Awakening Individuals and Renewing Communities Through Creative Engagement
“It is now the artist’s obligation not simply to reflect the human condition
but offer alternatives for engagement with one another that will allow for healthy community to develop and thrive.”
– Bari Hochwald Cagnola, Artistic Director
What is the Creative Corps?
We come together as artists with one intention — to assist our neighbors and communities to grow healthier people and healthier relationships.
It is a commitment to a better world.
It is an integrated partnership with Community Renewal International.
It is an initiative to create a global collective of artists sharing best practices, joys and challenges toward a connected, loving world.
It is generous, celebratory, loving, open.
It is you. If you care to join us.
It is your friends and colleagues. If you care to help us grow.
When you join Creative Corps you are saying it’s time for a counter-cultural evolution on this planet that uses the genius of the arts to bring to lived experience the mission of Community Renewal International: to care together to make our world a caring family where every single human being is safe and loved.
JOIN US!
We are of one mind and one heart: the arts are a necessary partner in healing our world
How Does Creative Corps Work?
Step One: Join the We Care Team. Community Renewal International’s We Care Team is a growing movement of care throughout the globe of people from all walks of life, who realize the only way to change the world is through our own behavior with others. We must come back together again through intentionally caring relationships. Joining the WCT is a commitment to care and to join together in the commitment to care. The We Care Team is the recognition that we are — all of us — one human family.
How does this concern us artists? We need events, initiatives and opportunities to remember this… to come together through the door of commonality. After we do, we are in a healthier position to celebrate (not demonize) each other’s differences.
Artists are needed to help make the vision of a healthy, kind and connected world REAL. We are told, every day that the dystopian reality we are living in is the only one possible. However we know that’s not true – and if we use our talents, our imagination, our creative capacity to re-awaken our neighbors and fellow community members to the beauty of being human and alive on this planet – together – we can help to create at the very least a balance to this threat to our future.
You may already be doing connected work in your community. We’re not looking to change that. What you are doing is vital. But we have come to understand that acts of caring artistic effort, when done in isolation from each other, can’t change our world. We have to come together globally behind a belief that the arts should be re-centered into our communities as a tool to strengthen our relationships and one another. This is what art was before we had language or religion – a community builder. And it is what we, again, must touch back into. With the strength of doing it TOGETHER.
Gathering our energies together can strengthen the good work each of you are doing, can inspire others, share practices and can build new friendships and partnerships which can expand the impact of arts engagement with community members locally and globally.
Creative Corps’ approach is based on the methodology of Art For Social Renewal established by our Artistic Director after spending several years under the tutelage of Mack McCarter, Founder of Community Renewal International. Bari evolved the teaching of this work at various universities and during her Fulbright in Bratislava, Slovakia. It is not a requirement to practice this methodology. But if you have an interest in learning more you can explore this site, read the Creative Village Substack essays , or contact her directly (bhochwald@theglobaltheatreproject.org).
Next Steps Are
When you join us you will also share with us your discipline and a bit about your work which we’ll list on our site.
As you keep us updated on what you are doing and the impacts of your practice we’ll share that in our newsletters, on our website and social media channels.
To help build recognition of Creative Corps and the We Care Team we ask, not require, that you post our logo on your site and, when relevant to you, share our newsletters and social media posts.
Twice a year we will hold a Zoom Gathering and celebration inviting Creative Corps artists and creatives around our planet to come together.
We will hold monthly Zoom drop-in sessions for brainstorming, sharing and getting to know one another.
As we come to know each other we will launch collaborative projects and initiatives, seek out collective sources of funding.
Our common language will be English. But our work will be in whatever language serves our community.
Going Deeper
We offer training in Art For Social Renewal – both on line or in person.
We offer an overview and deeper study of the methodology of Community Renewal International.
As Community Renewal International grows throughout the world the opportunity for connection with other WCT members outside of the arts offers a vital door into the local and global community. With other WCT members committed to a caring human family, the creative opportunities to develop ways of connecting neighbors and neighborhoods can be a powerful platform for artists and creatives interested in this work. We will help nourish those relationships and opportunities whenever and wherever possible.
