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Community building through the arts

ROYAL OAK – Do you ever feel like you spend more time in front of a computer or a television than you do interacting with people in your community? Do you feel that the arts play an essential role in life? Do you wish you could just take a week out of your life and devote it to personal growth? Are you tired of hearing the phrase "celebrate diversity" without feeling like anyone actually does?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then there is an event in June that just might change your life.
Royal Oak artist and psychotherapist Stephen Fleck, MA along with national leaders Alice Rutkowski, PhD, RMT and Susan Herrick, MA are bringing Finding the Gold in Diversity, a week-long hands-on workshop focusing on personal growth and community building, to Royal Oak June 21-26.
This isn't your ordinary workshop according to Fleck. "Instead of a traditional lecture format on diversity the workshop is more experiential," he said. "It's going to be hands-on doing the expressive arts to explore what diversity means to each individual."
The workshop will explore participants' creative sides. "It's based on expressive arts," said Fleck. "During the week people will be doing some imaging or drawing, some creative writing, some movement and we'll be doing other experiential exercises," he said.
Fleck stressed that the workshop is open to anyone of all skill levels, regardless of creative talent or experience. "It's not set up for people who are professional actors or dancers," he said. "The people who do come are just every day people who are interested in personal growth, they don't have to have any artistic or movement background."
During the workshop the leaders sequentially walk participants through. "In other words, we don't put people on the stage and say,'Do something,'" said Fleck. "That's not how it works. There are sequential steps to how the process works. So even if you're shy we would welcome shy people because we would see that as a gift. We give everybody space to be themselves."
Fleck would like to see the participants as diverse as possible in everything from age to race to sexual orientation. "I'm attempting to get as many as 100 people of different backgrounds," he said, "and to see the glass as half full, see our differences as a positive and what we can learn from each other to make the world a better place."
According to Fleck, Finding the Gold in Diversity couldn't come at a more crucial time. Post 9-11, he said, was a big marker for him personally and for the country. "I just sort of see us focused on seeing our differences as a negative or a pejorative versus a positive and I don't like a lot of the solutions our politicians are coming up with," he said.
Fleck said many people are left feeling frustrated and hopeless. "And that's where it started," he said. "[By asking] how can we reverse this in even a small way?"
The workshop is based on the way art was originally used in society. "Art was used originally not for performance sake, but more in a tribal way," said Fleck, "to have a good harvest or have a good hunt and the concept was a group of people coming together and using the energy as a group to look at world peace, how we can grow as a community spiritually."
The workshop is inspired by the work of dance pioneer Anna Halprin whom Rutkowski trained with for over ten years. Rutkowski is a non-verbal communication specialist as well as "a community ritual artist." She has extensive experience working in small and large communities in areas of communication, conflict resolution and creative collaboration.
Herrick will be at the helm of much of the music in the workshop. She is a music educator, singer, songwriter, music therapist, and multi-instrumentalist. According to the workshop web site, "Susan uses voice, piano, guitar, drums, percussion, flutes, and nature sounds to intuitively and sensitively guide workshop participants through their experience."
Fleck has a Bachelors of Fine Arts in painting in addition to his psychology degree. "I'm more of a visual artist: water colors, acrylics, drawing. I have a dance background. I studied dance with the Toledo ballet for many years. And I've always had an interest in art. And as a humanistic psychologist I've always incorporated the experiential and artistic into my practice," he said.
Art is important to Fleck. "I think everybody has a gift and I think one of the purposes for art is that it gives us windows to give more meaning to our lives. Like doctors save lives, artists help us look at ourselves to give our lives more meaning," he said. "It's a way to communicate very authentically."
Fleck believes that with diversity comes conflict, and with conflict comes personal growth. "The conflict that comes into our differences is how we grow as people and the people who embrace this are the ones that grow," he said.
The Finding Gold workshop gives people a unique chance to come together. "I'm creating an opportunity for people to, without judgement, share their life experiences and opinions and in a week's time to hopefully come together and bond and to grow from being with these 99 other people."
The workshop will culminate with a performance for the community. According to the workshop's web site www.goldindiversity.com, "This performance will involve all participants and will be a story told through movement, sound, voice and music. The performance will be bold and engaging for the audience, and no doubt will be powerful and life-changing for the participants."
All proceeds from the workshop will be donated to Gateway Counseling Center, a nonprofit community resource.

{ITAL Save the date: Solid Gold Diversity June 5
On Saturday, June 5 at 8 p.m. at the Broadway Onstage Theatre (21517 Kelly; Eastpointe, MI 48021) there will be a variety show hosted by comedian Jimmy Helberg to raise funds and awareness for Finding the Gold in Diversity. The show is billed as "an acoustic evening of music, fun, friends, and laughter featuring musicians, poets, singers, dancers, comics, etc." Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. For more information call Jimmy Helberg at 586-214-4268 or Jan Olson at 313-864-8237.}

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