Community of Practice
Image by tonyhall
A project has begun at my local arts centre called ‘Camden Communality Conversations’, with the aim of meeting, talking and keeping the garden healthy.
The galleries are empty but one or two people are sitting outside drinking coffee and eating croissants. A gallery worker sits in the garden drinking a mug of tea and reading a book, a young boy races across the grass, stops to look at a toy car left on a log, and races off again, a couple of long-tailed tits squabble in the Acacia tree, and next to the raised garden Ilana Mitchell is watering the vegetables.
How do communities come about? How should they be sustained? How do we hold on to our conversations? What role does learning need to play in sustaining communities? These are some of the questions I want to explore. Ilana introduces me to a couple of books; On Dialogue by David Bohm, and, Conversations Before the End of Time by Suzi Gablik. I make a note to check them out … and contemplate the idea of Flickr offering some answers in relation to sustainable community conversations!?
As I cycle back down Finchley Road heads turn as a cackling Ferrari flashes past me and grinds to a halt at the traffic lights next to the Holiday Inn. Opposite, people stream into the o2 centre to eat at one of the half dozen restaurants, or drink in Witherspoons and tears come to my eyes as the hay-fever and pollution clash.
(2698) Community of Practice, Communality, conversation, Camden Arts Centre, NW3 6DG, Garden, Learn, Cafe, The Everyday, Ivan Illich (infed), convivial, tools, camera, Paulo Freire, dialogue, sustainable learning communities,
