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Profiles - Projects
Looking for a comprehensive list of Projects using the arts to create social change?
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Philadelphia, PA
Living News is a live, theatrical performance that introduces controversial constitutional issues to students, and encourages them to explore their points of view on timely matters of public concern. Three actors present current issues in a dynamic and interactive way, incorporating video, contemporary music, and current news broadcasts. Living News energizes students by including them in discussion throughout the performance, often generating passionate and enlightening dialogue.
Houston, TX
In December 2006, Voices Breaking Boundaries (VBB) established our living room art series, an innovative approach designed to bring art directly into residential communities in Houston. The Living Room Art series was created by artist Oskar Sonnen who based the idea on historic art salons and the less formal living room exhibitions of his college days. The goals of living room art are: to bring together disparate neighborhoods and communities; to bring together diverse populations who may not ordinarily go to a gallery/museum; and to tackle social justice through art.
New York City, NY
September 12 - 23, 2012
The Asian American Arts Alliance’s vibrant, innovative Locating the Sacred Festival celebrates three decades of the community that was forged together and, importantly, breaks new ground. Even in its nascent stages, the festival has been a triumph of community building, reaching out across New York to new partners for uncommon, exciting collaborations.
Seattle, WA
The Longfellow Creek Habitat Improvement Project is an urban creek restoration in West Seattle and is part of a larger effort to restore and protect Seattle's creeks as backyard natural resources. The art project consists of earthworks, waterwise gardens, on overlook, a bridge and a pavillion. These are situated to allow people to discover the creek's environment while maintaining protection of wildlife habitat. The restored watershed serves as an outdoor classroom that illuminates the wonders of the urban creek habitat.
Fairbanks, AK
Looking for Love Again is an interactive public art project that collects residents’ stories and ideas about the vacant Polaris Building in downtown Fairbanks, Alaska. The empty high-rise is turned into an emotional beacon pleading for love while chalkboards at the ground level invite residents to share their memories and hopes. The project helps residents better understand the history and forces that have shaped the area and voice how it can best serve their needs today.
Urbana/Champaign, IL
The Mahomet Aquifer Project, East Central Illinois, informed and engaged communities in East Central Illinois dependent on the Mahomet Aquifer through dance performances, panel discussions, new media, and workshops. Through conversations between performers and scientists Monson developed the choreography with an interdisciplinary approach, creating a multi-layered performance experience that draws the audience into their own understanding of their relationship to water. The movements evoke the forces and flows on the aquifer, ranging from geography and hydrology, to economics and history.
New York, NY
In the run-up to the 2008 presidential elections, Provisions Learning Project organized the public art project BrushFire, an arts initiative showcasing contemporary artists whose public projects engage crucial social issues. Taking place in highly visible public settings around the United States, BrushFire aimed to enrich the environment for public discussion about important social and political issues. Artist duo Ligorano/Reese’s Main Street Meltdown was Brushfire’s final project.
Mapping Baybrook
Baltimore, MD
Mapping Baybrook is an interdisciplinary exploration of place that uses digital mapping to illustrate research on the culture of art and history in an industrial community in Baltimore, Maryland referred to as Baybrook—a merging of the names of two neighborhoods, Brooklyn and Curtis Bay. This community is a mix of diverse but connected neighborhoods located along the southeast coastline of Baltimore City. The Greater Baybrook area includes the past and present neighborhoods of Brooklyn, Curtis Bay, Fairfield, Hawkin’s Point, Masonville, and Wagner’s Point.
Sisseton, South Dakota, SD
In May of 2017, Tracy’s artist-in-residence work was supported by the Sisseton Arts Council and the South Dakota Arts Council. Tracy constructed an art installation at the abandoned 1939 Art Deco Siston Theater in Sisseton South Dakota. The first objective was to create the illusion or a kind of prop displaying a working theater as part of the installation.
Eureka, CA
The MARZ Project is a safe space for youth engaging in healthy self-expression, confidence and leadership skills building, and building a creative and just community.
MARZ Project
Eureka, CA
The MARZ Project is a free drop in digital arts and media lab where at risk youth work one on one with professionals in specific media trades. Anyone in the age range of the project can utilize our equipment and expertise to create projects of their own design including digital or studio arts, music instruments or music production, and video production. Our professional media makers have been trained, not only in how to teach their skills to this age group, but also how to effectively mentor teens and young adults struggling with behavioral challenges, mental illness, developmental delays
Medford, MA
The mission of the MPS Program is to give all Tufts students the media tools and resources that will prepare them for lifetimes of active citizenship and service to society. The Program blends the capabilities of a university-wide civic education initiative and a robust undergraduate media studies program. MPS reaches across the campus bringing Tufts faculty and students together with community members and activists.
Pine Lake, GA
"Life Sentence" is a collection of songs based on the wrongful conviction of Clarence Harrison. Written by Melanie Hammet and Ben Holst, this music is currently available as a performance by Melanie, Ben, and Clarence Harrison, en route to becoming an album of songs benefitting Georgia Innocence Project. Mr. Harrison was exonerated by GIP seven years ago.
Baltimore, MD
The MFA in Community Arts (MFACA) prepares artists to use their artmaking as a means of civic, youth, and community development, or to teach at the post-secondary level. The curriculum provides students with a grounding in theory and practice, while real-world experience integrates independent artmaking with community-based projects.
Los Angeles, CA
The Writers Guild Foundation (WGF) holds an annual retreat for veterans and active duty service members, known as the Military Veterans Writing Workshop. WGF provides an outlet for those returning from war who might be having difficulties transitioning back to the civilian community. WGF’s writing workshop allows service members to work through troubling experiences and mine their creative talent by strengthening their writing ability with guidance from professional screen, television, and novel writers. The retreats host 50 to 60 service member writers and 25 to 30 mentor writers.
Chicago, IL
The urban American landscape is rapidly changing, as high-rise public housing is being demolished and its residents dispersed. Once heralded as a revolutionary design solution to address a pressing housing shortage, Chicago’s public housing structures have rapidly deteriorated, and living standards have become sub-standard. Mixing It Up uses film to explore the redevelopment of Chicago’s public housing.
Chicago, IL
Mosque Alert tells the story of two suburban American families living in Naperville, IL -one Christian, the other Muslim- who find their lives torn apart by a proposal to build a new mosque in their community. Silk Road Rising and playwright Jamil Khoury invite you to join us on a unique journey, a first in new play development history. We want you to become co-creators of Jamil’s new play, Mosque Alert. Through your active participation we hope that you that will influence and assist Jamil as he develops a new play that will be both a work of art and a tool for civic engagement.
Orlando, FL
Mourned and Unmourned is a socially-engaged, interactive art project that was presented at the 3rd Annual Canine Memorial Ceremony at Baldwin Park in Orlando, FL, on April 25, 2015 from 6-9 PM. During the ceremony, community members of all ages decorate paper lanterns in honor of a special dog or dogs that have passed away. At sunset, volunteers in canoes paddle to the middle of Lake Baldwin and gently float the lighted lanterns on the water, creating a dramatic glow against the night sky.
Minneapolis, MN
In collaboration with Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), the City of Minneapolis presents the MPR Sound Point project, an audio cell phone tour featuring recently completed public artworks
and interviews with the artists who created them. The tour highlights a range of artworks, including an artist-designed baseball backstop, a blooming bus shelter and a memorial to the 35W bridge collapse.