History of RSC C/APP

History and Context of CAPP/RSC

Beginning in 1992 ROOTS began to more deliberately dedicate itself to the support and encouragement of partnerships between artists and non-arts organizations.  The High Performance issue of 1994 was an attempt to document some of that work and to provide a common frame of reference for a major event in January 1994, The Community Arts Revival.  A major success (in every way but financial: it accrued a debt of over $40,000 which plagued us for several years, but thankfully no more), the Community Arts Revival marked a turning point in ROOTS’ program focus.  After an initial pilot of 12 local partnership projects in Durham NC and environs, ROOTS began to implement a steady stream of small grants (from $1,000 - $5,000) to support community/artist partnerships all across our 11-state service area.  Twice a year (or as funding allows) ROOTS made small, but catalytic awards to artists and their community partners in support of a wide range of art activities.  ROOTS has funded 70 or so CAPP projects so far.
CAPP also addresses the challenge of training this generation and the next of community arts workers.  A workgroup of ROOTS members identified a pool of trainers, designed a curriculum and workshop process that seeks to develop (or deepen) the capacity of artists and citizens to create community-based arts projects.  “Resources for Social Change” is a moveable feast of folks who are deeply committed to bringing more and more people (artists and others) into the intentional practice of building community and working for social justice through the arts.
RSC’s philosophy is strongly rooted in the work of the Brazilian educational theorist Paulo Freire, who ironically was also a colleague and friend of Myles Horton, founder of the Highlander Center, ROOTS’ birthplace.”

1992
ROOTS convened a gathering at Table Rock State Park in South Carolina (built by the CCC, Adora’s daddy might have been on the crew?), in April of 1992, focusing on grassroots or community-based theatre and art.  A group of forty folks (including ROOTS leadership, Linda Burnham, Steve Durland, Olga Garay, Nayo Watkins, Adora Dupree (who else?) met for three days to talk about what would forward the work of community-based work.

Out of the Table Rock meeting, ROOTS proposed a new programmatic direction at the next Annual Meeting (1992), making work in partnership with specific communities and to convene (performance) events that would share the work of such partnerships.  This new direction became known as the Community/Artists Partnership Program, and it set new standard and expectation in ROOTS about using art for social change.

1994
This led to a major 1994:  THE Community Arts Revival.  The  energy of the revival led to the idea of developing a group of people who had the experience and expertise to help others develop their own vision and skills for art for social change (at the time, honestly, we were still talking mostly about performance).

At the same meantime, another piece of dialogue within ROOTS reached audible level.  There had been, for some time, an interest in locating and building a physical facility – a ROOTS CENTER. That would offer a myriad of tangible assets.
    A home for the annual meeting
    A place for special workshop gatherings
    A place for performance presentations
    A place for rehearsal and production development
    A place from which to organize
A place for education based on community need
    A home for homeless and retiring ROOTERS

The principle model for such a place has been the Highlander Center in New Market, Tennessee.

At the time, while the conversation about land reached something of a fever, practical considerations made land acquisition a subject for future action.  [NOTE: land is in the new strategic plan).  

However, back in 1994, the idea transmogrified into the idea of a “mobile center, a facility of human resources – people helping people realize the mission of ROOTS and the vision of the Community Artists Partnership Program.  This was called the CAPP/Resource Center and a workgroup was organized at the 1995 Annual Meeting to develop this idea.  

The 95/96 Resource Center Workgroup consisted of
    Linda Burnham
    Kathie de Nobriga
            Steve Durland
           Jane Goldberg
            Ann Kilkelly
            John Kramel
            Bob Leonard
            Mark McKenna
            Leslie Neal
Juanita Rockwell
         Mat Schwarzman
    Nayo Watkins
Gary Wood  

This group conducted an extended conversation through e-mail that resulted in a formal proposal at the 1996 Annual Meeting for a process of selecting of a group of ROOTS trainers to serve as the CAPP/Resource Center.




1996
The ExComm charged a WorkGroup to finalize process and implement the selection of trainers for the CAPP/Resource Center.  The workgroup comprised of Kathie deNobriga (then-executive director, Bob Leonard, past chair; Alice Lovelace, Lisa Grady-Willis and Nayo Watkins.
Somewhere along the way, the name was changed from the CAPP/Resource Center to the CAPP/Resources for Social Change or RSC.  This workgroup published the call for applications and the selection process through the usual ROOTS media – the Member Bulletin and through the various ExComm minutes.  [There may have been a separate letter to the membership.]  In any event, 15 people submitted applications.

1997
At the 1997 AM the workgroup met to review the applications and make the final selections.  All 15 applicants were selected.  These were
Caron Atlas
Neill Bogan
Kathie deNobriga
Lucinda Flodin
Gwylene Gallimard
Steve Kent
Sheila Kerrigan
Bob Leonard
Alice Lovelace
Celeste Miller
Dianne Monroe
Buddy Palmer
Mat Schwarzman
Nayo Watkins
Sharon WyrrickTen of these fifteen are still active, to one degree or another, in 2003.

From 1997-98, the Workgroup and the Training Group met on several occasions over a year, in order to develop a “cohesive and mutually agreeable approach to community/artists partnership art making and training for this approach.  This obviously involved much soul searching and deep consideration, as each trainer brought their own perspectives, artistic and political agendas, and experience into the mix.”  Eventually a basic format was agreed upon, identifying the 5 elements as the necessary “teaching points” on which the group wanted to base all trainings.  (reference photos from WPA camp in Cummings GA – Adora, Kenneth?

1999
Funds were short and the process to develop training opportunities required resources that ROOTS did not have.  It was not until January, 1999 that the first training occurred at the Calvin Center, Hampton GA.  The trainers for this event were Nayo, Alice, Kathie, and Mat.  This training (or Preview, as it was called) brought together several folks the community artist partnerships that had received funding from ROOTS CAPP grants.   (should get list of who was there?, look at agenda?)  Among other things, we realized that our approach still seemed overly academic to many.  

In 1999 RSC also partnered with the Mississippi Arts Council to conduct workshops with community representatives and artists interested in working in and with Mississippi communities.  These workshops led to arts projects in several Mississippi towns with partnerships that were brought together by the Mississippi Arts Council and the ROOTS workshops.  These projects had access to ROOTS trainers from the CAPP/RSC training group.  Some of the projects took advantage of these resources.

2000
The next CAPP/RSC training took place in December, 2000, under the leadership of Nayo in partnership with Gwylene and Neill Bogan.  This training was with community workers and artists, again in Mississippi.  Again this event was done in partnership with the Mississippi Arts Council but this time the CAPP/RSC team gathered the people and organized the event (rather than the Arts Council).  

“This training event included an extensive evaluation process that has led to suggested improvements and a more coherent understanding of the actual needs of a training event by all members of the training group.”

Concerns over the years has included:
    Training processes that reflect ROOTS values and participant needs
    Member access to the processes involved
    Inclusion of more members in the training group
    Diversity of race in the training group
    Inclusion of community workers in the training group
    How sites are selected

2001
2002    FOCAS: A local round of CAPP projects, followed by a gathering in Lexington, KY
2003
Charleston Rhizome event: Making Art, Making Home (initiated by Gwylene Gallimard & Neil Bogan, resource people: Nayo Watkins, Bob Leonard, Suzanne Lacy, Mary Jane Jacob, Frank Martin…)  Presented in partnership with Spoleto USA
RSC presents two “fishbowls” at Annual Meeting, with current grantees and organizes an Open Space on “shared Histories,” a film-in-progress also used at Charleston Rhizome
Atlanta activity, coordinated by Kathie deNobriga, for Project South’s annual Youth Day.  Resource people: Alice Lovelace (spoken word), Carleton & Maurice Turner (music, Shawna McKellar  and youth leader (need to get name) (Theater), and Priscilla Smith (visual)
- help ExComm with internal training (March)
Project South Youth Day (August), to be preceded by youth training the artist resource people in popular education techniques
Region-wide training
Rhizome activity