I and the World: Creating an Individual and Common Vision Through Collage

Author
​Anya Hobley
Co-Executive Director, Camphill Communities California
The NAC International Delegate
  
At our most recent NAC conference we took up the theme of “I and the World: Creating Healthy Balance in Community”. This, as well as the key note address given by Jan Goeschel, which focused on our perceptions and impact on the world around us, both helped to guide us in our artistic collage work together.
 
We started the session by looking at a set of values cards, each person selecting one card that resonated with us, then read them aloud to the group. Values selected included themes such as “Conscience”, “Love”, “Empathy”, “Joy” and “Patience”. This exercise set the tone for us to create our own individual collage or “Vision Board” of how we as individuals are striving to cultivate what we value, or a quality we want to grow in ourselves or in our communities.
 
At the end of our time together, every single person in our group came up with their own unique collage or “Vision”. These were later displayed as a visual “Mandala” in the center of the closing circle for the whole conference. The collages were something tangible people could take home with them as a visual reminder of their own individual gifts and capacities to grow, stay balanced, and have an impact on the world.