cheap art

excerpts from peter's "cheap art" pamphlet turned pdf courtesy of jackie. (she always has such good timing.)

especially interesting to me after watching some clips from boys of baraka again in urbanism. and even though i've seen it at least 5 times, it still managed to piss me off. and leave me feeling a little helpless. i don't know. it's just so huge. stephanie plugged a mural project to the class afterward, and out of my own mental frustration with the limits of art, and without filtering, i gave her the "it's just a mural" card. which i immediately regretted. in these moments of doubt, i need to see the value in just moving, even if it's doing something little and even if ultimately the impact is a drop in the bucket. (and i'm trying to look at these hypocritical points of intersection and realize the factors/philosophies at conflict there.)

those excerpts were also interesting in context with the pyramid atlantic book arts fair that i went to this weekend. and the dichotomies that kept coming up, like: genuine/forced, interaction/isolation, high/low art, elite/everyday, accessibility/cost, open/closed. in the middle of a day of looking at all of these artists books, some thousands of dollars and requiring gloves to hold, there was a lecture about the democratic multiple in book arts. it was a nice break. (not to be a snob or anything, but i liked probably only 3% of the books there. the rest? not very innovative or fresh. awkwardly designed. extremely narrow audience. somewhat inconsequential subject matter.) the presenter asked for "something beautiful for free" or at least a "cheaper than chai price point." and challenged how much of the stuff they make was just advocating the art form. (hmmm...) it was interesting. maybe i was expecting too much of the artists book world. maybe i'm forgetting that this is already accomplishing something by being an art that moves from the museum wall into the (washed) hands of the people; that in itself should be enough of a departure, but it can never leave that language completely behind.

interestingly enough... the coolest part of the conference was finding this van out back that housed something called the "floating lab collective." (they were doing a banned books project.) i was so impressed. if that doesn't legitimize "community arts", i don't know what does.

great halloween lantern parade

a picture from the great halloween lantern parade this weekend. a pretty cool spectacle of community and costumes and lights in patterson park. (oh, and stilt walkers.) nana projects has been holding workshops for the past month or so (which have pretty much taken over tara's life as a cap intern...) and anyone can come construct a lantern out of tissue paper and bamboo to carry in the parade. i guess i don't really know how baltimore does halloween, but it was cool to see something focused more on creativity and less on getting candy.

visionary thinking

today i took a group to the american visionary art museum (part of my little "museum a month" series as a program manager.) they had just opened their new exhibition, "the marriage of art, science, and philosophy." and after being blown away by the last one ("all faiths beautiful") i was a little disappointed. the things that were so engaging before, like the wall text in particular, seemed to only be re-canned (the fonts were exactly the same), just with different content. i was able to get some awesome quotes. but, unfortunately the experience felt like nothing new. (i hold my praise for innovative exhibitions that flawlessly combine the two.)

spending less time at that exhibition did, however, give me the chance to venture over to a building of the museum i had never looked in before. upstairs was a small installation about jim rouse, a maryland urban planner. seeing this social visionary among the artistic visionaries shown in the rest of the museum (outsider art, obsessive compulsive creations, prison art) was a suprise. and much more up my alley. a social visionary, as defined by avam, champions and furthers what is best about being human. that simple. that huge. i sat infront of this wall text and copied it word for word. i love when i find a "manifesto" like this that says so much in such a straightforward way.

1. expand the definition of a worthwhile human life.
we must hold fast to the realization that our cities are for people and unless they work well for people they are not working well at all. as the peopl of the world learn what is possible, they will demand that their cities be geared to the humane and the beautiful.

2. engender respect for and delight in the gifts of others.
surely the most civilized city would be one in which the dignity of the individual human being would be so elevated that the bringing forth of his gifts and talents for his own fullfillment in the service of man would be the ultimate objective.

3. increase awareness of the wide variety of choices available in life for all - particularly students.
approach the world out there confidently, optimistically, with brilliant expectations. it is a world full of exciting opportunities beyond anything that you can imagine. i envy you your futures. pay no heed to the no-sayers, the preachers-of-gloom, and the heavy hearted who see the world dismally.

4. encourage each individual to build upon his or her special knowledge and inner strengths.
thus, the most important single fact is that we have in our hands the opportunity to make our city - in our generation - the most livable, the most beautiful, and the most effective city in america.

5. promote the use of innate intelligence, intuition, self-exploration, and creative self-reliance.
the best way to attack any problem is to ask what things would be like if they worked.

6. confirm the great hunger for finding out just what each of us can do best, in our own voice, at any age.
the way to find new opportunities is to discover needs or yearnings of people that are not being satisfactorily met. the way to prosper is to do that well.

7. empower the individual to choose to do that something really, really well.
for many years i have worked with the conviction that what ought to be, can be, with the will to make it so. may we rise up in this country in an army of thinking that this job aught to be done, can be done, will be done.

-the seven educational goals of the american visionary art museum, with wisdom from jim rouse.

i finally met with mike patterson on friday to share my leadershape project/vision. i mentioned it briefly before, but never really explained what the thought was. here it goes (this is from my leadershape "breakthrough blueprint"):

i want to create a future where mica students and baltimore communities are connected. where students are challenged to break the mica bubble and bridge the gap between art for arts sake and art that makes things happen. i plan to implement a program (using the "finding baltimore" foundation elective as inspiration) that gives the entire student body the opportunity to explore a batimore neighborhood in three stages. 1. visiting the neighborhood/debriefing the experience. 2. developing a plan of action. 3. returning to the community and implementing something that initiates change.

that's my project. distilled to its simplest elements. there is a lot more that i won't get into right now. before i could let myself start to really pin it down and putting it on paper, i was kept getting hung up on branding. what the heck do i call this? how do i sum it all up? the first idea out of mike's mouth? "studio baltimore." and that's it. perfect. i feel like things are ready to come together. especially after stumbling across the above words at avam. and getting an email from donaghy with this link to ideo's design for social impact guide. and finally sitting down to watch the wire last night. i'm excited to start fleshing it all out.

good timing for a fall break...

ps. here's a little glimpse into my crazy color mind. why orange? it's the color of my dorm walls in the gateway. the color of the post titles on this blog. the color of the couch in the wire. it's the color of the crab in the new baltimore logo. it's part of the extended palette of the new mica logo. and it was my class color in high school.

cities + creatives

i've been thinking a lot about that combination (cities + creatives) lately. it helps having urbanism, to kind of ground and perpetuate this thinking. and i find myself doing even more bouncing back and forth. baltimore and detroit. (our first day of class a slide was shown of the demographics of detroit and the surrounding area. it was stark. black and white.)

i sat in on a discussion group this past week with the maryland state arts council (there was free food) and they asked us to reflect on various things... mainly our most pressing concerns and things we would like to see happen in our communities. and i realized that baltimore is doing so many things well. artscape is a three day long celebration of arts, claimed to be america's largest free public arts festival. organizations like art on purpose, the creative alliance, school 33, and baltimore clayworks are popping up all over. and part of that is driven by the mica led community arts movement and graduate students participating in the newly created masters of art in community arts (maca) program. most of our major musuems are free. (baltimore musuem of art, the walters, etc.) the baltimore office of promotion of the arts (bopa for short) has allowed for an increased emphasis on grant giving and public art making. they spearhead programming initiatives like free fall baltimore.

& then i came across this really interesting article from back home (by way of an urban planning website called planetizen.) i love that after the mess kwame kilpatrick has made of detroit, someone can stand up and say that a solution to standing back up as a city might be more abstract, that art has validity beyond just image, that attention to aesthetics can seep into the subconscious of a community and build its confidence.

here's an excerpt from that metro times piece, called "wake up the neighborhood."

"Reading that reminded me that I love Detroit because of all you Ferdinands (cheval) who live here. You view buildings as vessels rather than "developments." You appreciate Detroit not just because of what it used to be or could be, but because the city has a special power and you feel plugged in. That's what you capitalize on. You recognize that far too many of our architects and urban planners — supposedly creative thinkers — are dreaming up lofts and paving over green space. And in the absence of globally minded government leaders, you consider artists visionaries. You literally take matters into your own hands, rebuilding your home or your neighborhood. In the scorched earth, you see potential for life to flourish again."

the picture above is from a guerrilla art effort in detroit. (called "disney demolition") abandoned buildings were suddenly getting coated with this pumpkin orange paint. and the thing is, it didn't take long after they got this face lift that the city finally reacted and demolished them.

block party

it seems like forever ago that i sat in a starbucks with donaghy and rapidly took these notes when discussing baltimore and ambitious and unformed plans for a block party.



on monday it happened. and it was amazing.




we kept it simple. and all the elements came together just right. we hung all of our houses (well over 200 now. we've stopped counting) on the clothesline installation we've always dreamed of. the way we meant it to be displayed when we formulated this vision last fall in finding baltimore. parkhurst set up a tent with hot dogs, hamburgers, garden burgers (you can't forget where we're at...). mount royal choir came and kicked it off. e the poet emcee and his entourage of rappers and beat boxers and poets infused the entire thing with energy and honesty. and the simplest concept of all, we set up a table covered with art supplies and cloth and cardboard houses, and asked mica students and community members to add their creation of community to the clothesline. make a house, get an ancb button. and a cookie.



what makes community arts really work is supporting an idea with the right combination of people and place. i can't think of a better place to have done a block party. now it seems like that space in front of the meyerhoff was made for it. nothing is ever really done there, but there was an ample amount of grassy space, lots of railings and lampposts for hanging clothesline, a consistent amount of traffic (mica students going to their dorm or to the dining hall, kids walking home from school, and community members passing by.) kids from the better waverly art club came. a kid that had made a house when we had a table set up at the walters last friday. (he was me & tara's favorite. he asked us if it was alright if he put an alias on the back of his house. he was like 6 years old.) and the group of kids and their teachers from our most recent workshop last wednesday in patterson park. paula walked over with some maca students. my elements teacher katherine came for a bit. chuck the madd-ox, e's beat boxer, brought his little boy. a lot of the kitchen workers came out and made houses. and so many of the little neighborhood kids got sucked into the chalk and couldn't be torn away. it was pretty cool to see them all come. it was really just such a good, fun day.



(it was not an easy task at all to edit 700 pictures down to the ones you see here. i'm working on uploading them all to the ancb website.)

two kinds of art

things are well under way with the newest project from mica's exhibition development seminar: beyond the compass, beyond the square. something that could not have been anticipated: all the controversy surrounding the enclosing of mt. vernon place, the exhibition site, with 7 foot tall gold chain link fence as art. reading the conversation on local blogs, the baltimore sun website, and the artists website (goldchainlinkfence.com) has been fascinating.
i'm on the fence (pun coincidental) about this one. i'm for an art that shakes things up and changes perceptions. but i'm also for art that makes a positive impact. and this is temporary. years from now, baltimore will maybe remember the hype, and this mica kid will probably be showing in a chelsea gallery. he's getting what he wanted. (except for, i would assume, the being called hitler or getting spit at part.) imagine, though, if he had decided to max out his credit card on improving another area park. could it still be art?


meanwhile, adjacent to this mt. vernon installation in the walters, there is a true display of inspiring community art as part of the maps exhibition and larger baltimore festival of maps. a project called "maps on purpose" (done with a community art based baltimore organization called "art art on purpose.") asked different communities to become engaged in a process of mapping their communities. the result is a special exhibition in a small gallery space that showcases the neighborhood creations, changing every 4 to 5 days to fit all of the places and pieces in. the best part for me was seeing a definition of community art in a gallery space. that was exactly what 100+ community artists were struggling to pinpoint throughout the whole community arts convening. and there it was in wall text, the essence of it all, joseph beuy's philosophy, "everyone an artist."

national community arts convening & research project at mica

these pictures are courtesy of stephanie, who caught right onto the concept of deep dive!

this was the start to my spring break. staying around in baltimore for a few more days (i had no problem whatsoever with that, there's still snow on the ground in michigan.) and volunteering at the community arts convening. there was just so much to process leaving the conference and coming back home, so this post is my attempt to articulate it all...

paula and ken have been busting their butts for this conference since last fall, building it from the ground up. (at one point i asked paula how things were going, and she said "it's a lot of work. but you know what? it's going to happen. because we started it and it's going to happen.") they asked community arts practitioners, students, faculty, and administrators to submit texts. these essays would become the starting point for the groups. categories were: critical pedagogy in the academy, partnerships: campus and community, community practices: values, belief, and aesthetic forms, and community arts and artists. and a hint from ken? they're all about the same thing... from there the conference attendees spring boarded into conversations, sharing, lots of questions, and lots of dancing. there were three things guiding it all: 1. where have we been? 2. where are we going? 3. how will we get there?


fred lazarus opened the conference. (donning a curious neck brace...) his support was very important for me to hear. it became clear that the prominence of community arts at mica is not to be taken as an accident, he reassured me that it is very purposeful. he addressed the many quid pro quo pieces of community arts and shared his own frustration with learning that the institution is always a support player in baltimore. but he called on us to continue to refine what we do and professionalize it. professionalizing is not a bad thing, he put it. and that was evident throughout the entire conference. it was classy. and i loved when he mentioned that for so long the conferences were about convincing each other that what we do is valid. we know that, he said. now it's about telling those who aren't here, engaging the community.

stephanie and i were volunteers. observing the conference with fresh new eyes and from outside of the structure of being in groups. for usit was really all about just soaking it all in. there was so much to be gained from just being able to sit and read the abstracts and take notes and talk to each other about it all, going endlessly off on tangents.


during one chunk of time, sitting at the registration table, i grabbed a book from a nearby table titled: "undoing the silence: six tools for social change writing." i liked it a lot. caught up in the world of the "visual arts" is easy to forget that it is not always the right medium for the message. sometimes you just gotta write. i thought to myself, "there is a reason why i picked up this book." i want to write a book. and i've got to believe that the author, a college aged activist during the free speech movement, knows what she's talking about when she asserts that the written word drives social change for the long haul. i started to think of writing that makes things happen. what about "common sense?" talk about writing that started a revolution.

i also had my own little revelation sitting there. i realized that i chose to come to an art school because i had these ideals. it was a leap of faith and a surrendering to the signs. but in all honesty, if i had come here and not been shown cap or not been placed in the "finding baltimore" class, i wouldn't have lasted. i would have worn down quickly, clinging on to my vision for design that can save the world as i battled upstream among artists contempt with art for art's sake. i would have shifted my focus elsewhere. maybe i wouldn't have even known that something was lost. or it would have frustrated me under the surface and deposited doubt that maybe, just maybe i should have played it safe at lake forest. but after having all of the opportunities i've been given this year, one of them being able to crash the conference as a freshman, i have the reassurance that there is an undercurrent going in the same direction.

so why community arts?
(a compilation of words working to articulate this abstract thing we call "community arts." things i underlined in the texts or wrote down as they were shared in conversation.)

because "my ego dictates that i do something that must make a lasting impact."
because "the academy's preoccupation with aesthetics - the unquestioned 'arbitrator of rightness' and aligned schools of thought - may not serve the community' interests well enough."
because "we are visionaries. pulling the world as it is into the world it should be."
because "we're all really just making this up as we go along."
because of "the unwavering faith we have in people."
because "who else will urge its brilliant color to jump forward, not stopping until all is made anew?"
because "no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it."

defining community arts

i was asked a few days ago by a france merrick scholar to answer questions for a cap profile of sorts. the france merrick scholarship is a chance for juniors & seniors in cap who apply and receive funding and support to create their own community arts program. this student decided to create a cap awareness exhibition, featuring student work and profiles to increase cap exposure on campus. it was good timing. since being introduced to the whole community arts concept when i came to mica, i've been working on hatching out my own standards and meaning as it relates to the concept of community arts. i use the word community art, but that is just a term. there is too much there for that label to ever be adequate. it was something that was starting to become a disappointment to me. like i remember getting so frustrated at workshops with other cap interns because they couldn't see. they were all still just wrapped up in writing lesson plans. they didn't recognize the potential the program has for greatness. but i know it's there. and when i listen to paula and fletcher talk, or see it in action with projects like ancb (a neighborhood called baltimore), i am certain of its power.


here were the questions and my answers:

Do you do CAP? Where is your site?

last semester i worked with ms. pan's second grade class at mount royal elementary school. my partner and i worked really closely with the teacher to think of projects that would apply art to their curriculum, things like a fall pigments book made with leaf rubbings or a paper mache globe for their mapping unit. this semester i hope to be working with hannah baker, a france merrick scholar, on her pen pal project connecting a baltimore classroom with a classroom in her home state of connecticut.

What is CAP to you? Or why do CAP?

cap to me is so much more that the term "community arts" could ever describe. it just doesn't do it justice. it's bigger than lesson planning and painting murals. there is so much potential in this movement towards making art with a purpose. art that inspires, provides an outlet for creativity, prompts social change, solves problems. the possibilities are endless. i do cap because i could never be satisfied as a mica student separate from the community around me. or as an artist not using this medium and creative energy as a method of making a difference.

What is community to you?

community starts with mica. but it doesn't stop there. we are part of a bigger equation that we are responsible for. i believe that baltimore is one of mica's biggest assets, and vice versa. community is recognizing that connection and then beginning to blur the boundaries between people and place.

What are the rewards in your participation?

the rewards is walking though mount royal elementary and knowing that i have a personal stake in the school. it really is a two-way street. you set out to bring something to a community or classroom, but end up leaving with so much yourself.

What are the challenges?

seeing students who are perfectly contempt with staying in this mica bubble and making art all the time. it's sad. there is more to this college experience than assignments and critiques. (shock!) i wish students would realize that and begin to stretch themselves even further.

What would you like to see changed in the CAP program at MICA?

i would like to see things get bigger. i would like to see awareness and understanding of community arts increase without being seen as blatantly community arts. that part will come. just get out there and start doing stuff. i think it will begin to penetrate into many more areas, and become something seen less as a separate entity, and more of a mentality across campus. i would like to see increased involvement. student apathy is no longer acceptable. i believe that students want to help, they are just looking for a way to do so. more opportunities to get out and see baltimore, and start thinking of ways that we as artists can begin to contribute to a better quality of life.


and something else i've been working on for a while now. a community arts manifesto. i am a sucker for those things. it's compiled in the style of bruce mau. i've just been cutting and pasting things as i come across them or jotting them down when something suddenly makes sense. i considered doing this for my final project in my cap class, but i like that it is totally in progress. there's no way i could know everything there is to know about community arts now. it's a much longer, more organic process of discovery.

my community arts manifesto (in progress):

1. Everyone an artist. Joseph Beuys. Art is a teachable skill. And when people are given the tools for creative expression, anything can happen. We only need to gather the courage to express our creativity.
2. Art is a basic human right. Everyone should be guaranteed the ability to make art. In prison. In inner city schools.
3. Art is not a privilege. It is not something that should be reserved for the elite or for those with a visual art or art history background.
4. Culture concerns everyone. By the time of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies in 1970, cultural ministers agreed that “We must get rid of the idea that culture is a learned and refined pursuit for a hereditary moneyed or intellectual aristocracy. Culture concerns everyone and it is the most essential thing of all, as it is culture that gives us reason for living, and sometimes for dying.” (Augustin Girard, Cultural Development: Experience and Policies (Paris: UNESCO, 1972) 22.
5. Find the art in the everyday. Optimism is a premeditated mentality.
6. Rock what you got. Adequate resources have not been available to underwrite this kind of work. Don’t let lack of funding stop you.
7. Do no harm. The most fundamental rule of community arts.
8. People first. Design second. Community-based art is as much about the process of involving people in the making of the work as the finished object itself.
9. Collaborate. People are immensely important to every part of community arts.
10. Make it a two way street. Make sure each party leaves better off than before they met.
11. Don’t forget about yourself. Incorporate your passions and interests into projects. They will provide meaning and motivation to fuel your process.
12. Challenge social realities. Find what is broken and use you skills to fix it.
13. Let the message make the medium. Use whatever you need to get your purpose across.
14. Process over outcome.
15. Evolve. There is always something better. Leave the stereotypical comfort zones of murals and after school crafts behind and re-define the genre.
16. Shift the standards of success. Evaluation of community art is on a whole different sphere than critique/criticism of fine art. Recognize that and make your own measurements.
17. Solve problems. The typical art world doesn’t provide artists with enough
situations where you think of people’s needs first and foremost.
20. Serve. Look first at what a community needs. Then begin to think of what you can bring to the table.
21. Blur Boundaries. Use the medium of art to connect ideas and people that would otherwise remain detached.

and finally, some other community arts resources:
art on purpose
artist placement group
banner neighborhoods
community arts network
mica cap website
mica community arts convening

a neighborhood called baltimore

mounting a major exhibition the same day i pack and fly home? yeah, that means i start loosing things (like my id, grant receipts... mind.) and that i had to give up a little bit of control. that's a big deal for me. i couldn't make my way down to the enoch pratt free library central branch (where we are having our first a neighborhood called baltimore exhibition!) and still catch the shuttle to the airport. so i really have no idea what this thing looks like. i must really trust these people. (we all go to art school so i don't have to worry about anything too horrible happening with the curation.) and really, all the pieces are in place... so i am sure that it will be absolutely amazing!

i did the a neighborhood called baltimore project with ms. pan's class today, too. it was our last class with them... so we had to give them a little something. we made little mica art sets with a mini sketchbook, 3x5 canvas, and brush. & inside the sketchbook we wrote: "we loved making mica art with you! keep creating! love, miss. madeline and miss becky!" ms. pan invited us to come back next semester whenever we wanted, so i hope i get the chance to work with this group again. they were so great... and we were really able to challenge them! it was a perfect fit for me and good introduction to mt. royal elementary. i feel like i have more of a stake in it now, and it's not just a building that i walk past everyday to get to class. there are now 15 second graders in there that i know and love.

cap crit

i don't think any of us had any idea at all of what we were getting ourselves into when we selected "finding baltimore" as a foundation elective. i could not have foreseen finding paula and fletcher as mentors. finding other students with the same passions and drive that i have. finding a need within myself to seek the truth in baltimore. and also finding how i can speak my own truth as a member of the community. finding a way to immediately impact the dynamic of the neighborhoods we visited with the "a neighborhood called baltimore" project. finding a whole new leadership lexicon and mentality. finding myself in the middle of what is truly a community arts movement. finding countless reassuring examples of art that is truly making a difference.

it was so neat to see everyone share their growth from this class in a culminating project: johanna's examination of food as a social gathering conduit, maria's "skinny white girls" clothing line, ellen's organic "planting of the seeds" in labeled jars for each neighborhood, lauren's huge neon yellow "aware" on the front of the brown center (right next to the "bullet hole") and her "driving drawings," stephanie's performance paralleling cap and faith, tierny's knitting club project in brooklyn, sarah's broken glass self portrait and map of baltimore, alder's illustrations and poems, anna's banner of journaling and words, meg's "give and recieve" hands installation, emily's honest stream of conciousness, maggie's warm fuzzies, and the other maggie's "holding hands in a circle" pictures.

i can already feel that not having this next semester will leave a big void to fill. i'm going to have to make sure that i am replacing the energy that was coming from the class in other avenues. like the mount royal elementary + mica portrait collaboration i've been working on with katherine. and trying something new for tier two of my cap internship. and, of course, everything "a neighborhood called baltimore." really watching it explode. and the great thing is that now, all of this comes together under my new role as arts and education program manager with student activities. (like today in class i started thinking and talking with fletcher about how baltimore is presented during freshman orientation, which was through a charm city "slide show." i remember that clearly. not only was the powerpoint itself weak, but there was just something off about the whole thing. my mind started going a mile a minute... why does it have to be "charm city?" why can't it be "a neighborhood called baltimore." that's the mentality we need to be presenting to incoming freshman.)

i know i will keep soaking it all in and growing and connecting the dots. that is really what this college thing is all about. i can't compartmentalize and keep these things separate. (even though i am an organizational machine.) it was too hard to come back from a neighborhood tour and switch back to making conceptual art for assignments. and it will be too hard to contain this experience in one class. it is now ingrained into who i am as an individual, and just as importantly, an artist. whether i realize it yet or not, every choice i make in the rest of my classes at mica will be influenced by the revelations that have come from the "finding baltimore" experience.

i am going to miss this class so much! (can you say community arts concentration?)

bluest light

here i am knee deep in finals, completely lost for 3 out of 5 classes. not sure what the next step should be for elements, or how to get my message across for emac, or even where to begin for drawing. but cap... i got that down. i actually have too many ideas. what's great about this cap final is that it is individual, and it gives you the means to reflect & process it all. so much of cap is community and people based, it's important to not forget about yourself in it all. and not to loose sight of who you are as an artist. and for me that means strong ties to scrapbooking.

it starts with this white canvas monochromatic collage approach. i've had this idea in my head for awhile... something simple and stark, with a blue light in the middle. for my cap final i'm planning on extending it into a series. because it just so happens that the blue light was distinct from my brooklyn experience, and in my cap journal brooklyn is the blue section. (yes. i color code everything. roland park=red. brooklyn=blue. east baltimore=green. reisterstown=yellow. those colors tend to then seep into your subconscious and represent your memory of the experience and then how you would share it visually.) & i've also wanted to make an altered newspaper for awhile. i'm not sure what would go in it yet, but i know that the front page will have "daily intelligence" stamped on it in big, bold, all caps. i think there will be a way to combine the two together.

and another thought on my mind... cap needs a manifesto. and you know how much i love manifestos. i could totally do one. really, what is community arts all about? what are the guidelines and goals and things that connect every manifestation? this might be more of a long term project, something that i keep referencing and adding as i continue with cap and channel my inner bruce mau.

turn off the lights

yes you. right now.

now think: what would your life be like without art? if your parents never gave you art supplies when you were little. if you never had an art class. if you never had a teacher that believed in you. if you had never been to a museum. if you didn't have a creative outlet.

they did that little activity today at the cap workshop: "life of a france merrick scholar." it's deceptively powerful. i couldn't help but tear up a little. that is why i do cap. you can never underestimate the power one simple art project can have in a kids life... whether it's an self portrait, a book about fall pigments made with leaf rubbings, or a paper mache globe.

public spaces

last week my cap class visited reisterstown plaza, which is actually a mall that, despite being "baltimore's biggest enclosed shopping center," appears to have seen better days. fletcher asked us to investigate lots of things about suburban gathering places & how they impact social behavior: plaza/mall design- is it comfortable? uncomfortable? beautiful? ugly? is the bottom line consumer needs or could there be possibilities for other cultural needs? is it a community space? malls have become such an integral part of our society, and aren't going away anytime soon. in the cap context you are need to go beyond complaining about their role in perpetuating consumerism, and start looking at the possibilities inherent in such a space. i hit the jackpot when i googled "mall as a suburban gathering place" and found the project for public spaces website. so interesting. that to me is community arts. why not? they are using design for social change, and have been very successful so far. the more i delve into this huge, abstract thing we call community arts, the more i realize how far reaching it is.

so pumped.

a really cool thing mica is doing now is "black panther: rank and file." it includes films every tuesday in october as part of free fall baltimore, an exhibition (which opened today & i can't wait to see), and a two part symposium tomorrow. the first segment is called "aesthetics & revolution." because it's during the day they are expecting mostly mica students to come. the big superstar panel, "community & revolution" is later that night, and they are hoping that the audience includes more members from the baltimore community at large.

it sounds like it is going to be totally up my alley... just another perspective on how art can be a catalyst for change. and sometimes i agree that sometimes the best way to change things is to be radical. and to aim for things others find impossible or ridiculous. my favorite piece in the exhibition is titled "we wanted to be", by daniel joseph martinez. it stopped me dead in my tracks when i first saw it through the glass doors while it was still being installed. because it is all text, a perfect display of vinyl letters and kerning. it reads:

we wanted to be radical brave pioneers we considered ourselves to be a vanguard we overestimated ourselves ridiculously indulging in the illusion that a revolution was thinkable in the federal republic in this light we were self-timers who acted cut off from reality in a void we live a sort of armed existentialism.

stationery for social change.

my cap class went back to east baltimore today. a neighborhood called baltimore was off limits, so this particular "implementation." was a group effort. we decided on each bringing postcards or cards, pre-made or blank, and using them as tools for social interaction. the concept with the cards was giving people an outlet for expression through our art. they could do with it as they chose... hang it on their wall, write a letter to city council, send it to an old friend, whatever. i was really into these once i got started (obviously, they involve letter stickers.) we decided that northeast market would have the most potential. everyone has to eat.

fletcher had some wise words about gathering spaces: "i don't always know what is going to happen, but i make things happen." i guess i'm not at that place yet. i'm still held back by my own over-analyzing and self-consciousness. obviously, the hardest part of the card concept was confronting someone. how would i know that they want to talk to me? but if i waited for someone to approach me, how would they know that i want to talk to them? see... there i go with the over-analyzing. i put stamps on every card thinking it would motivate me to make sure i gave them to people. no such luck. i gave one away the whole day, and it was in exchange for one of those "deaf education system cards." so my plan now is to use them when it is not so planned.

i'm not giving up on the idea of them, i think i'm just realizing that they aren't necessarily universal. i knew it would be hard. any time you share your art, you place yourself in a vulnerable position. i'm glad this class is giving me the opportunity to work all this stuff out in my mind.

good stuff.

paula shared with us today a brochure from the village of arts and humanities in north philadelphia that she got yesterday. very cool. an example of community arts at its finest. good to know that kind of thing is out there.

side note: it's weird that i saw that philadelphia trip posted in cobalt soup... it was a "city planning" tour for some class, but they had extra room on the bus. i put it on my ical and considered missing work study because i was intrigued by it. i regret not going now... totally proves that if something moves you, allow yourself to be pulled by it.

graphic design and a bang up time

"certain people get their energy from problems they bring to themselves. they become sculptors, painters... other people get their energy from solving problems that others bring to them. they become graphic designers. " - chris pullman

the baltimore musuem of art held a super cool symposium tonight called "design for community" as part of the free fall baltimore series. i had been looking forward to it for awhile... (and it was a much needed pick me up after spending the morning getting pieces of glass removed from my feet. long story... but it involves my shoes coming off while in a mosh pit at the gogol bordello concert. gypsy punks bring out a rough crowd.) this event was a chance to hear about graphic design in action, from a perspective outside of MICA and CAP. (even though everything said totally related to both... & reaffirmed my purpose here.)

it was so refreshing to see 5 designers setting the bar high for the design. there tends to be an assumption that the general public is unsophisticated, and graphic designers should lower themselves to their level. the designers presenting could not have been better examples of the fault in that generalization. each project they undertook was prompted the needs of others around them, and they evaluated what their design talent and passion could bring to the table. i don't think enough people use that process in their professions.... "what does the community need?" and "what can i do to make it better?" why can't the carefully selected font of a subway installation or clarity of composition in a census redesign contribute to a community?

i was giddy the whole night. it was just a fun, happy atmosphere. those are my kind of people.

check out some of their work below...

sheila levrant de bretteville: new york a train terminus
wendy brawer: green map
sylvia harris: information design strategist
chris pullman: WGBH boston
mark randall: worldstudio foundation, the urban forest project

a neighborhood called baltimore

this is the project i've been working on in my community arts class for awhile now. today i actually saw the project come alive. we went back to maree garnette farring elementary in brooklyn to work with pre-k, kindergaten, first grade & second grade art classes. our prompt was "where do you live?" to which the immediate answer was "baltimore." that is the power of the project. the concept is so simple, but you need the clarity of a child to see it. it was such a powerful experience.

check out the "a neighborhood called baltimore" website for more information... and lots of great pictures that were taken today. the pictures say so much about what it was like to be there... so much color, energy, so much the kids had to share.


(using my michigan hand to show a kid where i was from. "is that in austrailia or something?" he said.)

the project will be growing in lots of different ways for the rest of the semester... exploring other venues outside of schools and really starting to look at how it will all come together at the end.

brooklyn

my cap class toured brooklyn today. we were instructed to travel in groups of two (less likely to be approached for prostitution) & not to engage people on park benches (probably drug dealers), because, as fletcher put it: "this is not roland park." with that being said, i had a lot of expectations for the experience. i was surprised. (even though i'm finding that i'm not very good at detecting when people around me are under the influence.) it's easy to say that area is depressed and help is needed. but even that conclusion after spending a day there is lacking sensitivity to the people there. that is their life. and with cap you are always an outsider.


being the hopeless optimist i am, i always look for something to grab onto. a glimmer of something good amid a shitty situation. i found that in the elementary school there. they were so welcoming... & so excited to participate in "a neighborhood called baltimore." the staff is fortunate to have what they do. they made the environment a bright, fun safe haven for the kids to grow and learn. the vice principal took us around and showed off every room, every group of kids. i can't wait to go back and actually work with them and see what they create.


the art teacher there was great. (we found out she was a former mica/johns hopkins student... it has got to take a certain kind of motivation to be so young, just out of school, and willing to commit to teaching in baltimore, living off of a teacher's salary.) my favorite thing was her piet mondrian project with the pre-k kids. so cool. it is so important that they are able to have art classes and be creative... that isn't always a standard with inner city schools. the kids may never remember who piet mondrian is or doing a cut paper assignment when they were 6. but maybe when they are 16 they'll remember the power art had to allow them to escape from whatever was going on at home. maybe they'll grab construction paper, glue, and scissors instead of turning to drugs. maybe...

taking the blog off the back burner

this blog has definitely been on my back burner... there is so much that i want to say & document, but it's suddenly getting harder to find time. which sucks. because i've been going through the past few days with all of these crazy big thoughts in my head, and what i need most is to sit down and process it all.

yesterday was a big day for me.

i went back to roland park with my cap class for the implementation stage. in response to our first visit (and our interest in the schools there in particular) we developed a project titled: "a neighborhood called baltimore." i was so excited... a chance for me to create something from the ground up in a totally new place & actually put it in motion and see what happens. it's the closest thing i've got right now to what being part of avondale student leadership last year was for me. i'm talking project planning, fun design stuff like logos & t-shirts. totally up my alley. but doing it here at mica has forced me to reevaluate it all. here i was shoving project planning and "smart" goals down everyone's throats. maybe it's the overall idea of those tools that needs to guide me. the project planning piece is a comfort zone for me. in high school it allowed me to be independent and anal and a perfectionist. understandably, the community arts mentality is more organic. good. i shouldn't lock myself into a structure. i should let go. (i love how that keeps coming back up. such a good guiding philosophy for me right now. it definitely helped me in drawing last monday when fabienne told me to "let go.") what happens when i shove those methods out the window and allow something to develop naturally? i guess i'll see.

the best part about the roland park trip was having one on one time with fletcher. i love that man. it was the first time since i've been here where i've had someone be completely honest with me about baltimore and mica. i sat soaking it all in until the mica shuttle came back and we had to leave. the conversation started with the latest baltimore newspaper report of six people being shot & killed over the weekend. add that to the number of homicides in the city since january 1, and you get a whopping total of 223. (i've been here for more than a month and it's the first time i've heard that number. the power of the mica bubble. and the ability of people to filter what they want to know. i thought it was interesting that the naacp is asking people to post the number on a note card in their windows.) it's understood that the crimes are mostly drug related involving black youth. (there was a kid at the gatehouse monday night who was curious about why we were cutting out cardboard houses. he was genuinely interested. and expressed how important he thinks cap is. he's a baltimore native... and frankly stated that he considers baltimore to be a third world country. he'd been to colombia and seen the drug trade there. and he said it was hard not to see similarities in the two locations. yes, it's extreme... but at least he wasn't so wrapped up in making art that he became completely apathetic to what is around him. i want to talk to that kid again.) how does it get to this point? fletcher explained it simply... as a perpetual frustration & complete lack of hope. hope doesn't fit into the hip hop culture. how do we fix this? i know it's not an easy question at all... that's why i'm still bothered by the conversation and my mind's still racing. (i'm frustrated that assignments are getting in my way. i hope it still means something when i actually have time this weekend. why is it always that i get going on stuff like this and something pulls me back? like having to study like crazy for calc after meeting jennifer granholm.) but the most promising thing to come out of the conversation was the realization of the power that art has. the only thing is it needs to connect with other realities. fletcher was honest in saying that he has no faith in the political machine. but he does have faith in community. which reinforces my hope that community arts has the potential to be a powerful tool for impact in baltimore.

by the way (if you couldn't tell from the picture above) i'm still drowning in post it notes. and it's still a good thing.