Dancing Rabbit's task is to create a model of an ecologically sustainable lifestyle. We're growing food organically, creating fossil fuel alternatives, and building homes ecologically. We are also looking at social factors that can make a community sustainable, such as structures that support 
local businesses and create a truly democratic process of decision making. Will our experiments, buildings and institutions last? Will they inspire? Will people remember them? I certainly hope so. But there's something else that is equally important in modeling a new culture: art. Unfortunately, creating, viewing and experiencing art is often considered leisure activity, something to be done only after someone's "real" work is completed. For a pioneering community like Dancing Rabbit, which has its work cut out for it, nurturing the arts could become a low priority.
Well, I'm happy to say that this is not the case. Art both defines and represents a society's culture. From the sculptures at Easter Island to the music of the 60's, from Greek theater to Native American dances, art has been created for and by people to provide a framework for and an understanding of their own lives. It has been a personal and community expression of beliefs, concerns, humor, and everything else that is fundamental to life's experiences. This is one part of what makes art so important in our lives, that it reflects and expresses the meanings of our own lives. This alone would make it a worthwhile pursuit at Dancing Rabbit. Art, for many of us, is a basic part of enjoying our lives, and we won't be much of a model if we aren't happy.
Art also represents a culture. Learning about another culture through its art can often create an emotional connection to that culture in a way that academic or bureaucratic texts never could. We have tried to define Dancing Rabbit's structures and institutions in a way that will best support the culture we are trying to create. Some people are inspired by our ecological ideas, but others are inspired by our dreams of a new culture. The beauty of a painting, for example, comes in part from the fact that it expresses what cannot be expressed in words. The world we are trying to create is something beyond what we are able to state in our written vision. As we create art that is born out of the Dancing Rabbit experience, we will be providing an important communication tool for letting the world understand what we are about. As the United States is generally entranced and excited about art from other cultures (as in the above examples), Dancing Rabbit's art could become the entryway for many people to learn about more sustainable lifestyles.
Dancing Rabbit has always had a healthy arts culture, from musical jams to puppet shows to impromptu dances around the kitchen and more. This year, we're digging our artistic heels in a little further. One of the new internships we're offering this year is an artist in residence program. We're excited about supporting artists who are doing ecologically focused work, and about fostering artistic expressions of life at Dancing Rabbit. With any luck, it's a program that will grow over the years. Also, this spring, I'm planning on setting up an art studio (albeit a modest one) in one of the sheds. My hope is to set aside one night every week for group studio time open to any who would be interested. Whether it's for an individual's personal fulfillment, the enjoyment of the community, or the reaching out to the wider world, this work will be crucial to making Dancing Rabbit a fine home.
Intentional Community Bookstore