Paper short abstract:

I examine creative approaches to environmental sustainability by addressing behavioral change through community arts and collective bread-making as a unique therapy already tested in 12 countries and growing through the BREAD Movement

Paper long abstract:

I examine creative approaches to environmental sustainability by addressing behavioral change through community arts and collective bread-making as a unique therapy already tested in 12 countries and growing through the BREAD Movement.I will present observations and concepts on the anthropology of development rooted in my experience weaving the International Council for Cultural Centers (I3C), which is currently the global network of national networks of community cultural centers, among which a particular kind are the BRead Houses Cultural Centers, www.breadhousesnetwork.org, which are now linked in the BREAD Movement: Bridging Resources for Ecological and Art-based Development, employing community arts for environmental health education. I analyze some of the best practices and methodologies through the lense of anthropology of development, food anthropology, and economic anthropology. Finally, I examine some of the most recent developments in the field coming out of the Culture Futures Arts Conference part of the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen and the First Summer School on Arts and Sciences for Sustainability in Social Transformation (ASSiST, www.assist2010.ning.com) that I3C and Cultura 21 organized in Bulgaria with participants from Brazil to Indonesia and 20 countries from 5 continents in August 2010 to develop innovative approaches on integrating art and ecology in community development and in the rising field of action research in anthropology.