Community Arts Sightings: Our Subject Is You, Gumbo

Two public events happened this past weekend that deserve mentioning.

1. Juneteenth Festival- There were a number of Juneteenth events around the Triad this past Saturday and Sunday. Juneteenth celebrates the nineteenth of June in 1865 when the last slaves in Galveston, Texas found out that they were free. Celebrations today usually focus on achievement, education, and the arts.
Derrick Monk and Derek Stallings, two local artists who practice as muralists and have done public art pieces around the Triad were present and did one of the programs they are becoming very popular for in which they rap and paint simultaneously. Unfortunately I forgot my camera and was unable to take any pictures. But you can see them again at Gumbo, the next program the two will be putting on, this Friday night at Krankies Coffee at 9 pm. There is a $5 cover to get in.

2. "Our Subject Is You" at the Weatherspoon in Greensboro- This past Friday citizens of Greensboro were invited to become a part of and participate in several art projects. The Weatherspoon writes that "the artists in the exhibition rely on the involvement of the public in order for their work to be realized." The exhibit features the pieces that were created in the opening and will be up until September 13, 2009- check it out. Hopefully I'll be able to take some pictures of the pieces and post them on the blog.

Serve America Act

Community Arts Supporters-

Earlier this year, Obama signed the Serve America Act, which will expand service opportunities primarily through Americorps and focus on such targeted areas as veterans services, the environment, disaster relief, and education.

The Education Corps includes programs that provide “skilled artists to promote greater community unity through the use of music and arts education and engagement through work in low-income communities, and education, health care, and therapeutic settings, and other work in the public domain.”

Our job now is to lobby Americorps and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) to fully support and roll out this program. There are five potential specialized service corps, and only two can be supported at a time, so please visit the CNCS website to vocalize why you believe the arts are important to education.

There are many strong local and national examples of how the arts create a more fulfilling learning experience and an active environment for students. If you would like to check out a couple to get some inspiration for your suggestions, visit the following organizations.

Manchester Craftsmen's Guild in Pittsburgh

Arts-Based Elementary School (W-S)

Community Issue: Enabling the Aging

Today I'm featuring a program from the culturally rich city of New Orleans that I found while surfing the blogosphere. "Voices Not Forgotten"is a program of the Ashé Cultural Arts Center, which is a neighborhood-focused nonprofit that combines local creative forces to contribute to the revitalization of their community.

"Voices Not Forgotten" is put on by seniors at the Central City Senior Center who regularly do performances around the city that include singing, dancing, and sharing of personal stories.

The reason I draw upon them is that "Voices Not Forgotten" focuses on a marginalized population that almost all of us have a close connection to: the elderly.

Aging parents and grandparents have traditionally been cared for by family members. But as society changes, so do the trends for who cares for the elderly. Now eldercare is often provided by nursing home facilities or in-home caregivers. The 65+ demographic is growing fast in the United States, so this means more and more people cared for in sometimes impersonal settings or environments that may be less personally enriching than that of a home. In addition, the aged sometimes feel that they have moved past their time to think creatively or produce something for the world. This feeling does not have to be the case, as is demonstrated by "Voices Not Forgotten" and the following local nonprofit.

The Center for Creative Aging (CCA) in Greensboro provides arts-based programs for the elderly. These programs have a number of benefits that I could list off, but I think that the CCA puts it best:

Enabling older North Carolinians to create works that honor their life history and creative vision is a powerful step in validating their very existence. Creative self-expression stimulates thought, provides purpose, and offers a process of healing otherwise unknown.

Here is an example of one of their programs also taken from their website:

TimeSlips - a group storytelling process led by one or more trained facilitators. The program marks a fundamental shift away from focusing on memory and reminiscence, toward encouraging people with memory loss to exercise their imaginations and creativity. Developed by Anne Basting (PhD) in 1998, the TimeSlips Project has generated hundreds of stories that are used to produce plays and art exhibits, and to rekindle the hope for human connection among people living with Alzheimer's and related dementia.

Let us know via comment if you have heard of any other similar local programs. Often churches and other social organizations will have similar programming that isn't necessarily posted on the web.

Ars urbi serviat - Public Art in Winston-Salem: If life is a blank book, shouldn't we put art in it?

Here is a link back to a post from another local blog Ars urbi serviat on an art program that the Forsyth County Public Library is currently promoting.

Ars urbi serviat - Public Art in Winston-Salem: If life is a blank book, shouldn't we put art in it?

The Forsyth County Public Library is kicking off its Summer Reading Program with a public community arts project that encourages kids and teens to "leave their mark" by writing, sewing, drawing, painting, and/or adding photographs and stickers to several bound books put together by library staff. Books can be checked out under several themes including "Memories," "Dreams," "Winston-Salem," "Love," and more.

A vital benefit of public art- why we all want it so much- is that the beauty it produces builds our community. It gives our city a sense of place and its residents a feeling of belonging. These books, though not quite so public, also create a community identity by recording the thoughts, emotions, and artistic expressions of our local residents. This collaborative art project will serve as an artistic expression of W-S in 2009 for years to come. Libraries are such great archives for this type of thing- we should really be thinking more about how we can inject our local community into our library.

Upcoming June Events

ReCycle-ReUse-ReNew- Group Art Exhibit
June 7 – 29 – Marshall Art Gallery – Greensboro
This group art exhibit features unique way “ReCycle “discarded materials. Metal, glass, wood, paper, fabric and more are “ReUsed” to create “ReNewed” art. Participating artist include: Dawn Ashby, Jerry Cartwright, Dian Felder, Lawrence Fier, Ray Martin and Betty Trotter. Join us for the opening reception on Sunday, June 7th from 1-4PM. This exhibit will run through Monday, June 29th.
336-545-8268

OUT at the Movies presents Pedro
June 13 at 8 pm - UNC School of the Arts - Winston-Salem
OUT at the Movies, Winston-Salem and the Triad’s GLBT Film Series will screen “Pedro” on June 13th at 8:00 PM. “Pedro”, written by Dustin Lance Black (”Milk”) celebrates the life of Pedro Zamora, who found out he was HIV + at the age of 17, became an AIDS activist/educator and starred in MTV’s “The Real World”. All of the proceeds benefit the Adam Foundation and UNCSA’s School of Filmmaking.
Cost: $5.00

My Voice – My Vision 3 Day Residential Teen Girls Summit
June 17-20 – Girls Incorporated of Guilford County – Greensboro
For rising middle through high school girls. Teen Girls will take part in a project where girls explore “points of view”. Girls have the opportunity to address many of the issues that we face today and get answers that will help us make good choices in our lives. If you love creating, we will be expressing our views using journaling, poetry, posters, photography and video. Project will end with presentations and a luncheon on Saturday June 20th with Mayor Yvonne Johnson as our guest speaker. Commuters are welcome on Saturday.
336.790.4214

Greensboro 48 Hour Film Project
June 19-June 21, 2009
The 48 Hour Film Project is coming to Greensboro! In a wild, sleepless weekend, you and a team will make a movie–write, shoot, edit and score it. From scratch. In 48 hours. On Friday, June 19, you’ll get a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre, all to include in your movie. By Sunday, June 21, the movie must be complete. It will show at the Carousel Cinema at a screening in the next week.

“Our Subject is You” Exhibition Opening + 6th Annual Summer Solstice Party
June 19, 2009 – Weatherspoon Art Museum – Greensboro
“Our Subject is You” is the first exhibition organized by the Weatherspoon Art Museum to focus on participatory art. The artists in the exhibition rely on the involvement of the public in order for their work to be realized. They form avenues for meaningful engagement within the context of the gallery, inviting museum visitors to contribute to the creation of artwork through social interaction, collaboration, and/or performativity. Artists included in the show are Tonico Lemos Auad (Brazil/UK), Harrell Fletcher (USA), Nina Katchadourian (USA), San Keller (Switzerland), Steve Lambert (USA), Darren O’Donnell (Canada), Sherri Lynn Wood (USA) and Erwin Wurm (Austria). In the exhibition, museum visitors will take part in the formation of artwork and through special live participatory events at the June 19th opening.
336.334.5770

Juneteenth Festival
June 20 - 12pm – Winston Lake Park 3535 Winston Lake Road - Winston-Salem
The Triad Juneteenth Festival will be held Saturday, June 20, at Winston Lake Park from noon - 7:00 pm. Juneteenth is the celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. African American Heritage will come alive through live music, dancing, and drama. Festival highlights include: an opening ceremony, performances, youth activities, history, books artifacts, art gallery, food and merchandise vendors. The festival is free and open to the public.

Project Spotlight: StoryLine

"Sing me that tuneless hum you always sing."

What a line between friends. It's full of comfort, nostalgia, and frank appreciation. This line between Dudley Shearburn and Emily Wilson is just one line from the many exchanges already collected by the StoryLine Project.

StoryLine is a storytelling initiative that works to illuminate the rich diversity of voices in the Winston-Salem community and to celebrate our common humanity. This volunteer-led program uses a mobile recording studio to collect stories from the community. StoryLine believes that listening carefully to the stories of others will hep all people to see their similarities and appreciate their differences. StoryLine hopes the sharing of these stories thorugh radio will create a culture of inclusion in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County in which residents thorughout the community will become more understanding, trusting, and respectful of one another.

This project exemplifies community arts at its best. Community arts projects utilize the arts to tackle a community issue. In a community where studies have been done that show Winston-Salem residents of differing backgrounds often lack bonds of trust in each other, StoryLine works to grow social capital. The stories that StoryLine collects are intended to expose to people of all backgrounds what we share in common-- friendship, family, sadness, courage, adventure, etc.

Another plus of this project is that community members are the creators of the project's contents. StoryLine's recordings are 100% indigenous to Winston-Salem because they come from our residents. And there isn't even an interviewer that guides the conversation. Instead, StoryLine invites participants to share their stories in pairs so that the two can share their memories together rather than answer questions from an interviewer. StoryLine deliberately calls each recording a "conversation" rather than an interview.

StoryLine's 35+ year old mobile recording studio (formerly an ice cream truck) roams Winston-Salem streets while preserving oral history. At the end of the recording, each pair receives a CD recording of their conversation to share their with their families and friends.

So to summarize, we have three things going on: 1. Winston-Salemites gain trust in each other by listening to each other's stories. 2. The creators of the work which we gain this trust from are community members, making each storyteller an active participant in the creation of social capital in Winston-Salem. 3. Local people have the direct benefit of preserving their personal histories through professional studio recordings of their stories.