THOUGHTS ARTIST PROVOCATION ACTIONS

How do we create conditions for building and sustaining care-centred collaborations?

Some people might be disempowered by the word ‘care’ - it has a long history as a ‘label’ in disability politics.

Intention, action and understanding/decoding - it can be easy to make assumptions

Organisations often think in terms of deficits, for example if only we had more time, people, money etc.

“Systems of care” - rather than each individual having to define and practice their own boundaries...how would a care-centred system operate?

When we’re rethinking and reshaping - the way that it sounds may be unreasonable because care can be disruptive.

What if I/You/We…

Can the practice of care sometimes stop us from moving forward?

What can we do for ourselves to make sure we can flourish and thrive in a space?

What can we stop doing to make the time to embed care?

How do we use what we have better, instead of thinking about what we’d do if we had more?

How do we acknowledge that what we have isn’t fit for purpose and start again?

How do we lean into the discomfort in an environment where the space isn’t held?

Is care about who hears you, when they hear you and how they hear you?

Is there a systemic problem of people expecting for more to be done with less money rather than asking, what would happen if you applied for more money to do less?

What do we need to create the conditions to care?

Had a shared template for an artist rider/ practice of care and accountability agreement? Could it be a series of prompts and questions around your practice for both artist and commissioner to complete and exchange, creating the foundations for how they work together

Shaped project briefs together as the first act of collaboration between artist, co-creators, commissioners in all projects?

Developed a practice of care for everyone in the team?

What if we created it together then held each other accountable for living it, modelling internally what we seek to create space and resource for in our work with communities

Acknowledge that we’re not always doing these things in a receptive environment and do it anyway!

Let our comms reflect our journey of learning, adapting and evolving, communicating boldly that we (the organisations) don’t always know things - that we often don’t!

Worked with paradox and oxymorons, in solidarity?

Worked to showcase the beauty of asymmetry? (this is reference to a guiding rule of the Performance Art Forum - People come from different places, inhabit different bodies, have different experiences, are situated differently in power structures and have different boundaries. Take this into account, challenge your own position and let it be challenged, while respecting other people’s boundaries.)