explore by initiative:
pace
Public Art & Civic Engagement (PACE) Capacity-Building Initiative
This initiative supported the creation of socially-engaged public art in cities throughout the United States between 2020-2023. In distributing funds, providing training, and sharing resources with artists and organizations immersed in their neighborhoods across the country, the PACE initiative strengthens a national network of participatory public art practitioners who put communities at the center of their work. Learn more about the culminating convening of the PACE Initiative: Created, Together.
apano communities united fund
in portland oregon
artist catalysts:
Paola De La Cruz & Lillyanne Pham worked with communities from Orchards of 82nd , a 48-unit housing project and multicultural community space utilized by immigrant and refugee populations that addresses gentrification and displacement in Southeast Portland’s Jade District. They created a mural in the playground called “Drink the Water, Remember the Source”, a Vietnamese proverb uống nước nhớ nguồn, that pays homage to the Orchards of 82nd (O82) matriarch, and recognizes the importance of the space as both a place of play between youth and as a forum for conversation and community between youth caregivers.
Midori Hirose engaged with communities throughout southeast Portland through mapping workshops and seminars. Portland is an area with deep roots for the AAPI communities in the US, and with the Southeast part of the city being the site of historical farmlands and an orchard planted by Japanese immigrants. Through a series of interactive ceramic workshops centered on heritage, storytelling, and cultural connections, participants created ceramic “Furin” bells which were activated in a final installation and celebratory exchange between participants.
louisville visual art
(lva) in louisville kentuckey
artist catalysts:
Jaylin Stewart worked with participants at the California Community Center , a community resource center in Louisville. Through a series of art making workshops Jaylin created a space for healing, relationship building, and having fun. With the goal of promoting representation and honoring the stories of Black and Brown community members, a collaborative mural was painted and installed on the side of the center that featured images of workshop participants.
Michael Coppage engaged with students from the Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville on a series of creative learning exchanges. Students were introduced to figures from the African Diaspora that are less studied in current American curriculums and participated in hands-on art making and photo portraiture sessions that generated imagery and inspiration for the installation at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage .
south side community art center
in chicago inllinois
artist catalysts:
Cecil McDonald created a video collage representing past and present residents of Bronzeville, a historically Black neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. Projected onto the SSCAC’s windows, ‘Metropolis: A City in Black,’ was created by combining images from SSCAC’s extensive archive, abstract city imagery, and portraits he collected throughout six months of events, dialogues, and encounters on the streets around Bronzeville.
Andrea Yarbrough worked from the archives of the Southside Community Arts Center, the oldest African American art center in the country and historic Chicago landmark, to uncover stories and images of Black women from the neighborhood. The artist met with local women from the Bronzeville community to learn and share stories through a series of collage making workshops. This led to the creation of a temporary installation outside the art center that represented a “neighborhood stoop” of past, present, and future history.
