Cultural Animation

The ladder of participation – Cultural animation in Pictures of Health

A ‘Picture of Health’ was set out to co-design a health agenda with local communities in Stoke on Trent in response to the top-down health agenda that remains prevalent in public health discourses. The workshop organised by Co-I Prof. Keleman, Kindle Partnership and community partner Sue Moffact (New Vic Theatre) who worked with participants worked three groups to explore solutions to three ‘problem focussed’ community health scenarios using approaches from cultural animation.

The event encouraged participants to achieve personal and collective goals by articulating ideas and experiences through dramaturgical play and the development of narratives through artefacts, rather than the written word. Participants were immersed into creative thinking around challenges surrounding surrounding health services and worked out pathways to solidarity. The activity offered a hands on insight about the benefits (and shortcomings) of cultural animation in community settings, and gave the PI (Giota Alevizou) a rich perspective on cultural animation via participant observation.

The approach aimed to create an environment in which community members, academics and other participants co-design and co-produce shared themes around health services’ crises and create artistic outputs based on the themes emerging . These techniques included the development of artistic narratives such as poems, songs, and other outs puppets, tableaux as well stimulate mini performances enacting the themes explored.