Building Community

using the multicultural

festival format 1
Building Community using the multicultural festival format
Rohini Dandavate

In the United States, Memorial Day is celebrated on the last Monday of May. For the
Asian communities of Columbus, Ohio it is the time to organize the Asian festival.
Introduced in the year 1995, this festival has emerged as a prominent community
based art project, which contributes significantly towards building community
networks within the various ethnic groups of Asian origin in and around Columbus.
This project touches the social, cultural, political, and business life of the Central
Ohio communities. Because of the tremendous success in drawing people every
year the festival has received strong financial support from state, city, and
corporations, since its very inception.

According to Ms Rebecca Ogden, who was one of the key figures in the
administration of this project “this event was conceived with the simple objective
of building connections within the Asian communities and with the mainstream
community. “ (Ogden 2002). Dr Lou, a professor in the Department of
Mathematics, at the Ohio State University was the main inspiration behind this
project. Being involved in social services, he recognized that the Asian
communities lacked a social infrastructure that could help getting/providing proper
health services to the people of their community. With a view to address this need
he set out to bring together professionals and other key persons from the Asian
communities to address how health and social services could be easily made
accessible to the needy people in the community. Through discussions/meetings
with representatives of 13 Asian groups it was felt that organizing a festival to
share the arts and traditions of Asia would help to:

• Build connections amidst the participating minority groups

• Build awareness and cultural understanding in the mainstream population
and
• Create a platform to share Asian art and culture

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 (Ogden 2002)

The members of the organizing committee envisioned that in the long run, this
festival would help in building and sustaining connections and relationships,
resulting in creation of community support networks. To make the event engaging
for participation of the Asians in Columbus as well as mainstream communities, the
committee decided to focus on presenting arts, art making activities for children,
cultural displays, Asian food ways, educational displays, health awareness, and
martial arts. It has come to be one of the most attended events in Ohio.

William Cleveland, Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community in his
article ‘Mapping the Field: Arts-Based Community Development ‘, defines an ABCD
project as

“Arts-centered activity that contributes to the sustained advancement

of human dignity, health and/or productivity within a community,
including,

– Activities that EDUCATE and INFORM us about ourselves and the world
– Activities that INSPIRE and MOBILIZE individuals or groups.
– Activities that NURTURE and HEAL people and/or communities
– Activities that BUILD and IMPROVE community capacity and/or
infrastructure. (Cleveland 02)”

The objectives, activities, and outcome of the Asian Festival meet the
requirement of this definition making it to be an apt example of an Arts
Based Community Development (ABCD) project. This festival encompasses
activities that generate all the attributes that come under the purview of the
above definition. The following paragraphs analyzes the impact of the
festival.

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EDUCATE/INFORM: The Festival has increased the overall awareness about
Asian culture, art forms, lifestyles and expression amongst the greater
Columbus community. About 100,000 people attended the Asian Festival.
The information booths, the art exhibits, dance and music performances, the
shop with artifacts from various Asian cultures has aroused an interest in
people to learn more about the Asian countries. The indicators of this
growing curiosity is seen in the:

– Increasing numbers of ethnic restaurants in Columbus

– Ethnic aisles becoming a part of national grocery chains.
– Ethnic cultural immersion programs becoming regular features in
elementary, middle and high schools.
– Opening of Henna parlors, an Indian body adornment technique
– Student community of Ohio State University organizing a similar Asian
Festival every year

According to Ms Ogden, presenting a variety of artistic events has helped

people understand and appreciate universal themes in diverse expressions as
well as recognize the unique characteristics of different cultures. It has
helped people discover a new unifying eclectic experience that draws upon
qualities of diverse forms, flavors and rhythms. (Ogden,2002).

There is a growing interest in schools in smaller communities in the vicinity

of Columbus to expose students to ethnic cultures through these arts
activities. Performers and artists from the Asian communities have been
invited to present their art more frequently than earlier.

INSPIRE and MOBILIZE: The festival has inspired patrons, volunteers, artists
and the audience. There is a continued enthusiasm for organizing, supporting
and participating in the Asian festival each year. The Asian Festival has now
become as much a part of the popular public events in Columbus as the Rib
festival or the July 4th fireworks. People from all walks of life are attending

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the festival. It has mobilized around 30 corporations and city and state
government arts agencies to provide regular financial support.

NURTURE and HEAL: Health pavilions in the festival grounds have healthcare
professionals demonstrate and offer workshops on traditional healing practices such
as acupressure and meditation. Health promotions, nutrition education, Yoga
demonstrations and health screenings are among the other activities presented in
the health area. Consequently, health screening and demonstrations have now
become a part of an outreach service to Asian and non-Asian communities as well
as to elderly, women and people in need. Health information is available, many in
Asian languages, in the area of community diseases, nutrition, cancer education, as
well as information on available screenings. The original motivation for this
community initiative is pursued through the voluntary efforts, which are initiated
during the Asian Festival.

BUILD and IMPROVE:

The intercultural communication for planning and execution of the festival
has resulted in continued interactions between the communities (as opposed
to within the communities) beyond the festival. Asian Festival has motivated
people of the community to invest their time and money into an activity that
leads to developing long lasting bonds in the community.

The phenomenon of globalization and the consequent change in the demographics

of Ohio has resulted in the need for building cultural understanding. People are
recognizing that understanding of multicultural practices and values can facilitate in
their workplaces, malls, schools, colleges and neighborhoods. It is becoming
important to learn to live in harmony with people of different nationalities and
develop the ability to understand each other. Artistic expressions help in connecting
people and it teaches people to accept and appreciate each other’s differences.
In the words of Raj Isar (1996), author and Professor of Global Communications,

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 "One of the major challenges today is how to manage and promote
diversity as a positive force, so that the recently released energies of
ethnic identification and solidarity serve as catalysts for creativity
rather than destruction, for concord rather than division (Isar quoted
by Williams 1996)".

The Asian festival has demonstrated that the benefits of art based community
projects are not just limited to the evolution of a new mindset that is culturally
adaptive. It also leads to development of cross-cultural networks that help people
share skills, resources and knowledge. It leads to participation of the ethnic
communities in the social, political and business networks of the mainstream. The
following diagram illustrates how the Asian festival contributes in building
connections within and outside the Asian communities.

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This diagram displays the partnership and collaboration in all the stages of
organizing this festival. It brings together people from Asian American communities
of Columbus, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia,
Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, and the Vietnam to name a few. According to
Community Partnerships for Older Adults the “hallmarks of community-based
collaboration are cooperative investment and allocation of resources; shared
authority and benefits; and joint planning, risk taking, implementation, and
evaluation”. It can be said that this collaboration has it all. There is local support
and local control in planning and execution. The collaboration between multiple
organizations and individuals under a unified structure brings a variety of
perspectives and expertise into a comprehensive vision.

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In conclusion it would be appropriate to say that in long run efforts of art based
community development make life richer in cultural content and build social
networks which become more stable because diverse populations have a sense of
participation in the evolving infrastructures and power structure.

References

Cleveland W, (2002) Mapping the Field: Arts-Based Community Development

(http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/resdev.php)

Community Partnerships for Older Adults

(http://partnershipsforolderadults.org/whatis_cp.htm)

Ohio Arts Council, (2002) State of the Arts Report,

(http://www.ohiosoar.org/)

Asian Festival
(http://www.asian-festival.org/first.html)

Booth, K (1995) Culture Builds Communities Washington, D C Partners for Livable

Communities

Congdon G, Blandy D, Bolin P (2001) Histories of Community-Based Art Education,

VA National Art Education Association

Graeme Chalmers F. (1996) Celebrating Pluralism :Art Education and Cultural

Diversity CA The J Paul Getty Trust.

Williams, J. (1996) Across the Street Around the World- A Hand Book for Cultural
Exchange London, U.K. British American Arts Association Ltd.