Art and politics in Rogers Park
by James CarltonInsight Arts, located at 1545 W. Morse Ave. in Rogers Park, certainly isn’t your run of the mill community-based organization.
Insight Arts is an artist activist organization. It provides free art education as well as political and social awareness programs for community youth.
A coalition of Chicago-based artists, community activists and Socratic method educators founded the organization in 1991. They all had vision of combining art with political awareness and activism.
In the heart of Rogers Park, Insight Arts offers programs including dance, theater and visual arts. The open space provides ample room for community children to express themselves fully.
Ahalya Satkunaratnam, community relations specialist for the organization, has some very clear goals for the organization.
"We work on many issues that pertain to this community. With important issues such as crime and gentrification within the community, we provide an outlet for change," Satkunaratnam said. At its most basic level, gentrification refers to the revitalization of a poorer neighborhood.
All of the services that the center offers are free of charge to students.
"Art should be accessible to everyone and putting politics and ‘liberatory’ thinking into our programs creates a real catalyst for change," Satkunaratnam said.
Insight Arts offers a wide variety of programming that is geared for youth ages 10 to 20. The organization teaches various forms of art expression ranging from painting to theater. There are after-school programs for most of the age groups, and the organization also offers various programming on the weekend.
One of the most popular programs that Insight Arts offers is "15 Stories High," which is made up of youth ages 14 to 20, and based around the collection and performance of stories. These stories come from Rogers Park residents as well as youth themselves and relate to neighborhood social issues. The stories are then woven together to create a finished theatrical product.
"The theater group is a very important and effective way for us to deal with many sensitive situations throughout the community. We have seen that dramatizing the issues that affect the community such as violence, abuse or drugs it makes it somewhat easier to deal with these sensitive issues," Satkunaratnam said.
"All of our programs are a great way for community youth to explore teamwork and leadership skills, become educators and exchange different perspectives on community issues and gain fulfill or gain community service credit hours," she said.
"Insight Arts offers an excellent opportunity for many of the kids in the area to do something constructive, instead of getting into mischief after school," said Kevin Dubiel, a volunteer with the organization.
The organization offers an art series on the third Saturday of every month in which a new artist is featured.
"The art series is a great way for students and members of the community to learn more about Insight Arts and some of the types of programs that we offer," Satkunaratnam said.
She continued, "Also, since our neighborhood is one of the most multi-cultural and multi-lingual neighborhoods in the United States, we rely on the community to help us continue to be able to develop diverse aesthetic and educational strategies."
Insight Arts is very involved with the movement to fight gentrification within the Community Action Network in order to educate the community in regards to issues such as housing rights in the Rogers Park area.
"Gentrification and issues of the home are very important themes in most of our programs," Satkunaratnam said. "When we work with other organizations in the city we are constantly learning about gentrification, housing rights and the distorted media which all affect the quality of life for the children."
Satkunaratnam and the organization take their responsibility to the community very seriously and think of themselves as an important voice to be heard.
"We are here as a community-based organization, therefore we must voice the opinion of the community. Issues such as gentrification and affordable housing directly affect kids involved in our program and the community as a whole," she said.
For Dubiel, Insight Arts is a way to utilize the political ideologies he had learned in school with his talent for art.
"I feel that I am very lucky to be able to do something that I love, while being able to see positive change that occurs within these kids, when they feel that people care for them and that they can be something in today’s society," said Dubiel. "It is a great thing when you are able to help people in the community."
Although the main goal of Insight Arts is to educate the community about art, politics remains a close second for Satkunaratnam.
"We feel it is important and revolutionary to combine art and politics as a means of expression," she added. "It makes perfect sense to combine art and politics because everything is political."
PHOTO:
An outside view of Insight Arts.
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