The workshop artist’s journey is like any other journey. It has three phases: before, during and after the workshop. The workshop artist or facilitator is in the business of shaping the most meaningful experience for the participants that they can by crafting a creative environment and paying attention to the potential encounters and events. The devising work before a workshop aims to identify the potential shape the narrative of that workshop by putting building blocks in place, visualising potential pathways and imagining what the final outcome might be.
For more than ten years I was the artistic director of a company of twenty artists called The Moveable Feast Workshop Company. We combined our specialisms to create a wide range of bespoke workshop events. The company emerged from big workshops that were called Moveable Feasts and were designed to provide opportunities to develop workshop practice through practice. These events became a network of workshop artists and then a company. The original events, the network and the company were all artist-led.
The company, when it was formed, used a technique called the Nine Diamonds to identify our aims. The way we used the Nine Diamonds exercise involved all of us writing nine priorities on a diamond-shaped piece of card. So each of us identified nine areas that we felt the company needed to consider. Then we went through a process to form all of our diamonds into nine agreed common areas before shaping those nine areas into a big diamond shape made out of nine smaller diamond shapes.
Apart from obvious company concerns such as management, marketing, premises and finance we decided that we wanted to form a company that was a vibrant network and that the company would embody the principles of workshop in how it was run. One of the ways we achieved these aims was to hold regular company gatherings in which we processed projects, developed our work and shared skills. We called these gatherings, The Nine Diamonds – in recognition of their origin. As a company we held certain principles of workshop practice in common, even though each of us has our individual practice and our own way of doing things as well. One principle is that every workshop tells a unique story and that story is to a lesser or greater degree shaped by the workshop facilitator(s) – sometimes as leader, sometimes as gentle guide and sometimes as follower or participant. In one Nine Diamonds we looked at what it means to shape the narrative of a workshop and this is what we came up with:
SHAPING NARRATIVE in A WORKSHOP
First of all we talked about the narratives we BRING into a workshop then we talked about EXTRACTING narratives within a workshop. From this discussion we drew principles for SHAPING narrative as the culmination of a workshop. The principles we drew are:
- The workshop leader needs to be attentive to what ensues from their original intent and structure in order to be a clear channel from which the narrative can develop and a story can be born.
- Listening to individual elements as they arise and adjusting the original structure the workshop leader can help weave then those individual elements into a relevant and collective narrative.
- In order to help the weaving of that narrative the workshop leader needs to pay close attention to what is physically expressed as well as what is verbally articulated.
- As well as those individual expressions, the process of recognising the unfolding collective narrative is also about attending to the new creature that is created during the workshop; the group creature. You need to attend to the group’s needs as it emerges and understand its nature.
- There is often a discernible point in the workshop process when a saturation point is reached and the participants are ready to move from playing and exploring into shaping a new structure.
- The final part of a workshop has a distinctive aesthetic. It is the point where the whole being more than the sum of its individual parts can manifest. This creation involves all that has happened to date. The person who is most aware during the workshop of the possibilities and that can nurture the moment of closure is the facilitator. The final showing(s) is about everybody as participant and its quality rests on the facilitator’s skills. The facilitator’s/artists’ involvement in the final presentation is a matter of fine judgment. The criteria are: what makes the process/product theirs – i.e. the participants? What shows what is theirs in the finest light? Creating a luminous moment is the aim.
- The final part of a workshop is a microcosm of the whole event that reflects and reveals the narrative arc of the workshops. At its best it is a revelatory mirror for the participants.
- The final piece has the potential to crystallise for the participants that they can achieve things beyond their own self-expectations and engenders feelings in the participants of Pride, Self-Worth and Self Esteem. To make a lasting memory, a crystal memory.
- The aim is for the end to structure a revelation. A lot of the skill in shaping the final presentation lies in the decision of what to draw attention to, how to do it and in what order to put these elements together so that new meaning is made from what has happened in the workshop.
- An essential key to unlocking this possibility is to uncover a resonant metaphor/symbol/image that illuminates the process and makes sense for all the participants.
- This symbol often manifests in the workshop from the least likely place, the leftfield element, or the least expected person. Sometimes it is as unlikely as a satellite from another galaxy.
- Fundamental to the whole process is ownership from within the group. The power comes from being with each other not from imposing upon or dominance over.
- The final presentation has to allow the audience in by being recognisable so that it becomes a shared experience for all present. Then it affirms and validates the achievements of the participants.
- Shaping story from a workshop’s narrative requires clarity of vision and a clear line of direction to pilot the process of the participating delivering this final phase.
- All of these elements are dependent on a strong creative and collective process.
- If the product of a workshop is good then it is the beginning of a new process for those involved. It is part of a process for the participants.
