These are the words that describe what lies at the heart of the CAP program. Art is a basic human form of expression and a visceral, accessible means of communicating and reflecting what is happening for us emotionally, physically and even spiritually. CAP art projects are driven by everyday concerns, by real-life experiences that inspire or compel us to respond. Here you will find featured some of the many projects that participants have been involved in since our recent formation in 2008.

Community Art, an Introduction

Briefly, community art can be broadly defined as art made outside of the restrictions of formal educational institutions or academia. Community art programs can, and often do, take place in collaboration with schools, but they address their own mission and goals, not state-mandated standards. Community art takes into account the interests and needs of the participants engaged in the projects and is collaborative in nature. It is expected that the learning engendered in community art programs has the potential to encourage students to take part in developing more holistic and engaged educational practices, thus creating stronger bonds with their community and environment (Gablik, 2002; Brice-Heath, 1999; Frye-Burnham, 1998). Community art is particularly well-suited to increasing open lines of communication and building ties between people because it is co-authored and executed as a group effort, and not by the vision of one sole artist, educator or institution.  Such a collaborative approach lends itself to creating learning experiences made more meaningful by joint emotional investment and ownership.

Project Descriptions

Trash awareness campaign

Last year CAP began a very successful, multi-project trash awareness campaign with the involvement of multiple levels of the community. In the short time it was implemented, we saw concrete results, such as the scheduling of a monthly beach-clean up, a monthly recycling and trash hauling event, and ongoing fundraising consisting of locally made artesanry sold at local shops with partial proceeds being donated to the expenses of trash disposal. The workshops and events focused on reducing, reusing and recycling concepts. In turn, this campaign inspired much art making, including costumes made of recycled trash materials, the creation of trash puppets performing a play on the dangers that trash and other factors pose to sea turtles , and the creation of jewelry from trash (which sold like hot-cakes!). In 2009, we would like to expand on this project, creating better and more sightly trash sorting and recycling receptacles and installing them in the center of town for community use. The receptacles will be created with the community and will also include art processes such as mosaics, reliefs, painting and informational text on their exterior. Lastly, the very popular 'Found-Object Jewelry' workshops are presently underway.

Murals

Women's Workshops

The women of Punta Banco along with CAP artists became very involved in creating jewelry from beads, seeds, shells, bottle caps and other found objects to sell to tourists. The regular afternoon workshops were well-attended and eventually children and men joined in as well. This project was part of a greater trash campaign. Over the course of a three-week period, approximately $100 was earned toward trash disposal. This project has the potential to be very successful and of great value to the local women as a source of creativity and income. In 2009 there are plans to expand this 'art for funds' project in order to expand the trash and recycling programs.

Teatro Títere (Puppet Theatre)

Puppet theater has always been an entertaining and accessible way of sharing important ideas and information amongst communities of different cultural traditions. In 2008 we had the pleasure of working with Bridget McCracken, a member of Trash Mash-Up, a collaborative community art project that uses disposable materials collected before entering the waste stream to create art objects, costumes and puppets. The Teatro Títere project motivated the children of Punta Banco to use their available resources creatively, collecting household trash and found objects to create characters based on stories they themselves wrote about the life cycle of the Olive Ridley turtle. The students and CAP artists discussed the impact of trash on native flora and fauna as well as on their own lives. Upon completion of writing the stories and creating the puppets, the entire student body participated in the performance of a play, thereby sharing what they had learned with their community and visitors. This type of art project brings learning full-circle, encouraging youth to research, reflect and finally re-invent what they learned by applying it to their artwork. In 2009, The trash puppet theater will grow to include the depiction of other important environmental concerns and be performed, once again, by local elementary schools for the whole town and outlying villages.

Organic Art Garden

Artists as Environmental Activists

In 2008 The ComunicArte Project (CAP) partnered with Costa Rican marine conservation and research organization, PRETOMA, to develop community art projects that addressed the preservation of the olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea). CAP’s main location, Punta Banco, is home to PRETOMA’s oldest and most successful community run sea turtle hatchery. Over the course of 3 weeks, artists and project participants worked on the creation of 2 educational ‘art’ billboards based on information we learned together about the olive ridley. One was posted at the entrance to town and the other is now mounted on the side of the hatchery, in the center of town. Women in the afternoon workshops made small turtle dolls that were used in the puppet performance depicting the life cycle of the sea turtle. Students at the school wrote stories and hand-made books about turtles. They created gorgeous multimedia turtles out of local flora for the book covers. They even did a turtle diorama project in which they envisioned what a healthy, safe environment for a turtle should look like. The beauty of studying conservation through art is that you can come at the topic from multiple directions simultaneously.

In 2009, CAP plans to work closely with PRETOMA to do a series of workshops on one of their biggest battles: stopping the cruel practice of shark-finning.  The shark is one of Costa Rica's national treasures, and they are rapidly being eradicated. There have also been recent reports of Hawksbill turtle sightings in the region, an exciting new discovery. CAP is currently working with marine conservationists Alex Gaos and Ingrid Yañez of ¡CAREY! to develop art and conservation workshops on this topic.