Developed by artists, for artists, ARCS consists of three main components:

• Training in transforming conflict

• Guidance in co-creating a community agreement

• Exploring challenges to & techniques for self- & co-regulating inside the creative process

The program can be tailor-made to your project, program or organization to include some or all of these components.

TRAINING IN TRANSFORMING CONFLICT

Here we look at what conflict is, how it starts, and how it escalates, with the idea being that anyone who can identify these elements has a better hope of redirecting energies towards the generative ground of creative disagreement. Needs inevitably clash in group projects, particularly such exposing group projects as making art, where often we use our own selves as the raw material. And yet, we generally regard conflict as a roadblock to be avoided at all costs. Here we offer tools to reframe conflict as the connective tissue of collaboration and community-building; a porthole to a deeper understanding of one another. This learning is both informational and experiential, with embodied exercises designed to build a shared language and skill set in diagnosing, working through, and ultimately transforming conflict. 

GUIDANCE IN CO-CREATING A COMMUNITY AGREEMENT

Here we facilitate the process of inventorizing individual values, identifying emergent themes across these values, and distilling them into a handful of easily remembered and repeatable guideposts for the whole group. Being intentional about values at the outset of the collaborative process lays the foundation for the actions and behaviours that will be normalized by the group, and enables us to transcend habits with more mindful choices. 

EXPLORING CHALLENGES TO & TECHNIQUES FOR SELF- & CO-REGULATING INSIDE THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Here we look at what happens to the brains of actors as they identify more and more deeply with a character (or fictional first-person perspective), and strategize means of supporting one another both in and around the work. We look at the material at hand, and discuss together what content may require extra care when handling, and how to share the responsibility of employing that care. We look at how to keep collective values alive and integrated into the process, instead of receding out of view as the work gathers steam.

ARCS has been facilitated in professional rehearsal rooms, for arts administration teams, and in theatre schools and arts training institutions. ARCS’ core goals are to transform feelings of fear and inadequacy to radical curiosity and kindness, and to reframe the awkwardness in screwing and/or speaking up as a vital and caring commitment to working through moments of difficulty with authenticity and compassion. 

If you think ARCS may be right for your rehearsal, admin team, or organization, please contact us to learn more. 

Read a discussion with Amelia Sargisson about ARCS (formerly spelled ARKS) in Psychology Today magazine.