In July of 2024, we invited our email subscribers to take a deep dive into one of the things that makes Arts Access such a unique and innovative program: Facilitation
Artists Assisting Artists is one of the Four Pillars of Arts Access, the things that define our program and how it works. That concept manifests through Facilitation, where professional trained artists act as the arms and legs of our disabled artists. Throughout a facilitation session, the facilitator presents thousands of choices, down to the tiniest details, to our artist. The facilitator then follows the artist’s instructions down to the letter. Yes, it’s a slow process, but it needs to be to make sure that the artist’s vision is met perfectly. In this way, we can ensure that the art 100% belongs to the artist regardless of which facilitators assist them.
Over the summer, we introduced a new limited email series, the Facilitation Experience.
This was an opportunity for our subscribers to experience the basic concepts of the facilitation process, all while working together to create an original digital artwork.
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Limiting the number of choices – In real facilitation, clients have hundreds of colors to choose from, while in the email series we limited color choices to no more than 9 basic colors.
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Limiting the time – In real facilitation, clients have the freedom to spend as much time as they want on their art! Some artists have chosen to spend nearly a decade working on a single painting. But for the email series, we didn’t want to overwhelm anyone with a long time commitment, so we planned to warp the series up after a few months.
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Creating one artwork that belongs to multiple people – In real facilitation, each client owns their artwork 100%. No one else gets to choose what goes into it. For the email series, we simply didn’t have the resources to make artworks with each individual person. Each choice was voted on by the group of subscribers who participated in the email series.
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Each of these adaptations was discussed during the email series, and we offered extra insights and behind-the-scenes looks into how facilitation works in the arts center.
But the most fun part of each email was the weekly poll! This is how our subscribers worked together to create their digital art piece. In each email, we presented a number of options for the next choice to be made, whether that was adding a new shape, selecting a color, or picking the location for a line to be drawn. Whichever poll option received the most votes was the choice the group moved forward with and was added to the canvas. It was exciting to see week-to-week which choices had our subscribers unified by similar opinions and which had them split between different options.
In the end, we had a lot of fun creating something together, all while learning about what makes Arts Access so special.
Thank you to everyone who participated in this new email series!
Are you interested in participating in the next Facilitation Email series? We’ll be bringing this limited series back towards the end of 2025. Click the button below to be added to our email list!
