¿VIVIRARTE? / ARTOLIVE?

VIVIRARTE es una estrategia en la que existe la necesidad de despertar el espíritu imaginativo de cómo vemos y comprendemos nosotros mismos a las comunidades y a las personas que viven en ellas. Para ello necesitamos una perspectiva diferente de la que actualmente usamos para ver el mundo, una que admita sus incertidumbres, ambigüedades y su inexplicable y misteriosa naturaleza. /VIVIRARTE is a strategy for purposeful change that identifies the best of "what is" in a person’s creativity to pursue dreams and possibilities of "what could be." It is a co-operative search for the strengths, passions and life-giving forces that are found within every system—those factors that hold the potential for inspired, positive change in a community.

METODOLOGÍA / METHODOLOGY

La metodología apreciativa en el arte, el sistema de ARTERESPONSABLE, se centra en los éxitos de los individuos y no en sus problemas, con el fin fortalecer su capacidad de resiliencia y autodeterminación. Steve sumó a esto su experiencia, conocimiento y redes de los sistemas de salud y una gramática amigable: la estructura del ensamble, para ser aprehendida y reinterpretada por cualquier persona, sin importar su edad, género o formación académica.

/It is unusual that a General Manager from a Pharmaceutical Company is also an artist, an artist who has developed a conceptual language building assemblages with residual objects, turning his pieces into sustainable works of art that are environment friendly. Steve Geohegan’s art work goes around life and the postmodern man, he builds a powerful look towards the establishment and its lack of human values, and that is the main reason for him to develop a social interest.

EVIDENCIA DURA / HARD EVIDENCE

Tomé en cuenta los estudios que llevaron a cabo las universidades norteamericanas de Ohio, de Texas, en Austin, de Dakota del Norte y Metodista del Sur, comprobando que el ejercicio de la creatividad visual en torno a temas que los individuos y sus comunidades consideran más importantes en sus vidas, descarga emociones positivas que reducen los síntomas de artritis reumatoide, optimizan el sistema inmunológico,- incluyendo el recuento de células T, que neutralizan las células cancerígenas y al virus del SIDA-, incrementan la resistencia a enfermedades como el resfrío o la influenza, reducen los síntomas de stress, bajan la presión sanguínea, equilibran las pulsaciones cardíacas y mejoran la salud en general. /Creative activity causes our brain cells to release neurochemicals including endorphins. These neurochemicals reduce our sensation of pain and cause our immune systems to function better, improving our ability to respond to illness.
Neurochemicals also signal the body to send blood to area affected by the illness or injury. This blood provides both nutrients and immune cells, including T cells, killer cells that kill cancer cells and the AIDS virus.
Right now published reports of creative expression as a healing tool consist mainly of anecdotal evidence (stories about clients), but they have been convincing enough to spark a rapidly growing movement among many medical professionals to include the arts in treatment for illness and injury. Medical researchers have devised and are currently conducting more scientifically rigorous studies of the arts and healing.
The results are beginning to come about the benefits of visual arts and writing as a healing tool. According to studies conducted at Southern Methodist University, Ohio State University, University of Texas at Austin, and North Dakota State University, creating art appreciatively about events people find most important in their lives and the emotions they trigger:
• Reduces symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and asthma.
• Boosts immune system functioning including raising T cell counts
• Increases resistance to minor illnesses such as colds and flu
• Decreases symptoms of stress, including lowering blood pressure and heart rate
• Reduces the number of visits to the doctor and days missed from work
• Improves general physical health
As more research is completed, we will have a more precise understanding of exactly how creativity heals. In the meantime, there is no question that giving our mind images creative expression promotes healing of both mind and body.

ARTE PARA SANAR / ART TO HEAL

Tras varios meses de investigación sobre las experiencias que la Universidad de Durham y de la Clínica del Comportamiento de la Universidad de Harvard desarrollaron, además de los resultados obtenidos por Marcela Valdeavellano, fundadora de ARTERESPONSABLE en las comunidades intervenidas en España, Chile y Costa Rica, coincidimos en que la potenciación de la creatividad incide directamente en los cambios biopsicosociales que puede experimentar una comunidad. La expresión creativa no sólo sana la mente, es también una poderosa herramienta para sanar físicamente.
Otros estudios tomados en cuenta, fueron los que llevaron a cabo las universidades norteamericanas de Ohio, de Texas, en Austin, de Dakota del Norte y Metodista del Sur, comprobando que el ejercicio de la creatividad visual en torno a temas que los individuos y sus comunidades consideran más importantes en sus vidas, descarga emociones positivas que reducen los síntomas de artritis reumatoide, optimizan el sistema inmunológico,- incluyendo el recuento de células T, que neutralizan las células cancerígenas y al virus del SIDA-, incrementan la resistencia a enfermedades como el resfrío o la influenza, reducen los síntomas de stress, bajan la presión sanguínea, equilibran las pulsaciones cardíacas y mejoran la salud en general.

/Recent advances in psychological, medical, and physiological research have led to a new way of thinking about health and illness. This conceptualization, labeled the Biopsychosocial Model, views health and illness as the product of a combination of factors including biological characteristics (e.g., genetic predisposition). Behavioral factors (e.g., lifestyle, stress, health beliefs), and social conditions (e.g., cultural influences, family relationships, social support), seem to be the core of wellbeing.
Researches of Durham University and the Behavioral Clinic of Harvard University, agree that Creativity is one of the major busters of positive changes over biopsychosocial factors in a community. The results that Marcela Valdeavellano got working coaching through art in Spain, Guatemala, Chile and Costa Rica (Punta Islita's social responsibility project was designed by her), werealso taken into account. Marcela leads ARTERESPONSABLE and she is a partner of VIVIRARTE,

QUÉ ES ENSAMBLAJE/ ART ASSEMBLAGE

•El ensamblaje es una forma de escultura compuesta de objetos “encontrados” arreglados de tal manera que crean una sola obra.
• Los objetos que se juntan pueden ser orgánicos o manufacturados por el hombre, todo califica para ser incluido en un ensamblaje: pedazos de madera, piedras, zapatos viejos, latas, llantas de automóvil, fotografías, partes de computadora, etcétera.
•Generalmente se usan objetos comunes o fragmentos de ellos para crear una composición abierta.
•Cada objeto se puede interpretar por separado, pero forman parte de un todo integrado. El ensamblaje reúne muchas veces escultura y pintura.
•La naturaleza y composición de este arte es similar al collage, aunque éste se define como bidimensional y el ensamblaje es tridimensional. /

In the visual arts, any three-dimensional work of art constructed of various, and often unusual, materials, or found objects. The term was first used in the 1950s by French painter Jean Dubuffet to describe his collages and figures created from pieces of wood, sponge, paper, and glue. Junk art refers to three-dimensional assemblages constructed solely of waste and discarded materials, that is why is a sustainable environmental friendly activity.

RURAL COMMUNITIES AND INTER-ENTREPRENEURIAL LINKING

VIVIRARTE is a proposal where community participation and inter-entrepreneurial linking play an important role, as in the case of Foundation Tayutic in Turrialba, which calls for a local strategy in keeping with the context and a sound overall view of the social reality. We need to prioritize the self esteem of the community members, based on their day-to-day experience, traditions, family stories and imagination, rather than on community needs. This will guarantee the co-responsibility and sustainability of future programs. It will also prevent the fragmentation of the whole situation, which often occurs when programs do not take the target population sufficiently into account. This fragmentation occurs when objectives try to institutionalize community needs and the goals focus on a statistical proposal instead of on the individuals who make up the population.
The community, families, and individuals who form part of the target population,
should be considered in the process of intervention as subjects, not objects. The persons should be considered as integrators of the program, thinking subjects with unique feelings and ideas, and not as passive objects of intervention and recipients of the proposals and the good will of external subjects. It is of the utmost importance to achieve a horizontal relationship between the
Communities and wellbeing, in this case.-

VIVIRARTE es además un programa que no sólo beneficia a las comunidades rurales sino también al programa ROCHE VIDA, a los ministerios de salud, cultura, turismo, educación y desarrollo de las latinoamericanas porque:
Arroja información fidedigna sobre el estado general de las comunidades intervenidas.
Ofrece una visión cercana del estado de salud y de la riqueza cultural de sus miembros.
Ofrece información sobre el imaginario colectivo y la influencia de la comunicación de masas.
Crea buena voluntad en el público en general
Da a conocer el sitio masivamente, al convertirse en noticia, para generar visitas que se traducen en beneficios económicos para la comunidad intervenida.