Camphill Solborg is an anthroposophical, intentional community north of Norway’s capitol, Oslo. Camphill communities were originally founded to sow “seeds of social renewal”, where people with and without disabilities co-existed in everyday living. For my Leadership in Action Project, I found Camphill Solborg to be a deeply meaningful and safe space to practice and expand my skills. To reflect on my experience, I will examine the development of the project’s goals, objectives and outcomes.

My research interests primarily orient themselves around how arts-based methodologies can be utilized to empower voices from marginalized communities. As I explored through my research last year, it can be contended that arts-based methodologies contribute to epistemic justice. This year, I aimed to develop my leadership skills by designing and facilitating an arts-based project in Camphill Solborg. Providing alternate forms of expression in a therapeutic, creative manner, would arguably contribute to generating more empowerment within the community. Furthermore, I was looking to understand how leadership takes form in an environment built on Camphill’s egalitarian ideals. Consequentially, I hoped to expand my pursuit towards ethical styles of leadership.

To achieve these goals, clear objectives were set out. Upon my arrival, it became pertinent to gain a deep level of understanding towards the values, culture and structures that shaped the communities individual and collective experiences. As such, I spent my first week building rapports with the villagers (residents with a disability) by sharing meals and working alongside the villagers and co-workers (residents without a disability) in their biodynamic garden. In building these initial rapports, I developed an understanding of the challenges and needs of their lived experiences. Consequentially, an appreciation of the pertinence in shaping objectives around what the villagers expressed they needed, rather than one’s own perception of what. This became central to designing the project.

By attuning to the villager’s needs, grief emerged as a central theme amongst the villagers. Alongside a loss of a resident within the community, residents were experiencing grief from co-workers that were ending their one-year working contract, as well as the closing of the farm which was described as the heart of the village. After identifying this theme, it became pertinent to utilize the shared knowledge amongst the co-workers to design a project that suited both the abilities and needs of the villagers. By presenting the remits of my project in various team meetings within the community, I actively listened to workers that had years of experience. From this, I designed a project oriented around making a social tree sculpture where the various parts of the tree were framed around the dual processing model of grief. The tree would represent the villager’s lived experiences of grief, which in turn could be used as a therapeutic tool and space for residents to share their experiences of grief in an inclusive way. With this, I learned the value of amalgamating a diversity of skills of the community one works with to tailor one’s remit.

In facilitating the groups, I aimed for the experience to feel both therapeutic and empowering for the villagers. To execute these properly, the importance of effective communication became central. As the villagers had individual weekly schedules, and needs, I had to place them into small groups spread across the week. To organize this, coordination with both villagers and co-workers became of central importance. As Camphill is built on rhythmicity, scheduling in a new and temporary part of their routine has to be done flexibly and respectfully.

As the weeks progressed, the remit of my project inevitably changed. Initially, building the tree was designed to act as alternate way for the villagers to process their grief. Given my limited experience and time in using techniques from grief therapy towards people with learning disabilities, I realized that this may not be a realistic goal. Rather than a space to process their grief, the tree became a medium to which they could express their grief. As some villager’s experienced speech impediments, the tree became a way for them to express feelings around grief that transcended verbal communication methods. Alongside this, an instruction manual was created to inform co-workers and visitors of Camphill how to understand the different parts of the tree. As a result, the villagers had created an art piece that empowered their experiences of grief that may have otherwise remained silent and misunderstood. The ability to adapt and attune I developed through this process, arguably permitted me to gain a deeper understanding towards what ethical leadership is truly about. Namely, being able to reflect on one’s own limitations, and the importance of using shared knowledge within the community to achieve meaningful change.