In February 2006, the National Museum of Mexican Art opened the groundbreaking exhibition The African Presence in México: From Yanga to the Present. The exhibition was accompanied by two sister exhibitions – Who Are We Now? Roots, Resistance, and Recognition, and Common Goals, Common Struggles, Common Ground – as well as an eight-unit curriculum for middle and high school students and a bilingual catalogue. The exhibitions enjoyed a five-year international tour of the United States and Mexico with related civic dialogue and other public programs.
Profiles - Projects
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New York, NY
In 2001, the late poet Sekou Sundiata conceived The America Project as a shared contemplation of the United States' national identity, its power in the world, and its guiding mythologies. The project has encompassed a series of public engagement activities designed to build bridges between campuses and communities, artists and scholars, and educators and activists to engage the public in thinking critically about issues of citizenship.
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In response to the polarizing political divide in our country, artist Ariana Jacob is touring the United States, inviting conservative and libertarian people to talk with her about their own political perspectives. She seeks to gather a better understanding of both their beliefs and her own, as an idealist with socialist leanings and a penchant for questioning herself.
Baltimore, MD
The Baltimore Art + Justice Project is dedicated to laying the foundation for advocacy and collaboration, between and among local artists and designers, arts organizations, community-based organizations, advocates, and funders working to promote social justice in Baltimore. By facilitating dialogue and data collection, that Baltimore Art + Justice Project is enabling the city of Baltimore to identify and better understand its art and design based social justice assets.
Philadelphia, PA
Lily Yeh is a global artist who is fueled by a belief that art is a human right, and that artists can create a foundation for profound social change. Slight of frame, but large in spirit and vision, the 70-year-old artist was born in China, lives in Philadelphia, and now, as constant traveler, the world is her canvas. After seven years in the making, filming is now complete. We have raised significant funds from foundations including CHG Charitable Trust, The Philadelphia Foundation, New Path Foundation and Compton Foundation. These funds have allowed us to complete a rough edit.
Alexandria, VA
CAMMO fosters and nurtures the musical talent of veterans and active duty service members by providing them with opportunities to train with professionals, to record, and to perform. CAMMO brings veterans together with industry experts and helps them work toward career opportunities they might otherwise never connect with.
New York, NY
To invite The Forum Project's Performance Troupe to your community, group or classroom, please email info@theforumproject.org.
Our Peformance Troupe has been working hard and is ready to take the stage! This performance will showcase several of the Performance Troupe’s scenes that engage audiences in critical dialogue about important social issues. Come ready to be entertained and challenged!
Dearborn, MI
This year’s seventh graders – 12 and 13 years old – are the first Americans to grow up with no memory of time before the searing events of Sept. 11, 2001. As the country approaches the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks this fall, a class of middle school journalism students from McCollough-Unis School in Dearborn invites the public to share the stories of their lives and their community by viewing an exhibition at the Arab American National Museum. Of the 29 students in the public school class, 28 are Arab American.
Philadelphia, PA
HUNGER, PHILADELPHIA is a site-specific, three-phase project.The piece draws from the use of kaolin (a kind of clay), which is used within various cultures for nutrition in the absence of other food sources and examines hunger from a global perspective while responding and contributing to the local community hosting its art-exhibition phase. McCracken draws attention to the need for nutritious food sources for indigent populations within our own community and educates youth about proper nutrition.
Venice, CA
The mission of the Institute for Photographic Empowerment (IPE) is to support the study and practice of participant–produced documentary projects in photography, film, and digital media.
The Institute is a resource for people from around the globe—photographers, filmmakers, academics, researchers, and project participants—to share ideas, learn from one another, and develop the field.
New York, NY
The Laramie Project is a play created by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project in reaction to the brutal 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. In what is widely believed to have been a homophobic hate crime, Matthew Shepard was kidnapped, beaten, and tied to a fencepost, where he was left to die. The Tectonic Theater Project traveled to Laramie a month after the murder. Over the course of the next year, company members conducted more than 200 interviews with residents of the town.
Indianapolis, IN
The Lynch Quilts Project is a community based effort, which examines the history and ramifications of racial violence, especially lynching, in the United States of America through the textile tradition of quilting. Join us in weaving a new future towards memory, community healing and social justice - past and present.
San Francisco, CA
The Media Project is organized by The Culture Odyssey, an organization that supports the creative practices of Rhodessa Jones and her Co-Artistic Director Idris Achamoor. The project creates performances for womens prisons that are intended to serve as a method of rehabilitation and awareness of what their lives are like behind bars. Jones created this project to show the public how women are treated during their time served and the feelings they have about themselves and the outside world.
Milwaukee, WI
The Penelope Project uses the story of Penelope from Homer’s Odyssey to engage an entire long term care community in the creative process. Its goal was to improve the quality of life of people who live, work, and visit in a long term care setting through creative engagement. Discussion groups, movement exercises, visual art, stories, and music were at the heart of this multi-year project that culminated in 2011 in the performance, FINDING PENELOPE, a professionally produced play written by Ann Basting, inside the care facility.
Georgetown, TX
The Purple Heart Integration Project is developing “America's Purple Heart City” in Georgetown Texas.
Washington, DC
A Sojourn Theatre collaboration with Georgetown University led by Sojourn artistic director Michael Rohd, The Race was a series of public events, investigations, performance dialogues, reconstructions, and productions that spanned the fall term 2008. In the 2007-2008 school year, a team of Georgetown University faculty, students and artists, led by guest artist Michael Rohd, assembled and began to ask the questions that set in motion the planning for the campaign that is The Race.
Launched in 2004, this multi-faceted program deals with the grief of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and offers education, development, and hope for life in the future. Working with genocide survivors in the Rugerero District near Gisenyi, Barefoot Artists has completed a beautiful Genocide Memorial Park which has become the official memorial site for the area. We have launched a number of programs to transform the physical and human environment of the Rugerero Survivors’ Village through art, health, community, and economic development initiatives.
St. Paul, MN
The State of Things was first performed in the spring of 2006 on the 3rd anniversary of the Iraq war. On September 1st, 2008 in collaboration with Northern Lights as part of the UnConvention, Ligorano/Reese recreated The State of Thing’s Democracy ice sculpture, weighing over 1,000 pounds and measuring 5 feet high and 20 feet wide, in front of the State Capitol Building in St. Paul, Minnesota. Over the course of the less than 24 hour installation, the word “Democracy” tragically disappeared.
Chicago, IL
The TIF Illumination Project (http://www.tifreports.com), which uses data mining, graphic visualization and community organizing to investigate and explain TIFs on a ward-by-ward basis in a wholly new and user friendly way. We helped organize and presented at a TIF Town Meeting on February 12 at the Chopin Theater that was attended by over 220 people!
Austin, TX
The Trash Project is a dance that was created in collaboration with the City of Austin Sanitation Department Named the #1 Arts Event by The Austin American Statesman, the #1 Dance Event by The Austin Chronicle, and winner of Most Outstanding Dance Concert by The Austin Critics Table, The Trash Project celebrated Austin’s sanitation employees while drawing attention to the inherent artistry and skill in this work. The dance premiered in 2009 and was re-mounted in 2011 for an audience of 4,000+.