Common Circles: Addressing Violence Through Art invited multicultural organizations, community members and various artists to explore issues related to violence against women and families. The project artistically explored the ideas behind the four virtues of the Circle of Courage and basic needs of Perceptual Control Theory, which include: independence/freedom, generosity, love and belonging and mastery/self power. Through the workshops, the outcomes and learning experiences were brought together to create this creative workbook for schools, organizations, victims, and others to visually empower, educate and bring awareness to the prevalent issue of women and violence.
This project began as a series of workshops conducted by a four Saskatchewan artists, and took place during July and August of 2008. These workshops used the creative process and artistic creation to discuss and approach the topic of violence against women and families, allowing participants to explore, heal, learn, talk, listen, share, and visually represent their experiences and ideas around the topic of violence in a different way. Each workshop focused on one of the four themes and was facilitated by a different artist and utilized different media. There were approximately eighty participants who took part in the project.
The overall objective of the Common Circles project was to bring awareness to prevalent issues concerning violence and abuse, while providing an outlet for participants to use creativity as a new “voice” of those issues and how they have affected each person’s life. Our objectives were to create a safe environment, encouraging the process of creativity, encourage relationship building, and provide informational resources and links for the project’s participants and partners.
