THE ARTISTS COLLECTIVE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE, INC.

IDENTITY PROJECT

The Artists’ Collective for Social Change (ACSC) completed a first-year pilot program in two Path group homes of New Jersey with funds from the Matisse Foundation. The PATH homes located in Paramus and Ridgewood, New Jersey are for children ages 6-12 years who are up for adoption. One is for girls and one for boys. They have to live in a therapeutic group home for a period of time to learn how to trust and accept adults before they can be placed in a family. Under the direction of a theater artist and a puppeteer, the project titled “Identity” combined drama, writing, and mask-making. "Identity" was begun in February of 2007 and completed in April 2007. Fourteen students were served - seven boys and seven girls.

Dramatist Mark Levine and puppeteer Leslie Strongwater, both residents of New York City, team-taught acting and art-

making exercises to help students shape the personalities of their masks. They both worked four hour

s one day a week, two hours with each group. The children participated in physical exercises that helped them understand identity from the abstract to the personal and then guided them through drawing and writing activities about their characters. Each session consisted of a structure broken down into three parts. The first introduced an acting or movement exercise. The second involved a writing or storytelling exercise. The third became a fusion of both. Conflict resolution, confidence, trust, and respect were all included in the process. The residency culminated in a final presentation bringing together both group homes for an art show, a performance developed by the students, and a discussion. As the children acted out their characters it was clear that “Imagination in play becomes more empathetic,” says Mark Levine. “Students learn from the characters they take on.” Their final performance was video taped.

The residency proved successful for both the students and the teachers. Most children of these homes do not respond to traditional talk therapy. They are unaware of their behavior and at a loss to express their most fundamental feelings. Agencies working with ACSC understand that the arts address skills of self-expression, critical thinking, and communication in an innovative and effective manner.

ACSC believes that “Identity” was the most compelling work accomplished this year by the organization. Both ACSC artists confirm that each child changed and improved in some way. “Discipline (provided by the arts) that is not punitive helps in personal growth, academics, and social skills. These classes allowed the students to appreciate why we have rules and follow directions,” says Mark Levine. Students in each of the homes showed a marked improvement in their behavior, becoming more confident, open, and better listeners. The masks continue to hang in the kitchen. ACSC artists became mentors to these young children. Both Mark Levine and Leslie Strongwater have asked to return to the group homes as teaching artists. “This residency changed me!” remarked Leslie who volunteered her time over the summer.

The children living in the group homes have either never lived with their parents, and/or were abused and abandoned by them. They have been shuffled around from foster home to foster home before landing at PATH, one of the best run programs in the State of New Jersey. Because some of the children who started the program left for families (which is great news), it has a profound effect on the children who "were not picked". New children come in with all their problems very much at the surface. It was interesting to see that most of them painted their masks without faces. One boy destroyed his mask early on but returned to classes and upon making the second one became very protective of his work.

Photos: Leslie Strongwater