Creativity in the face of Stuckness
It's common for emergent work to become stuck. We had been trying to build momentum for grassroots work in a local community to demonstrate how partnership work could really make a difference at a hyper-local level. We had been circling around existing organisations who had difficulty working together for many reasons: not enough time and capacity, suspicions of others who they were in competition with for funding and resources, historical falling outs, and a local community that had been the target for so many interventions that local people believed it was all a waste of time as nothing changed. There was mistrust of yet another programme helicoptering in, fulfilling its programme ends, and then leaving again with scant regard for the people left living there.
In desperation, we resorted to creativity, using the stories we had collected from local people as the inspiration for a performance piece embracing comedy and solving puzzles together in an "Escape Room" style. We toured our piece at five local Fun Days, gaining a decent audience each time and many willing problem solvers prepared to shout out a code that might open a locked box. From these audiences, we collected contact details from those who were prepared to attend a series of workshops to co-create some solutions for the local area. Invites went out, people came, supported by vouchers in return for their time, and we became unstuck again.
When we are faced with "It's been done before and hasn't worked," our collective imagination is a powerful tool. The role of the actor is to create out of almost nothing a place and way of being that invites curiosity, excitement, laughter, and anticipation. Problem solving is meant to have an element of play; otherwise, we lose interest. These emotional tools continued into our series of workshops that were consistently attended by local people who enjoyed the experience and relished doing the hard thinking needed to achieve workable solutions in communities.
Art helps people become "leaderful" as they are in charge of their own imaginations. It helps us tell the stories with the same relevance and emotional impact as they were told to us. And because we are looking to do something new, art gives the opportunity to rehearse. Speculative fiction, reimagining, and even digital protests on Minecraft all help us look at problems differently and understand how we can bring solutions.