Andrea Fares
Professor Saubidet
Language and
Written Expression 4
July 10th
Art: A
Potential Bridge to Inclusion
Firm Steps
towards Inclusion through Art.
The
conjecture that certain areas of expression, such as art, should be inclusive,
has obtained international momentum these past years. During the last decade,
we have experienced the so called “globalization of inclusion” and such
inclusion, now seen as a priority matter, has placed itself in the agenda of
most politicians and educators as a symbol of departure from normative thinking.
As a matter of fact, inclusion was intended to produce the political change
that integration could not. Promoting full diversity in certain areas of art
has proved to be essential for the successful inclusion of the excluded
population. Social inclusion, in particular, is being seen as a key to the
vitality and dynamism of certain art-related institutions such as theatres,
cinemas, TV channels and the film industry itself, as they promote authentic
dialogue about race, culture and disability that embraces the complexity of
underlying social and historical issues. However, as evidenced by the everyday
experience, those areas of art aimed to promote inclusion have a negative
impact and reach the unexpected target of segregation, which was the departure
point. Further integration policies should be considered and put into practice
in Argentina to make both art and integration arrive successfully to the
intended aim.
There
exist certain measures already taken internationally that could be considered
in order to increase physical and programmatic accessibility. A good example of
this is the case of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts In the USA
(LCPA), where a new position has been created to control and be responsible for
the Accessibility and Visitor Services. This position is responsible for
overseeing physical and programmatic accessibility for people with
disabilities, including visitors, artists and employees at the various venues
and offices. Deeply knowledgeable about issued related to disabilities, the
successful candidate will coordinate and collaborate with colleagues across
departments to create an inclusive environment for all visitors. With
experience in not only physical accessibility but also a strong familiarity
with programmatic access in cultural spaces, the successful candidate will
seamlessly integrate access precepts into programs and services LCPA
offers. Furthermore, said candidate will enhance community outreach and
marketing efforts by partnering with individuals as well as social service,
cultural, and other relevant organizations to raise awareness about and seek
input on LCPA’s existing and future accessibility programs. This includes
overseeing internal and external advisory councils. As a key contributor to the
larger Visitor Services (VS) team, the individual will have a superior guest
care ethic and be able to seamlessly a commitment to seeing people as
individuals and not as stereotypes integrate accessibility efforts into the
larger guest care initiatives. Adaptability, determination and
follow-through are important characteristics of the successful applicant as
well as a demonstrated ability to successfully lead cross-team collaborations.
Another
important key issue is related to the things actors should know about race on
stage. It is almost impossible not to “see race” in the performing arts. The
centrality of vision in theatre structures almost every aspect of the
production process. For example, headshots exist to enable a good, long look at
a person before any hiring commitments are made. Here are three things that
everyone should know about theatre and race. In the firs place, Theatre has
engaged the topic of race relations since the very beginning. Throughout
history, concerns and anxieties about race and cultural difference have been
expressed on the stage. In ancient Athens, audiences sat in theatres and
delighted in stories about the unchecked passions and seeming inferiority of
foreigners. Look at that Cretan woman trying to seduce her half-Amazonian
stepson! Shakespeare capitalized on anxieties stemming from the increased
presence of Moors in England by imagining “black” characters—Aaron and
Othello—who sleep with white women. Fifty years ago, Lorraine Hansberry
famously staged the emotional toll that racism can have on a family in “A
Raisin in the Sun.” David Henry Hwang, for much of his playwriting career, has
used the theatre to challenge racial assumptions and stereotypes. More
recently, race looms large in the Pulitzer Prize-winning writings of Bruce
Norris (“Clybourne Park”) and Ayad Akhtar (“Disgraced”). In the second place,
It’s okay to “see” race on stage. When we encounter someone or something
for the very first time, we pay close, close attention to just about
everything. We take in all of the details. It’s natural. However, as that
person or thing becomes more familiar to us, we begin to overlook and even
forget many of the attributes that we could not help but notice in our initial
encounter. Similarly, spectators pay close, close attention to the opening
moments of a play with the aim of making sense of this new world being unveiled
to them. To see that Tony Award-winning actors Cicely Tyson and Audra McDonald
are African American is simply a matter of being observant. As the play
progresses, spectators become less conscious of an individual actor’s race as
the performer melds into her role and the audience becomes absorbed into the
world of the play. A person can “see” and, later, “not see” race within a
single production. Finally, there exists and implicit rule that is Absenting
characters of color, absents artists of color. Aspiring playwrights and
screenwriters are generally taught not to specify the race of their
characters—unless a character’s race is consequential to the dramatic
narrative. The aim is to create the greatest flexibility in casting and to
increase the odds of the work being produced. Since it is impossible to imagine
a person as being race-less, the default assumption is that most unspecified
characters are white. Although producers, directors, and casting agents have
discretion in the person who they hire to work on a production, they frequently
begin with a script that absents people of color. Actors of color lament
the limited number of roles
created for them. If not for the writings of Luis Alfaro, David Henry Hwang,
Regina Taylor, and August Wilson among others, many artists—including directors
and designers of color—would not be able to make a living in the theatre. These
are individuals whose employment options are determined, in part, by their race
and how they are seen within the theatre industry.
Empirical
evidence has shown that some theatre companies and some film directors have
included disabled people in their projects. Inspired by the 1920 Lon Chaney
silent film of the same name, "The Penalty"
is the story of a legless criminal who has sworn revenge on the doctor who
wrongfully amputated his legs as a child. The late playwright, John Belluso
once said, ‘that to be disabled, was to always be on stage.’ As a person with a
disability (He was born with spastic cerebral palsy), he is constantly dealing
with people’s gazes in his every day life and managing that negotiation between
seeing and being seen. For him, the awareness of how that could translate to
acting was in 7th grade when for the first assignment in his Speech & Drama
class, he chose to perform Mark Antony’s, “Friends, Romans, Countrymen…” speech
from Julius Caesar. ‘Suddenly, people were looking at me differently and I
realized that through performance I could to some extent control my audience.
That was how I entered this world but my reasons for staying have since
evolved´, he added. (qtd. In Belluso).
Current
projects to encourage inclusion through art include programs that
support the ever-expanding mosaic of diversity and inclusion in theatre,
film, television, and related media. However, there are still a lot of
measures to consider and subsequently apply. Among the projects already taken
by the United States of America, there are five that clearly evidenced inclusion
and which could be taken into account in order to design local measures in our
country. One of the projects was called TCM “The Projected Image: A
History of Disability in Film”. Presented
in collaboration with Inclusion in the Arts, Turner Classic Movies (TCM)
dedicated the month of October
2012 to exploring the ways people with disabilities have been portrayed in
film. On behalf of Inclusion in the Arts, Lawrence Carter-Long joined TCM host
Ben Mankiewicz for The Projected Image: A History of Disability in Film.
The special month-long exploration aired Tuesdays in October 2011. Another
project was the Advocacy, Consulting &
Information Program. Inclusion in
the Arts maintains relationships with artists, producers, directors, casting
directors, agents and unions in theatre, film and television, and related
media. They promote and facilitate cultural diversity at all levels of
production. Inclusion in the Arts also serves as a resource for
funding agencies, educational institutions, the media and the general public
seeking information and background on these issues. Services range from acting
as a sounding board and expert consultant for companies dealing with these
issues, assisting writers with ideas, providing specific language for casting
notices and/or program notes, to facilitating and/or participating in
project-related discussions and/or events. The Disability/Accessibility
Initiative, a subset of the Advocacy/Consulting and Information Program,
directly addresses the fact that nearly 20% of Americans (56 million people)
have a disability of some kind, yet this largest minority is seriously
underrepresented in American arts and entertainment. The third proposed project
was the Audience Expansion Initiative. Thanks to the
partnership between Inclusion in the Arts and G-PASS, 1.1 million New Yorkers
and 56 million Americans with disabilities will have the opportunity to enjoy
more Broadway shows than ever before. The Broadway Accessibility/Audience
Expansion Initiative sets a new standard for collaboration between producers
and accessibility specialists at all stages of production. The fourth project
was called DEAL: Disability in Entertainment and Arts Link. It is a project of Inclusion in the Arts dedicated to the
full inclusion of people with disabilities—physical, developmental,
intellectual, and sensory—in all sectors of American arts and
entertainment. DEAL was expressly created to serve writers,
directors, producers, technicians, network and studio executives, casting
directors, and disabled artists at every stage of the creative process—from
development of the initial idea through production, marketing, and public
presentation. Another project was “A Conversation About Disability”. On April 18,
2006, a group of writers, actors, directors, and filmmakers gathered at HBO
headquarters in New York City to discuss how to write about disability
today. The conversation focused on how to create authentic portrayals of
disability. The panel discussed what distinguishes authentic portrayals
from clichéd, symbolic, or token representations of disability. Panelists
characterized disability as a minority “whose stories had not been told,” and
emphasized the natural connections between disability and other social issues
(poverty, race, sexuality, family).
Finally, the National
Diversity Forum was created. Inclusion in the Arts’ National
Diversity Forum (NDF) is comprised of Roundtables, Resource Events, and Opinion
Pieces. The purposes of the Roundtables and Resource Events are to a)
deepen dialogue and expand understanding of diversity through candid and
constructive discussion; b) spark change toward more inclusive standards and
practices; and c) build an expanding group of leaders in the field committed to
resolving the issues related to racism and exclusion.
It
can be then summarized that art is a key element for obtaining inclusion in our
increasingly exclusive society. Citizens, actors, directors, producers and
artists in general should be aware of this concern and involve into a
commitment to seeing people as individuals and not as stereotypes. In the light
of such a concern, it has been
evidenced that avoiding employment options being determined by race has proved
to be one of the short-term measures to be taken. As in the case of castings
and performances, greater flexibility should be applied and race should not be
specified when selecting an actor or creating a role. On the other hand, the roles
of actors and their subsequent compromise are essential to this goal. They
should express their concerns and anxieties about race and cultural difference
as much as they can, both through their acting and through their actions every
day. Finally, local governments and the National Government itself need to set
the path for inclusion, taking care of every possible obstacles regarding
accessibility to public places such as theatres, cinemas and venues and should
provide their employees with the necessary training courses as far as guest
care ethic and accessibility services are concerned.
Works Cited
Belluso, Juan. "3 Things Actors should know about race on Stage". Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts. http://inclusioninthearts.org/still-more-of-our-parts-opens-today/
retrieved June 13th, 2013.
Graham, Linda. J & Jahnukahen, Markku (2011) "Wherefore art thou, inclusion?
Analysing the development of inclusive education. "Finland and Alberta. Jornal of education Polcy, 26 (2), pp.
263-288..
Gunn, Samuel. "The Public Culture of the
Victorian Middle Class.Y Manchester. Manchester University Press. (2000) Print
Gordon, Sindy. "Still more of our Parts opens today! "
http://inclusioninthearts.org/still-more-of-our-parts-opens-today/
retrieved June 13th, 2013.
McRae. Daniel. "The Integration/Inclusion
Feasibility". NSW Department of Schools Education (1006) Print.
Northway, Robert. "Integration and Inclusion:
Illusion or Progress in Services for Disable People?" Social Policy and Administration (1997). 31 (2), 57, 172
Young, Harvey. "3 Things Actors should know about
race on Stage". Alliance for
Inclusion in the Arts. http://inclusioninthearts.org/still-more-of-our-parts-opens-today/
retrieved June 13th, 2013.
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