42 in myth, ritual, carnival, festival, street parades, puppetry, feasts, <strong>an</strong>d more. Emblazoned on the side of the comp<strong>an</strong>y’s touring truck is the ‘logo,’ ‘Engineers of the Imagination,’ reflecting their belief that recovery of imagination is a vital partner <strong>an</strong>d precondition of ch<strong>an</strong>ge through more <strong>an</strong>alytical <strong>an</strong>d rational methods. In a world where local <strong>an</strong>d diverse cultures are increasingly threatened by a largely imposed electronic culture, WSI’s mission is to rediscover, <strong>an</strong>d invent new hybrid myths <strong>an</strong>d archetypes, new celebrations, <strong>an</strong>d new <strong>for</strong>ms of protest. Working <strong>for</strong> political <strong>an</strong>d social ch<strong>an</strong>ge in <strong>an</strong>d with communities, these ‘civic magici<strong>an</strong>s’ (Kershaw 1990) underst<strong>an</strong>d empowerment, teaching people the skills necessary to make their own celebrations <strong>an</strong>d protests as part of the comp<strong>an</strong>y’s ‘process’. <strong>The</strong>y have survived on gr<strong>an</strong>ts from arts agencies, local <strong>an</strong>d national governments, <strong>an</strong>d increasingly find themselves in international dem<strong>an</strong>d from local pl<strong>an</strong>ning departments not only to org<strong>an</strong>ize public celebrations <strong>an</strong>d tr<strong>an</strong>s<strong>for</strong>m public space, but also to train local communities in these diverse skills. V<strong>an</strong>couver has its own version of WSI, in the Public Dreams Society (PDS), founded by Dolly Hopkins who, like the artists in WSI, has a background in theater per<strong>for</strong>m<strong>an</strong>ce. <strong>The</strong> PDS brings together artists <strong>an</strong>d the public (at the instigation either of local communities or the <strong>City</strong> of V<strong>an</strong>couver, or both), incorporating art, music, theater, d<strong>an</strong>ce, puppetry, pyrotechnics, street <strong>an</strong>d circus per<strong>for</strong>m<strong>an</strong>ce in the creation of interactive community events like the mid-summer L<strong>an</strong>tern Parade around Trout Lake in East V<strong>an</strong>couver, the cross-cultural celebrations associated with the Day of All Souls, or the First Night (New Year’s) celebrations on Gr<strong>an</strong>ville Isl<strong>an</strong>d. <strong>The</strong> m<strong>an</strong>date of the PDS is to ‘revive <strong>an</strong>d redefine community arts <strong>an</strong>d the role of the artist in the community’ (Brock 2002; Hii 2002). PDS events encourage people of diverse backgrounds to celebrate difference in public arenas; ignored public spaces are re-born; creative impulses are released; fears are confronted <strong>an</strong>d embraced. Communities reclaim the streets <strong>an</strong>d public spaces through these events, <strong>an</strong>d the skills <strong>an</strong>d experiences of individuals are broadened. With a little bit of imagination on the part of municipalities, groups like the PDS, <strong>an</strong>d Headlines <strong>The</strong>atre in V<strong>an</strong>couver, c<strong>an</strong> be even more proactively engaged in working in communities to create events, spaces, <strong>an</strong>d projects that help to bridge cultural divides, encourage intercultural exch<strong>an</strong>ges, <strong>an</strong>d actively engage members of the host society in rethinking notions of national identity <strong>an</strong>d citizenship. <strong>The</strong> ef<strong>for</strong>t of tr<strong>an</strong>s<strong>for</strong>mation at the heart of the multicultural project is, as this closing section has suggested, a necessarily combined ef<strong>for</strong>t on the part of host society <strong>an</strong>d newcomers, politici<strong>an</strong>s <strong>an</strong>d policy <strong>an</strong>alysts, multiple levels of government as well as NGOs. We have suggested both a radical rethinking of the content of multiculturalism as a political philosophy, <strong>an</strong>d a shift of emphasis <strong>an</strong>d responsibility away from newcomers, to the host society itself. <strong>The</strong> challenges posed by
43 multicultural cities require us (members of the host society) to see ourselves ‘from outside,’ to realize that there is ‘<strong>an</strong>/Other perspective,’ to realize that what we thought was ‘natural’ are in fact highly particular modes of thought <strong>an</strong>d behavior that have accumulated over time. New modes of thought <strong>an</strong>d new practices are needed to shift what was once considered as ‘natural’: in this case, some of the outmoded assumptions about identity <strong>an</strong>d citizenship embedded in racialised western democracies (S<strong>an</strong>dercock 2003a). We offer this modest multicultural proposal <strong>for</strong> further discussion.
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