on the verge of extinction. The stories span five continents, incorporate diverse artistic mediums (theater, music, visual, literary) and include examples from Northern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, the United States, Australia and the former Yugoslavia. This text is a testimony to artists who are compelled to act and to create meaning in the midst of destruction. As Cleveland comments, “The truth is, that in the face of destruction, we are impelled to create.”

The book is superbly written. After a brief introduction explaining his journey, Cleveland jumps into the artists’ stories. The chapters interweave the larger political dynamics with the personal narratives of the artists, providing background on the family and cultural contexts that helped shape their identity and actions. All too often stories of social-change actors concentrate on the actions of activists and are devoid of the larger political and social context. Cleveland does a masterful job of linking the narratives across the personal, community and societal levels.

For example, the chapters on the Wedding Play explore a community-based theater production about mixed marriage, involving Catholic and Protestant theater artists and communities in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Cleveland draws the reader into the lives of the art makers, the ups and downs of creating, producing and performing the play in a divided society in which political leaders were deciding the fate of the Good Friday Peace Agreement.

He is careful not to portray the Wedding Play, or the other community-based arts processes portrayed in the text, in a simplistic manner. In the Belfast production, Cleveland exposes the reader to the intimate and logistical details that were involved in creating a cross-community drama that involved over 60 roles, and was performed directly in the conflict-affected communities. A single production required busing the audience to four different venues (including houses located in the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods) in the city to witness the full production. Securing locations and community buy-in required significant time and difficulties. Up until the last minute, script changes were required because many in the Protestant community perceived the script as being biased against a key Protestant character that had paramilitary affiliations. In one example of the difficulty of operating in volatile conditions, the spouse of one key actor was subject to a severe punishment beating on the streets of Belfast during the last weekend of performances, but the show went on as scheduled.

Throughout the text, Cleveland focuses on transcending boundaries, whether at the interpersonal, community or societal level. The chapters document work that takes place in partnerships among people from different ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds. Each artist had to be willing to risk engaging with others, to cross boundaries and build community in the process of art making. Examples include printmakers Kim Berman and Nhlanhla Xaba, who formed a cooperative print studio that engaged South Africans from all racial backgrounds; or Ly Daravuth (a native of Cambodia) and Ingrid Muan (an American doctoral student) who formed the Reyum Institute of Arts and Culture that has helped contribute to the revitalization of Cambodian culture. This is not an easy process and although arts can provide a powerful medium for engagement in this work, it is not a quick fix. Artist Kim Berman comments, “Art does not excuse us from the messy engagement in life. It provides us with another tool for creative engagement and participation in life.”

Cleveland also explores how the artists succeeded in challenging the boundaries imposed by society. Living as an artist in a stable society is a difficult undertaking, but art making in conflicted societies carries the added risk of being subject to censorship, arrest, displacement or even murder. To be an artist on the frontline requires perseverance, ingenuity, creativity, a willingness to take risks and a sense of humor. Many of the artists were subject to the constant threat of arrest or worse. In South Africa, Walter Kefue Chakela, a leading black playwright and producer of experimental theater, was subject to constant visits from the security police and had to stay on the move for some time. Moreover, he had to work against censors who banned some of his works because of their political nature. Trying to eek out a living and support art making is a constant challenge for all of the artists. Raising money for community arts is not an easy undertaking and many donors and funders are reluctant to support such work, particularly in the early stages.

One of the book’s greatest strengths is the clarity with which Cleveland presents the experiences and voices of the artists. The writing is intimate in nature, and he combines interviews, pictures and media that bring each process to life. However, one of the challenges in the book is that, given the depth of Cleveland’s experience and the wealth of information in the chapters, some tentative lessons regarding community arts in conflicted societies seem to be missing. Cleveland does caution in the introduction that he does not wish to try to distill the stories into bullet points. As he explains, “I believe the narratives themselves, particularly the verbatim reflections of the people represented, are the truest source for whatever wisdom and meaning they contain. Individual readers will, of course, encounter these remarkable odysseys with their own biographies in tow.” While I respect the author’s choice, I did find myself searching for more guidance on the process and, in particular, lamenting the absence of a concluding chapter. I would have appreciated seeing a cumulative exploration of the impact of such work.

Out of this need, I did put together some of the key lessons I drew out of the book This is by no means meant to challenge Cleveland’s decision to let the stories speak for themselves, as readers will likely develop their own lessons (and further questions) based on their unique experiences. The tentative lessons include:

• Art matters – Kim Kerman, a printmaker from South Africa asked the question, “Can Art Save Lives” in reference to the role of arts in preventing HIV. In reading through the chapters and learning about the many lives impacted by the work, it is clear art can change, transform and save lives. For example in South Africa, public billboard art developed by Artists for Humanity helped to open up public debate on the taboo subject of HIV/AIDS. While it may be difficult for art-making to stop a war, it can change attitudes, build community and provide hope in the most difficult of circumstances. Art can present truth, and stories that need to be told.
  
  
• Process is key – The process of art making is equally if not more important than the product. Most of the artists work in partnership and establish an art-making community. In some cases, these communities were short-term and focused around a specific product, while in other instances such as the DAH theater in Serbia, new institutions were created. Thus, working with artists to build understanding, relationships and enough trust to create is essential. In addition, regardless of the medium, all of the artists engaged the larger community in various aspects of the creative process. This often included conducting interviews to build plays that accurately reflect community concerns, such as the effect of nuclear testing in Australia.
  
  
• Art on the frontlines can be dangerous – Governments and other actors in conflicted societies are often threatened by arts projects that may question the status quo or envision an alternative future. Finding a safe space to create, research and perform can be very difficult in these circumstances. A number of the artists had to deal with threats from the regime, and other conflict actors. In the former Yugoslavia, the DAH theater practitioners and other artists played a key role in advocating for political changes, often at great risk, while in the U.S. the work of Watts Writers Workshop was largely destroyed because of a government infiltrator. Community arts practitioners in such settings need to be prepared and equipped to deal with these challenges. Working with stories of loss and suffering, whether the topic is victims of AID/HIV in South Africa or the war in the former Yugoslavia, also can have a significant emotional toll on artists.
  
  
• A sense of mission is essential – A common theme across many of the chapters is that these arts-based initiatives were initially developed on minimal budgets. The artists were compelled to act out of their belief, commitment and skills. Almost all of the artists undertook significant sacrifice to continue their arts work, volunteering their time, using their own financial resources, etc. For example, the founders of the Reyum Institute put their pursuit of their Ph.D. research on hold to devote themselves to assisting with the recovering of Cambodian culture. However, in a number of cases, once the initiatives had already achieved significant results, outside funding played a critical role in expanding the scope and impact of their work.
  
  
• Outside support can be crucial – As highlighted above, the initiatives described in the book are largely organic in nature, emerging from the needs of the community and the skills of the artists. These stories are not based on parachuting outside experts to implement a process. However, as seen in these case studies, outsiders and outside funding played a critical role in helping to sustain and expand several of the initiatives. In societies that were particularly closed, maintaining partnerships, artistic exchanges and training between countries also helped practitioner learn new skills, sustain their work in difficult circumstances and share their work with the larger world. As one of the core members of DAH theater commented, “Communication with artists from all around the world broke the barriers of borders and prejudices and created a sense of love, artistic solidarity and human understanding that opposed the destruction and violence by our government and many others as well.”
  
  
• Mainstreaming is common – In several of the cases, the artists began their work in a particular medium and context. However, as they developed their relationships with the community and assessed the scale of the challenges in society, they increasingly began to mainstream arts to help directly address social issues. This was largely an organic process. For example, The Reyum Institute in Cambodia created an art school to help impoverished youth as an “alternative to the university of the streets.” In South Africa, printmaker Kim Berman worked in partnership with other organizations throughout the country to help train individuals in papermaking, creating over 240 jobs. The Watts Prophets, took their hip-hop poetry work to incarcerated youth in the U.S.

As acknowledged, this may be an imperfect and biased list based on my own need to create lessons learned, but it would be fascinating to compare findings with other readers. One other challenge in the book is that, given the diversity of cases, several chapters seem to end abruptly. For example, the final chapter on Reyum in Cambodia ends by discussing concerns about an upcoming trip by Reyum students to perform in the U.S. I found myself imagining what happened with the trip, the students and the result. In some chapters, Cleveland does provide follow-up information by including a post-script or reflections from the artists but in others more information would have been appreciated.

Overall, this is a much needed and timely book that richly describes the innovative and vital work being carried out by community artists operating in the most difficult of circumstances. Art does make a critical difference by providing a creative means to resist, build community, maintain hope and provide a means to build new processes of community empowerment. This text should be required reading for all professionals and students working in conflicted societies, to expand the repertoire of possible tools and develop a greater appreciation for the incredible work artists of on the “frontlines.” The book is an ideal text for use by students, professors, community arts practitioners, donors and policymakers.

Craig Zelizer, Ph.D., is the associate director of and visiting assistant professor in the M.A. in Conflict Resolution within the Department of Government at Georgetown University. He was one of the co-founders and a senior partner in the Alliance for Conflict Transformation, a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to building peace through innovative research and practice. He recently launched the Peace and Collaborative Development Network, a Web site for professionals, academics and students interested and working on issues of international development and conflict. In 2007, Zelizer was commissioned by CAN to write “Integrating Community Arts and Conflict Resolution: Lessons and Challenges from the Field.”

Original CAN/API publication: July 2008