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What are Caring Arts?

Caring Arts are for me a birthplace of a possibility. A possibility to come together and create gently. A permission to stay in the process, to find rest as a mode of action, to indulge in repetition, to take time, to stop apologizing (and to stop pushing myself overboard in order to avoid the need to apologize). Caring arts is deeply and radically different way of existing in the world.

Josipa

For me, Caring Art is when people who do and people who consume art are mindful with each other. This art is respectful towards individual needs. It tries to include different personal backgrounds in its practice. Caring Arts create a space where everyone feels welcomed and heard.

Miri

Caring art for me is about making gaps between spaces and times with each other and for each other.
Spaces and time to co-create accessibility.
Spaces and time for sharing and shaping.
Spaces and time for appreciation, remembrance, grief, love, joy, play, and everything else. Or nothing else. Or nothing at all, if that’s how we feel it should be.

Nastia

Caring arts is for me the art that is in itself environmentally friendly and sustainable that does not carry a heavy dark history behind or not trying to hide it, I mean the object itself, for me caring arts is possibility staying alone but also have an community to be open to work in a collective. I grow up in small village and used to play with all objects around me, because I was spending whole days outside, in winters my stimmy was a snow, at summer it was wild clay, stones, water.

Ziliä

Caring arts surprised me more then once by disrupting art normativity, by liberating from ableism and by softly offering caring community. Or in other words caring arts holds space for experiences of pain, care-relations, neurodivergence, disability and queerness through shared or parallel dreams, rest, political discourse, creativity and joy.

Lena

To me, Caring Arts is a precious lab where we explore as a group how to create relaxed spaces of doing and undoing and not doing. 

For me as organizer and participant, Caring Arts means to have a learning and unlearning space. 

Part of it is to become comfortable at being uncomfortable – and by that for others and myself to feel more comfortable in the end. I am thankful to those who taught me.

In Caring Arts, we search for collective care practices and needs-based artistic creation.

I am thankful for being part of creating that space.

Fine

Caring Arts is a space for coming together without having to work on a product. Its a space not fixed on the outcome. A space for meeting each other and prioritizing what people in the space need to be there and participate and to make sure we can collectively take care of these needs – so that everyone can have space to be creative and work artistically. Its a space for people with different identities and experiences to come together to learn and unlearn, to create, to play, to relax, to enjoy. Its also a space where we reflected together and shared criticisms towards each other and also the world as a pretty gruesome place to live for many.

Fanny

Caring Art for me is art that is taking into account principles of collective care, solidarity, accessibility, and flexibility.  It challenges patriarchal and hegemonic norms and standards and creates spaces where art can be practiced with care and freedom of expression.

Caring art centers people – disregards capitalism and ableism.

Dunia

Caring Arts for me is the space to talk about art, disability, and their interconnectedness. It’s a chance to imagine (through the art) another more accessible future. Caring Arts reminds me of many things about activism, leisure, and community support discussed in the book “Future Is Disabled” by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha.

Anonymous

Caring Arts for me is when I can write to you: “I have brain fog today. Could we postpone concept discussion?”

Caring arts for me if you also can trust me and write: “I am sick. I can not concentrate today. I can not say you exactly when I can continue… Crip time…”

Or: “My friend needs urgent support. Could I sent my contribution later?”

Grief can not have deadlines and limited therapy sessions. 

Caring arts for me is creation of space and time where we don’t put off resolving conflicts because we want to unlearn all discrimination. 

Caring arts for me where all of us human and nonhuman creatives can take place. Where we don’t destroy human and nonhuman lives. Where we believe that stones and waters also have pain and grieve. Stones cared of me as I was a lonely child… They played with me and supported the worlds in my mind and my non verbal language. 

It is a continuous search how to be with each other and how to create collective access.

Kira

For me Caring-arts is the joy of play-full care or care-full play. A room that invites to open up and share. Body-minds resonating with each other. An I-you weaving a we. A we enriching You-I’s. A radical commitment to put care in the center of attention.

Stone

The voices “What are Caring Arts?” are “our” voices on how we experience(d) Caring Arts. We wrote down what it means to us. We are delighted to share some of our collective and individual work here on this website. We invite you to read our to know more about us and our work.

Explore the artworks:

It is a picture that I drew myself with a blue pen. On the white background is an abstract blue shape. There are several round angular bulges on the left and right sides. It reminds me a bit of the letter U. It can also remind me of a whale. The part on the left looks a bit like a fish fin. It's triangular and has a notch in the centre. The part on the right is like the open mouth of a whale. The shape also takes up the whole space of the picture like a whale when he comes to the water's surface from the depths. The shape has contours. I painted them in with the same colour. I coloured in the left part with lots of irregular small lines. The right part is rather smooth and even and slightly lighter in colour. At the bottom left is the blue overhead text in English: We carry each other. On the edge in the centre of the shape, the blue text is written in English from bottom to top: I carry you. On one edge on the right-hand side is the blue overhead text in English: You carry me. This picture gives me a sense of calm, just like the blue of the water. It also gives me a feeling of being held in the water.

Experiencing Caring Arts

This text describes my experiences in the Caring Arts project. I write about what happened in our meeting in Munich in September and how I felt about it. I write from the perspective of January 2024, explaining what I learned and how it felt for me to be part of a space where people's needs are important and taken seriously. This space was much slower than other spaces I am usually in. I realized in this process how often I adapt. Because I don't want to disturb. That was painful to realize.
It is a photo of three different types of green neon play dough on a black background. They have different colors and textures. I wanted to show that there is not only transformability, but also vulnerability.

Kneaded Spaces

Kneaded Spaces are an invitation to knead with Lena while listening to or reading their piece. Kneaded Spaces are a critique on in_accessibility, exclusion and ableism of spaces. The practice to knead with, is to think and produce spaces together. Furthermore it opens possibilities for spaces of joy, a joy that messes up with the norm of ability. The Audio piece is accompanied by a picture and the written text. This is an invitation to knead with Lena. You can use dough, play doh, selfmade salt doh, slime, clay or earth.
Photo of the silver surface. This is the fabric that Nastya and Kira used to line up their stim objects in photos and videos for "Stim Sharing Guide". There are many folds on the right side. On the left side, light falls on the fabric. It glitters. That's why Kira and Nastia chose this fabric.

Stim Sharing Guide

Stim Sharing Guide by Nastia and Kira is a process of sharing stim questions with each other or just questions and reactions, stim poems, stim videos, and images.
A graphic image of soundwaves: strong blue lines going up and down forming loose frayed shapes on a soft grey background with a deep black line, the pattern repeats again and again slightly different every time

rest

Pronouncing the different sounds in the word rest. After a few seconds the audio starts with rhythmic clicking sound. Then, a voice, slightly moaning and whispering, begins to rattle the letter "R". After few seconds pause, vowels appear together with the R sound. Some seconds later, the voice sizzles the letter "S". The audio ends with the voice repeating the whole word.
In the photo is a closeup of water surface of a pond on a sunny day. It's a very warm and calming image for me because there are several interesting textures to look at. I like the warm green of the tree reflection, the yellow of the shallow shore and the brown of the underwater plants. The waves are small. The water makes fleeting movements. Darker tree shadows, small pale blue sky reflections and softly glowing pond reflections interact with each other and have flowing shapes. I liked watching these water movements on this warm sunny day.

A Story about Autistic & ADHD brain

In this article, the author invites readers to take a quick look at how autism and ADHD can affect everyday life. The author, who is a low support needs Autistic with ADHD, shows their thought process behind writing the article. Including all the side stories, random connections, and critique of systems of oppression.
It´s a picture by Fine that they painted at the Caring Arts Lab in Munich after going on Miri´s dream journey. Fine tells: „I have painted a picture that shows a moment of caring. It shows a footbath and arms washing legs in this footbath. The background is white with many thin black lines reminiscent of waves. The picture has a black frame. With the picture, I wanted to preserve the memories of the feelings from that moment. I am at home with a friend and she is washing my feet and looking after me. At first I was ashamed because my feet were dirty and I didn't like them, but then I felt very safe because she was taking care of me. The water is pleasantly lukewarm, the stone she uses to remove the calluses has a rough surface and scratches, but doesn't hurt. Her hands are soft. It was a very intimate moment. Maybe that's why the black round footbath has the profiles of me and my friend on the top and bottom edges. At the time, I had a turquoise hairstyle with bangs. I also painted my lips turquoise. My friend had black hair and bangs at the time. I painted her lips an ultramarine blue color. I wanted to show our bond through the colors. The water in the footbath changes color. The turquoise from me and the ultramarine blue from my friend run towards each other, spread out and mix in some places. This causes the colors to change their tones. I wanted to show how this connection came about.“

Dream Journey

Many people have a place where they feel comfortable. It can be a place of your past, your present life or maybe a dream place of your future. With this guided dream journey you have the chance to travel to your place and enjoy yourself there. After you return from our journey, you can get creative. Maybe you want to show your place in a picture, in a poem or a scenic performance.
These are the 6 photos of Dunia's artwork. The artwork is called "No Name". Together they form a collage. Dunia has experimented with the photo view and changed the size of the photo by zooming in. The attention is drawn to the parent and the child lying down, surrounded by finger painting and embroidery. Dunia has called it the centre. This centre is enlarged or reduced in the 6 photos in six variations.

No Name

The work „No Name“ which is compiled of different elements in mixed media presents the viewer with the reality of a parent-care-giver, between personal experiences, queer feminism, and society internalized as well as externalized prejudice. Thorn between loving, caring, fighting and surviving, a parent-care-giver finds themselves in a world that is inflexible, hostile and is not opened to the understanding of their reality.
I have painted various objects and graphic elements on a white background. These are for example: Stim Toys like a tangle or a cuddly toy octopus. Tangles form the moving elements or lines that divide the page into different segments. The 3 thick curvy lines in black, green and silver are the tangles. They are drawn through various parts of the collage. I also painted a lot of gold-colored curved shapes because they remind me of our relaxed space. That's why I also painted a laptop and Dunia, who provided beanbags. The collage is about our workshops, presentations and exchange of ideas. That's why there are lots of quotes. At the top left, the blue text is written on a pink cloud shape: Caring Arts Lab Vienna, 10-16.09.2023.

Scribbles of Caring Arts

During our collective Caring Arts trips to Munich and Vienna, I drew a collage for each travel in a comic style. I did this in order to concentrate and keep my mind and hands busy. Also, I did so to catch memories and share them with other. This is what I call scribbling. It´s a per-sonal and subjective puzzle of my experience, shapes, colors, items I saw and memories I have. But it also is a collective puzzle as it´s the result of our common work. I invite you to follow me through the pictures and through that into the memories of our ed-ucational travels.

Funded by the European Union. 
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Logo with a flag of the EU and a saying "Co-Funded by the European Union"

Impressum

Caring Arts © 2024 by Educat e. V. is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International