What EsArtes is all about

Now, it may seem strange to publish an article on the last few days before finishing this mission, but it at least has the virtue of saying what it was all about being down here for 3 months.

So, here we go ...

Es Artes is a theater-oriented youth-development program administered by a local NGO in El Salvador, Primer Acto.

Its objective: getting a theatre school and a professional theatre group started and running. But that's not all. This project entails building and supporting a sustainable infrastructure, a centre for theatre arts in Central America.

The goal of the program is personal and community development.

The key international development partners in this project are CUSO International and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival Theater in Ontario, Canada. Stratford is here to lend a hand with a series of theatrically-minded volunteers, experts in one or more disciplines, ranging from props to costume design, from sound and lighting to wardrobe. They donate their time and lots of energy and good will to sharing their skills and experience with youngsters in Suchitoto, an idyllic Central American town of more or less 25,00 inhabitants, a quaint colonial pueblo, criss-crossed by narrow cobbled streets, festooned with flowering trees and bedecked with antique houses, an hour’s drive north of the capital, San Salvador.

The idea for the Stratford initiative originated with field workers from the Canadian foreign aid group, CUSO, who were traveling through Central America in the mid-2000s, on the lookout for new development schemes. Since then, CUSO International has sent more than 45 volunteers for various periods of time, ranging from 3 months to over a year. They have supported and trained the local staff of Primer Acto in the fields of administration, accounting, marketing, organizational development, and much more.

But the initiative is not limited to theatrics. The ultimate goal of the Es Artes program is to train and empower future entrepreneurs in the field of theater and the arts in general. To that end, Primer Acto has created a theater school proper, a technical school to provide education and employment opportunities to the youth of Suchitoto, where budding talent can be harnessed into the following areas :

1. theatre training;
2. establishment of a theatre company;
3. vocational skills and entrepreneurship training;
4. social outreach using theatre, aimed at building a culture of peace in the area of Suchitoto and El Salvador

The final goal is that those graduating from the program be able to use those skills or transfer them to others. To create new business opportunities and render themselves autosufficent, professionally and financially. Twenty-seven young men and women have graduated so far and another 80 are expected to enroll in the program this next year. Primo Acte fills a gap in the cultural context of El Salvador, as there is only one other institute in the country that offers such a training, the National Center for the Arts, situated in San Salvador and not easily accessible for youth in the region surrounding Suchitoto.

The young adults Es Artes is targeting are all impoverished youths, mainly from farming backgrounds, who normally would face bleak prospects on their country’s anemic job market. Worse, at least some would be targets for recruitment by the pandillas, or street gangs, that maraud much of El Salvador, running extortion rackets, waging turf battles or winding up dead. Lack of opportunity is what young people in this country are plagued with, leading to economic stagnation, social disarray and violence.

Now in its fourth year, the initiative runs on a bare-bones annual budget of about $100,000, with financial support from very generous donors, Scotiabank and Power Corporation. CUSO International has accepted to administer these funds, which go to the development and maintaining of the program. It has also supported Primer Acto in the adminstration of said funds and in accountability requirements. In a recent fundraising drive, Stratford residents ponied up an additional $17,000 in small donations during a Cabaret held by the Stratford Theater. CUSO International helps with the logistics and pays a modest per diem to each of the Stratford volunteers while they’re in El Salvador. The program’s budget also covers the volunteers’ airfare and underwrites the operating costs of the Es Artes school.

So far in 2013, Es Artes has participated in various activities that has allowed it to reaffirm and maintain its presence in the cultural realm of Suchitoto, El Salvador and internationally. It has held a total of 23 art activities, among which include:

• participation in the University Theatre Festival: for the third consecutive year, it was invited to participate in the National Conference of University Theatre (ENTU 2013). This time it had the opportunity to take the “Popol Vuh”, a traditional and historic work gravitating around the spiritual life of the Latin American people, to the University of Sonsonate. Over 200 students and the general public enjoyed the function and shared their insights during the open discussion forum that followed.
• the VII University Fair in Suchitoto : EsArtes participated in a local college fair by providing alternative educational services and training through the “School of Arts, Media and Crafts”. This fair, which was held at the “Center for Arts and Peace”, involved a dozen or so institutions of higher learning.
• celebration of the 155^th anniversary of Suchitoto: with a series of cultural and artistic activities, Suchitoto celebrated its 155th anniversary. Amongst these activities, Es Artes participated in the famous "parade" of young people on the streets of Suchitoto, expressing various artistic messages of peace;
• celebration of Canada Day : thanks to the Canadian embassy, Es Artes was honored as a special guest. His Excellency, Ambassador Pierre Giroux, stressed the support given since 2009 by the embassy, along with SCOTIABANK, CUSO International and the Stratford Festival.Es Artes had the opportunity to share a sample of their work, Popol Vuh, with the public.
• cultural exchange between Barcelona and El Salvador;
• 7 presentations of the play Macbeth in various cultural settings in San Salvador;
• organization and execution of the 1^st Es Arte Festival of Suchitoto : on December 7^th, Es Artes conjured up a music and arts festival to go along with the patron saints' celebration week held in Suchitoto every year. The Festival included popular music, rap music, dancing, break dance and the presentation of a sample of the « Popul Vuh », created and mounted by the theatrics team of Es Artes. More than a 100 people showed up in spite of the large cultural offer going on in the city during this period;
• Festival Artistico Cultural de las Comunidades : during this celebration of traditional culture in the area of Suchitoto, over a hundred children were able to exhibit their dancing skills in public. This was a result of prior work done by the Es Artes team, dispensed during theater workshops held in 5 local communities with the support of another international NGO, Ayuda en Acción.

All in all, these activities reached an estimated 1800 people.

But that's not all ... (I keep saying that, don't I ?). In fact, the Es Artes program is a multi-layered development initiative : artistic, cultural, social, economic, educational and skills development. All with a slant towards youths and their future.

The young adults implicated in Es Artes are not only learning theatrical and entrepreneurial skills, but also community-centered administrative skills. Because it is actually they who administer the school and the whole project :

• they sit on the board of directors, the acting president is ex-alumni;
• they participate in the « 5 year Development Plan » for the organization;
• they plan, organize and execute the different activities offered by the theater (see above)
• they tour with the props and costumes : the group produced eight shows here last year, including works by Molière and Spanish playwright Félix Lope de Vega.

And that's not all … (OK, I'll stop, but what can I say). There is a very important community development aspect to the program. With local and international organizations, such as Ayuda en Accion, the group participates in educational activities geared toward local, isolated and economically depressed communities, underlying themes such as sexual education, violence, women's rights, self-esteem, all through theater and the arts. They teach kids dancing, acting and other performance arts, thus duplication and multiplying what they themselves have learned. Passing on to the next one …

The program has an even wider reach for Suchitoto. Tourism is an essentiel element of economic development for the municipality. It already has a good infrastructure – some nice hotels, good restaurants – but the difficult economic situation and the competition from outlying areas in the country challenge the region for the necessary tourist trade. Es Arte can become a key player in the development of Suchitoto if it succeeds in creating a quality theater venue for the area. The establishment of a regular theater season with quality plays can change the face of tourism here and participate in making Suchitoto a must-see for local and international tourists.

What remains to be done to complete the dream:

1. develop a complete curriculum for the next teaching year

• find the teaching team (4 teachers with experience in theater, backed by 4 ex-alumni as assistants)

2. train and adequatly support the board members to fully assume their rôle
3. complete and diversify the funding for Es Artes
4. develop other sector of financial development and entrepreneurship for Es Artes graduates

• mask and costume production and sales
• festival (fiestas) preparation and administration (municipalities and private corporations)
• consultantcy for municipalities
• teaching

5. develop stronger ties with local communities by offering them support for their needs in education and training.

And the dream goes on ...