HEART Beat: June 10th
Frequently Asked Questions about the Conference
What do you mean by "Art for Social Healing"?
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We mean community-based art that directly supports civic dialogue, social action, community development, peace and reconciliation, and other social goals. While social healing arts are sometimes produced by professional artists, they usually include a community or constituency in the art-making, often involving dozens, or even hundreds or thousands of people.
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Social healing arts abound in every artistic genre: dance, music, theater, visual art, storytelling, writing, puppetry, and more, as well as in cultural forms, from traditional ceremonies to electronic media.
- Both through their creation and their presentation, social healing arts raise awareness, help those whose stories are not heard have a public voice, build community, reveal new solutions to social problems, and inspire people into action.
What kind of conference is it?
- An engaging, participatory, day-long event exploring arts for social healing through performances, displays, presentations, hands-on workshops and discussions
Who is the conference for?
- 200-300 people from the greater Boston area
- For practitioners of participatory, community arts
- For community organizations interested in exploring the use of arts in their work
- For field supporters (researchers, promoters, organizers,
- institutional conveners)
- For funders of arts for social healing (both current and prospective funders)
What are the conference goals?
- To strengthen the field of social healing arts in Boston by increasing connection between the above four constituencies; to spark possible ongoing collaborations among and across these constituencies
- To help all attendees experience the impact of arts for social healing; to explore its future potential, challenges, and factors for success; to learn from best practices as well as past mistakes
- To introduce new funders and supporters to the field, and strengthen the interest of those already involved
- To lay the groundwork for a public Social Healing Arts fair, to be held in Boston on Saturday November 11, the day before the Grantmakers in the Arts national conference in Boston
Who is organizing this?
- The Zing Foundation is a nonprofit organization based in Arlington, MA and launched in 2004. Our mission is to strengthen the field of social healing arts, as well as to promote out-of-the-box philanthropy (See the Zing website for more. Please note we are not a grantmaking organization.)
- We welcome your help, ideas and participation We are actively seeking volunteers for the conference and other projects. We also invite your financial support for this work.