Implementasi komunikasi pembangunan partisipatif oleh Liberates Creative Colony dalam membangun ekosistem kreatif berkelanjutan.

Abstract

The development of the creative arts ecosystem in Indonesia continues to face the challenge of severe infrastructural disparities between metropolitan centers and satellite regions. Observing these inequalities within the satellite regions of Central Java and the Special Region of Yogyakarta (DIY), the Liberates Creative Colony (LCC) initiated efforts to address the issue by organizing collective community-based creative programs and events. This study aims to examine how LCC implemented participatory development communication in its efforts to build a self-sustaining creative ecosystem in Central Java and DIY during the 2019–2024 period. This research employs a descriptive qualitative method, utilizing in-depth interviews and document analysis for data collection. The data were analyzed using Bessette's (2004) Participatory Development Communication (PDC) model, which emphasizes the cyclical process of diagnosis, planning, intervention, and assessment. The findings indicate that the implementation of participatory development communication by LCC operated through a cyclical mechanism of four interconnected, sequential program phases: Ace of Decades, Arisan Warisan, Jala Skena, and Lintas Kultura. The core message of LCC's programs centers on the empowerment and development of the art activist community by facilitating creative classes and providing performance platforms. In practice, LCC utilized the evaluation results of completed programs as the catalyst for the diagnosis phase of subsequent programs. Active participation was evidenced by a consistent trend of participant involvement carrying over from initial programs into subsequent ones. Grounded in the cultural adaptations present within the community, LCC implemented the overarching phases of the PDC framework by efficiently and effectively tailoring the detailed stages. This study concludes that LCC successfully activated a network of creative art activists to serve as social infrastructure, thereby compensating for material limitations. Ecosystem sustainability was achieved not merely through event organization, but through capacity building, which has proven effective in cultivating new local actors equipped with autonomous and empowered collective initiatives in their respective regions.