Who We Are
Arts for Social Cohesion (ASC) strengthens relationships of dignity, safety and mutual regard that in turn increase connection and collaboration across differences.
To cultivate these relationships, ASC combines powerful artistic experience with pedagogy to orchestrate conditions making it psychologically safe, easy and fun for people to: be curious, listen generously, get real and connect emotionally in ways that feel alive.
The Center for Combating Antisemitism recently identified ASC as one of three "high potential and high impact…strategic community-based projects well-positioned for moving the needle" toward deeper cross-community understanding. ASC was the sole arts-based initiative.
(Quotes from Center for Combating Antisemitism; Melissa Garlick, Associate Vice President, Center for Combating Antisemitism)
Leadership
ASC is led by Regie Gibson, inaugural poet laureate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and composer/educator Guy Mendilow.
ASC’s strength lies in synthesizing:
Rigorous artistry. For example, Regie is MA’s inaugural poet laureate. Guy has been arranging for/directing ensembles on international stages since age 13 (e.g., National Concert Hall, Taipei, Taiwan). Both honed their craft touring and directing on leading performing arts stages since 1998, from Celebrity Series of Boston and “Promised Land” at Oprah Winfrey’s home to the Krannert Performing Arts Center;
Pedagogical expertise (e.g., Professorships at Berklee College of Music; Advanced pedagogy degrees; Residency design from the Navajo Reservation and rural Midwest to metropolitan centers since 1996);
Best practices in social psychology, emphasizing seemingly small, precise moves that, when carefully tailored, targeted and timed, make long-lasting, even snowballing impacts in people’s beliefs and inferences about themselves, each other and social situations.
ASC’s Compass
ASC is guided by three generations of family lifework creating spaces where those societies deemed permissibly excludable would be respected as equals worthy of full regard (e.g., smuggling Jews out of fascist Hungary in WWII; founding Yad LaKashish / Lifeline for the Old striving for Jewish and Arab elders’ dignity, sense of purpose and contribution since 1962). ASC likewise draws on its directors’ experiences lived since childhood, and background in strengthening dimensions of belonging, verified by decades of replicated social psychology studies.
ASC increases cohesion through:
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PROCESSES
ASC designs and facilitates cohesion processes — from workshops and crowdsourced poems to lively dinners — carefully architected so people can lower their armor, connect emotionally and understand the experiences bringing a person to see, believe and choose as they do
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PRODUCTIONS
ASC produces live, original multidisciplinary/multimedia performances. Through powerful spoken word, score and theatrically projected sand animation, ASC’s performances explore real-world tales of choices people make in times of personal or societal change, especially unexpected grace in upheaval.
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PEDAGOGY
ASC trains others in our approaches — tested over years and evaluated by partners like TogetherUp Institute and Incevia Policy Partners — for using the arts to strengthen relationships within and between communities.
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CONSULTANCY
Arts for Social Cohesion's proposal and project design consultancy helps nonprofit cultural/arts organizations bring complex visions and missions to life.
What is Social Cohesion?
Social cohesion is a framework for thriving for groups of people, however small or large.
We understand social cohesion as the ongoing processes of:
Developing group members’ sense of being valued and treated with full regard, well-being, and voluntary social participation, while simultaneously
Ensuring visibility of different perspectives and experiences within the group, however granular, and simultaneously and
Safeguarding group members’ equal rights and opportunities.
Like a fractal, Social Cohesion is a pattern recurring on many scales, from interpersonal levels (a relationship between two friends, a family) to community levels (an organization, a neighborhood, a town) to societal levels (state, region, country, etc). At each level, the principles are the same but the strategies are likely to differ.
The 4C’s Guiding Our Work
Why This Matters
Sustained, deepened inquiry strengthens awareness of our own and of others’ often-tacit assumptions about how we relate to the world and to one another.
Once we have heard someone’s story and understand more about how they have arrived at their beliefs and viewpoints, it becomes more difficult to dismiss/dehumanize them, even when we sharply disagree.
The process is dynamic and multi-directional.