Community art and cultural mediation

Reena Almoneda Chang is a community artist who has developed, coordinated and facilitated numerous community art projects with marginalized community groups experiencing various socio-economic and personal challenges, including First Nations women, immigrants and refugees, women who have been incarcerated or had difficult experiences with the judicial system, single parent families, and the elderly. Some challenges faced by these communities include gender, cultural or racial discrimination, social isolation, poverty, homelessness, and various mental health issues. She has collaborated with and been mentored by Engrenage Noir, a community art organization which trains artists in critical reflection, theory, practice, and ethics in community art practice, and has received funding and support for several projects she developed.

Her approach focuses on identifying individuals’ needs and objectives, community building through the creation of alliances, creating a space in which participants may connect with, express, and transform difficult life experiences through the exploration of movement, dance and other body-based techniques, and accompanying participants in an artistic process which is both collaborative and interdisciplinary.

Non-verbal exploration allows individuals the possibility to access and work on difficult experiences in a way that might be more difficult for them to access otherwise (ex. processes based primarily on verbalization). This process integrates different modalities, including various dance and movement art practices (various African dances, tai chi, yoga, capoeira, butoh, contemporary dance, flamenco, and Argentine tango…), somatic techniques (including Body Mind Centering, Bartenieff fundamentals, and authentic movement), writing, journaling, drawing, theatre techniques, breathe work, vocalization, discussion and reflection. Centered on the building of personal and community resilience, this process may include exploration of a problem of social injustice experienced by the group, and if the group wishes, can lead to the creation of an artistic action or public presentation.

For more information on workshops, or how to develop a community art or cultural mediation project, please click here.

Projects