KAREN L. ITO

Core values are the deep-seated reasons why those engaged with this initiative have made the long-term and often challenging commitment to support international artistic collaboration. For those working on the initiative, core values are so inherent that they are often known, but not stated, shared but not articulated, experienced but not codified. It is like culture: a shared understanding of patterned meanings, intent, and values that are constantly being negotiated and modified but retain their coherence and relevance.

However, working on the initiative has required that participants be able to reflect and articulate some reification of their core culture. “Core values are based on convictions that grow out of cultural, political, social, or other historical conditions,” noted Judy Mitoma, director of UCLA’s Center for Intercultural Performance. They also have practical ramifications influencing “program content, administrative strategies, and working methods.”

At the final thematic convening of the initiative, participants focused on the articulation of their core values. As administrators, artists, and ethnographers spoke passionately and eloquently about why they do this work, it became clear that involvement with international artistic collaboration carries with it a rich and multi-dimensional vision of the potential impact of the arts—on individuals, local environments, and global communities.

Administrators voiced their heartfelt conviction that international collaborations in the arts—in addition to generating works of great power and beauty—can:

• provide processes to transcend cultural difference;
• facilitate social change and healing;
• offer mechanisms to engage in dialogue about pressing social and political issues; and
• facilitate linkages across local and global communities.

Roko Kawai
PHOTO: EKO SUPRIYANTO

In bringing such work to their communities, presenters have had to look deeply at their organizational mission and listen deeply to the diverse voices of their community. Their commitment to international collaboration—especially in this period of great social and political flux—embodies a vision of art as a powerful and dynamic source of transformation. “We still cleave to the notion that the arts are an agent for social change,“ explained Pablo Martinez of Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center.

Artists likewise spoke of profound transformation as a result of their initiative work. “We found more in common with people we couldn’t even talk to [because of language differences] than with our next-door neighbor at home,” said musician Kenny Endo.

Perspectives shifted, as did accustomed ways of working. While the work was often described as difficult and deeply challenging, artists likewise affirmed the sense of utter joy, rich sustenance, and deep personal bonding that resulted. “What drives me is a sense of passion, an urgency of desire,” said musician Lenny Seidman. Choreographer Alonzo King similarly noted, “When I think of core values, I can’t think of any human who isn’t trying to avoid pain and find some kind of joy that is ever new.”

For ethnographers too, initiative participation offered opportunities to apply professional expertise in new ways. Core values for ethnographers centered on ideas of commitment: to the work, partnerships, personal relationships, and the reflexive process of questioning, review, and revision. Their collective efforts have been an important aspect of the public articulation of initiative core values and the mapping of program impact and value.

Over the course of the initiative, participants have not only developed a series of core values surrounding why they do the work, but also how they do the work. Many of these values are discussed and analyzed in the preceding sections of the complete report and more fully in Working Paper IV (“Core Values: Essential Aspects of International Collaboration”): a commitment to equity of exchange; a recognition of the importance of fostering long-term relationships of depth; privileging process over product; the importance of qualitative measures in assessing audience impact; and a belief in the value of ongoing, formative documentation and reflection.

One of the most important legacies of the initiative—beyond the creative opportunities it has provided, the powerful work it has generated, and important knowledge it has fostered—is the “community of commitment” that has been established among artists administrators, academics and audiences. This “community of commitment” has the power to become a significant force in moving the important work of international partnership forward, thereby spreading a culture of collaboration, process, and equity that can radiate beyond the arts.

* - First published in “A Report on the Ford Foundation Initiative: Internationalizing New Work in the Performing Arts” Phase II: 1999-2002 (2002). Reprinted with the permission of Arts International.