ABOUT US

OUR MANDATE

Common Weal Community Arts creates programming in collaboration with socially-engaged artists and Saskatchewan communities in pursuit of an equitable and just society.

OUR HISTORY

Common Weal Community Arts was born in 1992 through the production of Ka’ma’mo’pi’cik, a community play developed, researched, produced, and performed by Qu’Appelle Valley residents under the guidance of theatre professionals. The evolution of this play sought to draw out site-specific histories with careful attention paid to include perspectives from people traditionally omitted in mainstream representations of prairie-settler culture. The process was influenced heavily by Paulo Friere’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which articulates that an outcome cannot be predetermined but that social change emerges from a process of dialogue and reflection in which the lived experience and knowledge of participants is prioritized. The principals, values, artistry, and community development processes employed through this project provided the basis for Common Weal to develop into a unique socially-engaged and community-minded professional arts organization. More than three decades later, we have grown from a grassroots collective to a professional non-profit arts organization.

OUR VALUES

Connection /Equity / Creativity / Adaptability / Leadership / Service / Compassion

We strive to inspire ideas and empower people to tell their stories in their own voices. Place or shared identity or interest may define the participating communities, the majority of which are marginalized, underserved, or historically misrepresented. Our projects are diverse in artistic discipline and approach, including elements of traditional practice, site-specific work, residency and workshop activity, high profile events, and critical discourse on social practice. Our vision is achieved through producing art that promotes critical thinking; embracing cooperation, diversity, and inclusiveness; committing to projects of a high artistic merit; affirming and developing a creative consciousness by challenging the status quo with honesty and integrity; and recognizing and engaging alternative voices and worldviews.

CONNECTION
We foster connection with artists and communities by building a sense of empathy, understanding, and belonging through the development of authentic relationships. Connection is of paramount importance as we build relationships with each community. This empowers our work to leave a positive and lasting impact on both project participants and others in the community. Connection makes social change possible.

EQUITY
We work with artists and Saskatchewan communities to create platforms through which everyone and anyone will be able to express themselves, regardless of their social, economic, religious, cultural, or gender identities. We believe everyone deserves to hold a meaningful sense of belonging within society. Equity is a benchmark goal  that we aim toward in all our undertakings, and we strive to ensure that the work we do is accessible to everyone.

CREATIVITY
Creativity is a means and an end in our work. We support artists and communities in expressing their identities and speaking their voices through socially-engaged arts programming. Creativity allows us  to do things differently, challenge the status quo,  and connect with each other through shared experience. Creativity opens our minds to new thought processes and allows us to learn and unlearn, so we can foster the growth of healthier communities through engaged artistic practice.

ADAPTABILITY
Many of the communities in which we work are impacted by historical trauma, ongoing injustice, and economic poverty. When a crisis or tragedy arises, this must be prioritized above all else: our ideal project timeline, Western societal assumptions, or funder expectations. We also strive to keep a steady focus on the changing needs and limitations of staff in order to reduce stress and burnout, and to make our workloads more manageable.

LEADERSHIP
We recognized that leadership means listening to the voices of others. We endeavour to learn from our communities so that we can be always doing better for each other. While developing programs, we strive to prioritize the specific needs and strengths of the communities and artists. This often calls for strategies that are tailored and often idiosyncratic, fostering a strong sense of innovative leadership.  We stand up for important social issues in our communities as a means of creating  social change. 

SERVICE
We understand that the work we do must be a reflection of the communities we serve, supporting and allowing the communities to tell their stories in their own voices. We strive to be responsive to the nuances and changing needs of artists and  communities, and we value flexibility, wherever possible, as new and unexpected challenges arise.

COMPASSION
We recognize and understand that many of the communities we work with are disproportionately impacted by colonial oppression, historic harm, injustice, neglect, and misrepresentation. In this understanding, we embody a culture of  support through models of compassion and empathy. We strive to work without judgment of each other, and utilize compassion to learn from, and connect with, each other. Compassion is vital to  creating understanding and true positive change in communities.

OUR VISION

Common Weal is the only professional arts organization in Saskatchewan committed to socially-engaged practice. The importance of this cannot be understated. We are dedicated to a high standard of artistic merit, in part, so that this practice may be promoted as a legitimate contemporary art form judged by criteria that does not prioritize an object or traditional presentation. As participatory art practitioners, we value the process. The processes of socially-engaged collaboration, including exploration and expression of voice and identity, are as significant (or more significant) as a finished product or presentation. 

The artists we work with understand the mutual benefit of workshop and residency activity. They are able to contemplate differing perspectives and explore new areas of interest, while expanding their bodies of work and developing their capacity to connect with the public. We believe strongly in the capacity of artists to build authentic relationships with project participants, the impacts of which tend to have a ripple effect for years to come.