The chameleon village
Akron, OH
WE-Making is a suite of resources that explores the relationship between place-based arts practices and social cohesion as a means to advance health equity and community wellbeing. This We-Making story is one example of how place-based arts and cultural strategies uniquely contributed to social cohesion and wellbeing in this community. Throughout this story you’ll see terms paired with actions in parentheses (e.g., social capital, collective action, place attachment, civic engagement, self-determination of shared values). This is to denote for the reader how the WE-Making framework was specifically incorporated. Explore the WE-Making framework and resources.
Image credit: Chameleon Village Theatre Collective
HOME is a creative civic engagement initiative informed by West Hill residents, led by Chameleon Village Theatre Collective. West Hill’s community development corporation (the West Hill Neighborhood Organization) strives to activate its dual-zoning (UPD40) district; however, engagement is limited. The project utilized a three part methodology to 1) survey residents to collect their input about what they think the neighborhood needs, 2) build infographics to keep residents engaged 3) and collecting residents’ stories about what HOME means to them and presenting their input as a performance activating a home in the neighborhood with their stories for an opportunity to connect with one another. The act of listening to community and working
with
community, not
for
community, helped make the performance process both accessible and reflective of the surrounding community (collective action- community participation).
Originally conceived in 2019 with the intention of opening in September of 2020, the project began in January 2020 with workshopping creation methodology rooted in space, exploring what it means to create an ensemble performance influenced by the intended performance space, a HOME. The creation process then moved to interviewing residents about what HOME meant to them. March of 2020 through the Summer, the founder, Josy Jones' relationship with home completely changed due to the stay-at-home orders and the racial unrest of the summer. She, a Black woman, began asking “What does HOME mean to Black women in the U.S.?” Still collecting interviews, the first influx of funding allowed for the ensemble to explore the stories told alongside their own experiences. Ensemble members began to talk about internalized trauma in connection with home (whether that be the U.S. as home, childhood home, etc.), and exploring the possibility of infusing research, healing, storytelling, and site-specific, ensemble built theater performance . They also began utilizing guerilla art to connect with the community, mounting an art exhibition on a naked gate in the neighborhood that once housed a mulberry bush (creative responses to trauma and racism).
In April 2021, they created their first workshop performance of the HOME performance. During this performance, they hosted a socially-distanced workshop encouraging audience members to bring pictures with them and pick one that reflected home for them and speak to the group about it (social capital- bonding, relationships, sense of belonging). This methodology was also used by the ensemble in their creation process. Jones also created a virtual version of the workshop for others to follow along online (civic engagement- high opportunity, low barrier willingness to participate).
In September 2021, previously interviewed West Hill residents (who also attended the first workshop of the performance) offered their house for a second workshop performance of HOME to take place in its intended, site-specific form. The audience was taught about the dual-zoning district, given tools like the Stop, Drop, and Roll method to address internalized trauma, they got to hear their stories reflected in the art, and many got to experience the performance's evolution between the first workshop and the second (fostering self-determination of shared values). In October 2021, the West Hill Neighborhood Organization partnered with Jones to conduct an extended surveying campaign sparked by the work the Chameleon Village started.
Chameleon Village Theatre Collective uses theater as a creative tool for community engagement, aligning directly with one of the mission pillars. As a resident theater company of the West Hill neighborhood in Akron, OH, the Chameleon Village is using HOME, to engage the West Hill community (mindset- orientation toward the common good). Data collected by Americans for the Arts shows that participants of the arts are more likely to be more civically engaged and indicates that the arts increase connection to community. However, this method of utilizing arts to inform community development is not utilized in the Greater Akron community, making HOME the first project of its kind in Akron to engage in the intersection of community development, community building, and theatre. The Chameleon Village hopes to assist the WHNO in utilizing the data collected to continue to engage community in activating the neighborhood and engaging them for volunteering, social gatherings, and more (effects of social cohesion- equitable community well being).
