Since 1994, the Department of Creative & Festival Arts (DCFA) has embarked upon a programme of public education, entitled Arts-in-Action (AiA). The brainchild of former Heads of Department, Dr. Dani Lyndersay and Mr. Rawle Gibbons, our programme seeks to extend the work and mission of the DCFA into communities and institutions throughout, in the first instance, Trinidad and Tobago, and subsequently the Caribbean region. The philosophical basis of our work has been that the arts have an indispensable role to play in the process of social and attitudinal change and development.
Today, AiA is recognised as the leading Applied Creative Arts Company in the Caribbean Region. We have coined the term Applied Creative Arts (borrowing from Applied Theatre) to explain the ways in which we specialize in using creative and performing arts disciplines (e.g. theatre, dance, music, visual arts, storytelling, spoken-word, Carnival Arts etc.) in developing educational content for a wide range of audiences. As a self-funded, not-for-profit unit, AiA draws on the expertise of its members, who are lecturers, facilitators, students and graduates of tertiary programmes at the University. Celebrating our Silver Jubilee in 2019, we have completed well over 6,000 interactive performance workshops and Educative Theatre plays across the country, the Caribbean, the USA and the UK, approaching pertinent societal issues for overa half a million participants.
From primary and secondary school interventions to community workshops and corporate boardrooms, AiA uses arts-based techniques to treat with issues ranging from Change Management/ Professional Training to HIV / AIDS Awareness and Violence Prevention to School Curricula. The company’s vast experience working within a social development/public education operational framing has forged it into a unique social response vehicle. Also, AiA’s commitment to gender and youth advocacy; a project gaze which marked its genesis; has made it into an effective first-responder in the fight against:
- Gender-Based Violence (GBV)- Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG),
- Child Abuse/Child Sexual Abuse,
- Youth Crime,
- Youth Violence.