>Return to the latest issue of the IAP Newsletter

Every other newsletter we feature the work of a different organization serving an immigrant artist community in New York and beyond. This archive contains a record of past featured organizations, beginning in February of 2010.

Click on an organization's name and date below to jump to that Featured Organization article. Or, simply scroll down to browse through past Featured Organizations.

>08/21/2012 El Nuevo Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (NuMu)
>07/25/2012 New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE)
>05/21/2012 International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP)
>03/27/2012 Flushing Town Hall
>01/24/2012 The Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island
>11/22/2011 The Weeksville Heritage Center
>09/19/2011 El Museo del Barrio
>07/21/2011 Pratt Center for Community Development
>05/25/2011 New New Yorkers
>03/24/2011 Bronx Council on the Arts
>01/19/2011 Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance
>11/23/2010 City Lore
>09/21/2010 Art for Change
>07/20/2010 Cidadão Global
>05/28/2010 Asian American Arts Alliance
>04/30/2010 Chez Bushwick
>04/02/2010 Mano a Mano
>03/05/2010 freeDimensional
>02/05/2010 Center for Traditional Music and Dance

08/21/2012

El Nuevo Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (NuMu)

El Nuevo Museo de Arte Contemporáneo-NuMu-Guatemala, exterior view of Federico Herrero's individual exhibition and pictoric intervention at NuMu, July 2012.

07/25/2012

New Immigrant Community Empowerment

New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) members at a rally to demand backwages from an employer. May 2012. Courtesy of NICE.

New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) is a community-based, non-profit organization that works to ensure that new immigrants can build social, political, and economic power in their communities and beyond. The organization was founded in 1999, when local activists came together in response to racist, anti-immigrant billboards posted by Project USA, in the borough of Queens. Since 2006, NICE has made a permanent home in Jackson Heights, Queens and continues to deepen its connection with low-wage, recently arrived immigrants in the Western Queens region. NICE now has a core of committed members, a growing base of support at the community level, and fully incorporated new structures for member and community leadership. NYFA IAP Program Officer Karen Demavivas and Intern Aya Sato spoke to NICE's Executive Director Valeria Treves about the organization and some important, arts-related projects they have been working on.

NICE works to ensure that new immigrants can build social, economic, and political power in their own communities and beyond. Why is there a need for these advocacy efforts and what are some of the key programs you have in place to accomplish your goals?

NICE works to empower newly arrived low wage immigrant Latino workers in Western Queens, because when marginalized communities are empowered and gain social, economic and political power, we all win; it means that we are a step closer to a more just and inclusive society.

NICE divides its work into four main areas: (1) Worker’s Rights: We fight to end and ameliorate the tough, often exploitative working conditions faced by our members and community base, including rampant non-payment of wage, unsafe and hazardous conditions, and verbal and physical abuse. (2) Financial and Consumer Justice: We work to ensure that new immigrants can assert their rights as consumers and access financial institutions. We also seek to end fraudulent and predatory services targeting the immigrant community. (3) Dignity, not Enforcement: Our work here stems from our vision of a world where all people - regardless of status- can live and work with dignity and justice; we have stood firmly against federal enforcement programs such as Secure Communities and E-Verify, raids, and the mistreatment or abuse of immigrant communities on the part of local authorities. Finally, (4) Civic Engagement and Access: Our goal here is immigrant access to services, and city and state agencies, as well as building power for our base through non-partisan GOTV ("Get out the vote") and civic engagement activities. Candidate education is also key, as candidates should represent all the residents of their districts.

Over the years NICE has transitioned into a membership-based organization with committees that help make organizational decisions. Who are your members and how does membership in NICE help them to mobilize for civic engagement?

NICE has carved out a distinct niche in the Western Queens region and is well known as an member-led organization comprised of newly arrived, low-wage, undocumented Latino immigrant workers who are amongst the most vulnerable and underserved in the community. They are primarily day laborers and other low-wage workers in the unregulated sectors of the construction, restaurant, domestic, nail salon, and other service industries.

NICE’s 2008 transition to membership has allowed us to do our work more successfully and in ways that prioritize the voice and experience of affected immigrant workers. In our Organizing Committees, such as the NICE Worker’s Committee, workers meet every other week to organize around issues of unpaid wages and workplace exploitation. They share their experiences and successful strategies to stand up to abusive employers and and become empowered by learning their rights. NICE’s Working Groups meet on a monthly basis and as needed, to strategize and develop particular campaigns of the organization. For example the Immigrant Consumer Justice Working Group has been busy recently developing a member-led participatory research report on Immigration Services and Employment Agencies, and developing outreach and education materials such as our Graphic Novel, some PSAs, and a skit on Immigration Scams. Finally, our transition to membership also allowed for members to guide the direction of the organization. Every two years, the NICE membership chooses four to six of our most active members to form the NICE Member Steering Committee (MSC). This group regularly meets with senior staff and board members to set organizational priorities, discuss membership structure, and make important organizational decisions (including hiring!).

Congratulations on the launch of NICE's first Novela gráfica "José Busca Legalizarse" ("Jose Seeks Legal Status"). It tells the story of an immigrant worker who becomes the victim of an immigration service scam. Can you explain the relevance of Jose's story in the new immigrant community and NICE's choice to tell it in the form of a graphic novel?

Thanks! “José Busca Legalizarse” is written based on the experiences of NICE members and community. The Novela is part of NICE’s Immigrant Consumer Justice Campaign which seeks to end predatory, substandard and fraudulent practices employed by an increasing number of service providers targeting the immigrant community. Immigrant consumers have encountered these practices when accessing legal and non-legal immigration services (immigration service providers, attorneys, notaries, employment agencies, tax preparers, multi-service agencies, remittance agencies, check cashers, shipping agencies, real estate agencies, and more). The story of José or variations on this story are, unfortunately, far too common in immigrant communities, and the consequences can lead not only to monetary loss and dissipated hopes, but actual physical removal from the country.

While problems like José's are wide spread, often a cold list of do’s and don'ts isn’t enough to guide the consumer. The process of trying to adjust one's immigration status, the separation from one's family, and the experience of being an immigrant in a new country can be not only extremely difficult logistically, but also very emotional. This is why we chose the Novela gráfica as a tool for education and outreach. Common throughout Latin America and amongst Latino Communities in the United States, Novelas are popular, engaging, comic-style illustrated booklets. With strong visuals, simple language and a compelling storyline, the Novela meets readers where they are at in terms of their emotional journey. The reception to our Novela has been overwhelming; people are really able to connect to the content and learn their rights. We have already distributed over 2,000 copies through over 40 different sources!

NICE recently collaborated with the Foundry Theater to create a play based on the personal histories of its participants, who are all NICE members. What are the goals of the Theater Project and how does it fit with NICE's other initiatives?

Leadership development is imperative in NICE’s work and the theater project fits nicely within this priority for us. The theater work gave our members skills in performance and public speaking, the ability to develop and tell their personal stories and to build their leadership. Now they are better prepared to spearhead our campaign work; to speak to the press at rallies and demonstrations; to meet with legislators and policy makers, and conduct outreach and base building amongst other workers.

The finished product has allowed us to build base, connect with allies and develop supporters by providing them with a very close and personal look at the situations that our members face and how we organize to fight for our rights! I encourage everyone to check out the play on our youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/nynice1?feature=results_main. We have since also developed a theatrical performance based on our Novela Grafica, which is on our Youtube page as well!

Looking to the Theater Project and the Novela Grafica as examples, what role do the arts play in the mission of NICE?

The arts allow us to reach different constituencies in ways that capture their interest, explain complicated topics in simple ways, and allow them to connect to needs and aspirations of newly arrived, low-wage immigrant workers.

Importantly, the arts often allow us entry into new spaces or access to new constituencies who otherwise may be resistant, uninterested or unaware of our message or the realities faced by our membership. In the case of the Novela Grafica, for example, there has been interest from a wide array of diverse news sources; this allows us access to new audiences so they can learn not only about the Graphic Novel but about the broader issues of the campaign as well.

What are some ways in which people who are looking to help can get involved, and what are the common ways that new immigrants first learn about NICE?

Newly arrived immigrant workers first learn about NICE thanks to effective and ongoing outreach at the day laborer stops in our community, and at businesses along Roosevelt Avenue in Queens. This outreach is done by staff Organizers and through word-of-mouth outreach by member leaders and program participants. Aside from low-wage workers who are directly affected by the issues, others can get involved as allies and supporters. The first thing to do is to add yourself to our email list through our website www.nynice.org, that way you always know what is happening at NICE. You can also like us on Facebook or Twitter. Most importantly, I would urge the readers of the NYFA Immigrant Artist Project Newsletter to follow and support our Novela Grafica campaign on IndyGogo (do a search for New Immigrant Community Empowerment). Thanks!

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05/21/2012

International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP)

International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP), ISCP building, 1040 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. Image courtesy of ISCP.

The International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) is a residency-based arts initiative located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn that has hosted over 1,300 mid-career national and international artists and curators. ISCP's programming consists of 3 components: the Residency Program, Exhibition Program, and Participatory Projects. Through this approach, residents are able to have a well-rounded residency experience. With Participatory Projects, they also have an opportunity to initiate public projects in the Local Neighborhood. In addition, ISCP has engaged in programming and dialogue with international arts institutions in order to investigate the dynamic impacts of residencies on the consciousness of societies. With a diverse group of residents and critical dialogue with similar organizations around the world, ISCP strives to engage New York audiences with exceptional artistic practices while developing the holistic residency experience.

As NYFA's Immigrant Artist Project will be engaging ISCP in a panel on International residencies this July, this interview conducted by NYFA's IAP Program Officer Karen Demavivas and Intern Dennis Han is timely in highlighting this organization's work.

IAP: ISCP’s Residency Program, which is comprised of 4 components – Visiting Critics, Field Trips, Salons and Open Studios, seems to be a well-rounded and integrated approach. Can you explain why and how you have developed these components for your program?

ISCP: Each aspect of the residency program facilitates dialogue, cultural exchange and immersion into New York City’s contemporary art community. The many residents who have varying aims for their time in New York necessitates that ISCP remain fluid and be able to support and facilitate many residency models at once, creating a balance between discussion, research, production, exhibitions and network-building.

IAP: Can you share your approach to selecting artists for your Residency Program? What background qualities do you look for in your candidates that would fit into the vision and values of ISCP?

ISCP: Our selection process follows three different paths. The first is when one of our partner sponsors (these are usually national, state or civic arts councils) convenes a jury to select the artist or curator. This approach allows those with specialized knowledge of a country’s art production to make the selection. In another case, ISCP chooses the resident from a shortlist that is also determined in the artist or curator’s home country. Lastly, ISCP also accepts direct applications. Each month we organize a panel and accept one or two artists or curators that apply to us directly. Foremost in the selection is the quality of work, followed by how ISCP can benefit the development of the practice and career of the person applying.

IAP: You mention that your Visiting Critic Series is the hallmark of ISCP programming. In this series, distinguished professionals from the New York and international art worlds meet privately with each ISCP artist/curator for dialogue and critical feedback. How has this interaction fostered the work and networks of the residents at ISCP?

ISCP: It is difficult to trace all that has developed from the Visiting Critic series at ISCP, there are many invisible networks that have been initiated as a result. Artists have received many New York City and international exhibition invitations, often dialogue between the residents and critics has continued for years and feedback from the critics has shaped the residents’ practice.

IAP: You have featured international artists, curators and critics and explored vital issues involving the dynamics of residencies both nationally and abroad. One such example is your Residencies Talk Series with ArteEast where you explore how residencies differ in non-western landscapes in areas such as funding and how this affects national identity and community. Can you share some other insights from these discussions?

ISCP: While there are many residency programs, there is a lack of critical discussion and publication initiatives around them. As the largest international visual arts residency program in the United States, one of our current aims is to produce knowledge in the field. ArteEast is a remarkable organization that works with some of the most relevant cultural practitioners in the Middle East and its diasporas and so collaborating with them on this talk series was a natural pairing. The Middle East has a developing contemporary art infrastructure and it seems that as many new institutions are formed, residencies have become integral to their programs. This is a different landscape than what we see in the United States, where residencies are often auxiliary programs but are not necessarily part and parcel of the institution’s activities.

IAP: Please tell us about the Participatory Projects component of ISCP. What are some projects that have resulted from Participatory Projects in New York City?

ISCP: Participatory Projects commission and produce the work of ISCP current residents and alumni in the public realm and was developed in response to the increase in resident proposals for creating new site-specific work. Residents are often inspired by New York City, including ISCP’s immediate neighborhood of East Williamsburg. This section of Brooklyn contains one of the largest industrial zones in the city and is adjacent to a residential area with a population that is both diverse and engaged with strong local traditions. These elements contribute to a sense of open space and possibility now largely absent elsewhere in the city.

We have collaborated with a network of individuals and organizations throughout the city including Build It Green! NYC, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the NYC Department of Transportation Urban Art Program, Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation, and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, enabling artists and curators to realize ambitious new projects such as Minja Gu's Atlantic-Pacific co. and Lotte Van den Audenaeren's Potentialis at Moore St. Market, Kate Newby's All parts. All the time. at Cooper Park and Olive St. Garden, Rena Leinberger's When it opens like this, up is not over under the Queensboro Bridge, and Rose Nolan's Wall Work and Tang-Wei Hsu's Constellations at Brooklyn Preparatory High School.

IAP: What are some current and upcoming initiatives you are excited about at ISCP?

ISCP: ISCP does not slow down in the summer! On June 27^th we open the exhibition Secondary Witness, curated by Maayan Sheleff who is a Curator at the Center for Contemporary Art (CCA) in Tel Aviv. This will be Maayan’s first curated exhibition in New York and includes video works that touch upon the notion of testimony and explore the artist's position as mediator. Artists in this exhibition are Lana Cmajcanin, Dor Guez, Adela Jusic (an ISCP alum from 2011), Juan Manuel Echavarria, Avi Mograbi and Michael Zupraner.

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03/27/2012

Flushing Town Hall

Flushing Town Hall celebrated Lunar New Year 2012 with a traditional Korean barrel drum workshop lead by the Korean Traditional Music and Dance Institute of NY (KTMDI). Image courtesy of Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts.

Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts (FCCA) is an organization with an increasingly vital role in revitalizing the cultural and artistic identity of the borough of Queens. It achieves this mission in a number of ways and namely through its performing arts space, Flushing Town Hall. This Hall is a building rich with cultural history and a landmark of New York City, which FCCA now manages and operates on behalf of the city.

With the current economic climate, organizations like FCCA are faced with increasing challenges as institutions are re-evaluating the priority they place on the arts. Yet FCCA remains steadfast in preserving vital forms of art and culture. To this end, it provides services that range from artist workshops in public schools to career support for immigrant artists to the rental of gallery and performance space to folk artists.

Currently, Flushing Town Hall and the NYFA Folk Artist Development Program are working together to hold Workshops in Spring 2012 featuring master artists from the Andes, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. These artists are participants of the NYFA Folk Artist Development Program, fulfilling its second phase through these workshops. NYFA's IAP Program Officer Karen Demavivas and Intern Dennis Han interview Flushing Town Hall’s Director of Education and Public Programs Gabrielle Hamilton and FCCA's Executive Director Ellen Kodadek to highlight this exciting collaboration.

IAP: Please detail the prominence of FCCA and its performing arts space Flushing Town Hall (which is a cultural landmark) in New York City’s history. Can you speak about its cultural and artistic influence on the borough of Queens and the city as a whole?

FCCA: Flushing Town Hall has been a community gathering place since 1862. It was saved from demolition under the leadership of former Borough-President Claire Shulman. For over 30 years, Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts has been presenting the arts in Queens, with a long history of presenting jazz, in particular; and for the last 15 years managing and operating historic Flushing Town Hall on behalf of New York City, which owns the building. As the community continues to change dramatically around us, and many historic buildings are being demolished across the States, it becomes increasingly important for landmarks such as this one to be preserved for the future. The adaptive re-use of Flushing Town Hall as a center for arts and culture provides an exciting opportunity for audiences to see wonderful multidisciplinary performances in a unique setting.

IAP: Resources and services for immigrants are especially critical for newly arrived artists who navigate the daunting landscape of New York City. How has FCCA been a source of support to immigrant artists?

FCCA: FCCA invites immigrant artists (and all local artists) to sell their work in our gift shop and to apply for our space grant program. This program affords artists a free rehearsal space while the building is open and staffed. Artists have access to our two Steinway pianos, theater space, art room or gallery for free. In addition, FCCA will work with local folk artists to rent Flushing Town Hall for a greatly reduced rate, waiving the space rental fee and leaving the artists to only pay hard costs (i.e. set-up fees and security). FCCA recently offered this package to a local traditional Colombian artist for his CD release party. Finally FCCA is happy to provide technical assistance to immigrant artists who are writing grants for projects that will eventually be housed at Flushing Town Hall.

Master Mexican paper artist and participant of the NYFA Folk Artist Development Program Aurelia Fernandez created paper flowers and the Day of the Dead altar in collaboration with workshop participants at Flushing Town Hall's Halloween Remixed annual event in 2011. This event features workshops and demonstrations around Halloween, Day of the Dead and All Saints Day. Image courtesy of Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts.

IAP: How has the cultural and educational programming at Flushing Town Hall highlighted the diverse communities of Queens, especially folk artists embedded in these communities?

FCCA: Queens is the most diverse county in the United States with approximately 138 different languages spoken. FCCA strives to celebrate as many groups as possible with an array of public programs that engage particular communities while inviting all our neighbors to learn about the rich traditions that surround them. For example, FCCA’s annual Lunar New Year programs reflect the diversity of our Asian community. Our programs are often bi-lingual using English and the native language of our tradition bearers. Our work with master folk artists in the community often leads us to other artists. FCCA’s teaching artist Hsing- Lih Chou (master of Chinese calligraphy) has lead us to traditional Korean home cooks and Chinese Opera mask changers; and it was the leaders of the local Korean traditional drumming group that lead us to a Turkish weaver; all based in Queens! The space at Flushing Town Hall is well suited for the range of folk artists, we have a gallery, theater, art room, and industrial kitchen so we program traditional musicians, dancers, material artists, puppeteers, cooks, storytellers, and more. Now that folk artists know that they have an artistic home at Flushing Town Hall they also approach us with their programming ideas.

IAP: Economics aside, what are some challenges to FCCA’s commitment to being a revitalizing force and promoting the arts?

FCCA: Aside from economics, which is always the key factor in our concerns, some of our challenges to being a revitalizing force and promoting the arts include: significant changes in the demographics of Queens, which requires more resources to adequately and appropriately reach these new populations; new ways that people are accessing the arts via the internet (as opposed to “live” programming); and increased competition with sports and other leisure time activities. Also, schools are participating less in the arts across the country due to the economy and more pressure to teach to the tests.

IAP: Of the services that are offered at FCCA, your on-site workshops and placement of teaching artists in public schools stand out as ways in which your organization conducts outreach and focuses on community youth. Can you explain why these programs are important to your goals for enriching cultural and artistic outreach in Queens?

FCCA: FCCA believes in cultural arts equity; and we are keenly aware of the state of the economy and the arts in NYC schools. Our mission to be a revitalizing force in Queens and to be a creative catalyst for developing and promoting the visual and performance arts is realized through our Interactive Arts Workshops for Families and Teaching Residencies in Schools. Families have responded to these workshops with great enthusiasm. Families gravitate to these programs because they are rooted in celebratory traditions that they themselves grew up with. FCCA strives to keep these workshops free or low-cost so that they can be accessible to everyone. We also look to develop creative learning opportunities in the schools. Many of the students we serve in Queens are English Language Learners (ELL). These youngsters are pulled out of art and music classes for additional English classes. One of our most successful residencies uses the arts to assist ELL with their language skills. Teachers report that their ELL students are more engaged in the classroom. We have received similar feedback from our other residencies, which affirm that they develop creative learners.

IAP: Can you share some of the ways that artists, members of the community, and visitors to the borough can get involved with FCCA and Flushing Town Hall?

FCCA: Our special events including Jazz Jams, Jazz Clinics, Professional Development, Master Classes give professional artists opportunities to network and engage with Flushing Town Hall. Other special events including interactive workshops, lectures, demonstrations, and free community events provide general audience members with hands-on experience in the arts. Our Visual Artist Membership program offers our gallery space to exhibit the artists' own work once a year as a members benefit. It affords them professional exposure and engages the artists with the community at large. In November 2011, FCCA formed the Korean Cultural Committee, composed of 30 members of the Korean community including artists, arts organizations, and arts advocates. This is a great way for the local Korean community to collaborate with FCCA to develop programming that speaks to their cultural needs.

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01/24/2012

The Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island

The Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island (COAHSI), COAHSI Folk's, 2011. Image courtesy of organization.

This month we’re pleased to feature the Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island (COAHSI) and highlight its dedication to supporting the folk arts on Staten Island, which are a vital part of its cultural fabric. COAHSI sees that the appreciation of these time-honored traditions is essential for recently-arrived Staten Islanders to engage with their neighbors and pave a way for a new life while building trust and respect for their identity and presence in the diverse cultural landscape of the island. Through the means of close collaboration with artists, community leaders and social service organizations, COAHSI works to accomplish their mission of making the arts accessible to everyone and providing artists and organizations with the technical, financial and social resources they need. NYFA Program Associate Michon Ashmore interviewed Christopher Mulé, Deputy Director & Director of Folklife of COAHSI about the organizations programs, challenges, and its plans for the future.

IAP: COAHSI provides the traditional artists of Staten Island with the technical and financial assistance they need to sustain and cultivate the growth of their folkways. What specific programs do you have in place to foster the work of these artists? What effect has COAHSI’s Folk Arts program had on Staten Island’s folk arts since its inception?

COAHSI: The process of organizing public exhibitions and programs has been an important part of cultivating folklife on Staten Island. COAHSI, the island’s regional and county folklorist, funds four public programs per year. These public programs and the process of creating them energize the folk arts within communities and highlight the importance of tradition. On Staten Island, this is extremely important because Staten Island's ethnic diversity has increased rapidly over the past 20 years. Recently, the North Shore community of Port Richmond has witnessed close to a dozen hate crimes toward its Mexican residents. There was also widely publicized opposition and protest of a mosque being established in a vacant Roman Catholic church. No matter where you stand on the issue, this can cause traditional folk arts practitioners in immigrant communities to become insular.

For fear of insularity, we started a project last year called “The Culture of Joy & Resilience: Reframing Cultural Conversations on Staten Island.” The goal was to have public programs and traveling exhibits across the island that introduced Staten Island to its own diversity, through art. We wanted to change the conversation on Staten Island so that people would talk about the cultural enrichment that immigrant communities bring to the table. We selected four traditional arts practices (Mexican dance, Kente Cloth weaving, traditional Irish music and dance, and Liberian dance and drum) and brought them to public libraries across the island. In the end, I think the program fostered a sense of trust between COAHSI and the folk artists and immigrant communities on Staten Island. We created and encouraged a safe space for folk artists to explore and present their heritage.

IAP: What particular challenges do Staten Island’s traditional artists face, with many of them being part of immigrant communities? What are their specific needs?

COAHSI: A lack of available time to devote to artistic practices is probably the greatest challenge for traditional arts on the island. Some of the artists I work with work close to seven days a week and hold down several jobs and responsibilities. Language barriers are also a problem, particularly when working with immigrant communities that have a wide variety of dialects. This occurs on Staten Island within the Mexican and Liberian communities - both have many different dialects. We also have a lack of accessible and affordable venues for public programs and rehearsals. Finally, there seems to be a low value on and inability to embrace diversity on Staten Island. Many times we talk about amplifying voices of underserved communities, but I think they are already pretty loud. I think many other Staten Islanders do not listen, and that makes the success of diverse expressions more difficult.

IAP: All of your folk arts projects are developed through close collaboration with local community leaders and social service organizations, as well as the artists themselves. How did this approach evolve and how do these partnerships benefit the programs?

COAHSI: It is important that projects with traditional communities are undertaken with close community collaboration. When I first started my post here as the regional and county folklorist I tried to meet as many folks as I could and find out who was who and what organizations people in the communities were comfortable with. Social service organizations and community leaders tend to be trusted sources of information and activities within immigrant communities. Building trust within immigrant communities is of the utmost importance to the success (and sustainability) of Staten Island folk arts. I am still building those relationships. Some of the communities, particularly the Liberian community on Staten Island, feel that they have been exploited by outsiders doing research, writing stories, or making films about their plight. Many of those projects failed to give back to the community and failed to accurately explain who they are. I want to make sure that all folk arts collaborations benefit the community from which they came. It is also important to find the right community leaders who understand traditional values. I am currently working with a great group of them: Zeinab Eyega and Admah Fassah in the Liberian community, and David Suarez, Victor Soto, and Emma Tapia in the Mexican community of Port Richmond. Many of these artists are now becoming leaders of their community’s traditional arts activities. Having the communities own their expressions and the programs that display them helps immensely and adds to the likelihood that traditions will be continued. I try my hardest to let them know that they are the pilots and I am just part of the ground crew.

IAP: One goal of COAHSI’s Folk Arts program is to provide meaningful experiences for folk artists while also engaging a wider audience and making folk arts accessible to everyone in the community. What specific approaches do you take in reaching this goal? What responses have you received from general audiences?

COAHSI: This is one of the hardest things to do. A meaningful experience for the traditional artists and the communities that cultivate those traditions is my biggest concern, at the moment. I think the process leading up to public exhibitions of traditional arts is a great learning experience for artists. We work hard, spending months on dialogue and fieldwork, and the artists end up teaching me about their customs so I can better understand them. Hopefully, by the time we are ready to present traditions to the public, the artists are in charge and I fade to the background.

I also have learned that meaning comes from community-based traditions involving the whole community. We recently presented a program about Oaxacan poems and songs with musicians from Port Richmond and artists from Sierra Leone in Park Hill. In both instances, many people in the community were involved. It was hard to tell the difference between the audience and the performers. These artistic expressions generate a lot of pride and that helps to make things meaningful.

Generating general audience engagement on Staten Island is a learning process and one that I am still involved in. The more established audience on Staten Island seems interested in learning more about new immigrant communities but it is difficult to get them to come to events. I provide interpretive materials (programs) at each event, translation, and try to find venues that are comfortable for everyone. These public displays are more than “programs” for entertainment—I see them as offerings and opportunities to increase Staten Island’s cultural capital. A famous folklorist named Henry Glassie wrote that art provides “a culture's most radiant and integrated expressions of its values.” It has been a challenge to reach out to wider audiences but I am trying hard to emphasize that these programs are not just for the immigrant communities, as they contribute to the health and cultural wealth of our borough.

IAP: What future plans do you have for the program?

COAHSI: As mentioned, venues can be very hard to access on Staten Island. This year we will bring the arts to the audience through our Mobile Heritage Project. We will set up stages at several outdoor spaces where people tend to congregate - the boardwalk at South Beach, the farmers market in the Staten Island Mall parking lot, etc. We are looking to maximize exposure for our traditional artists on the island. In a way, we are going to “Occupy” Staten Island with folk arts!

This winter I am collaborating with an organization called Sauti Yetu to document traditional folktales of the women within the Liberian community in Park Hill. Looking towards a sustainable future, I am also working with a professor at Pratt Institute’s School of Information Science to develop an online portal that will enable traditional artists and communities to build a digital archive of Staten Island traditional arts.

IAP: How can people get involved with COAHSI and its Folk Arts program?

COAHSI: I am always looking for people to help me with some of our folklife programs. If you are interested in learning about documenting cultural traditions, organizing events, or building an archive, please contact me at the following email address: cmule@statenislandarts.org. I promise that you will get a very interesting introduction to Staten Island. In addition, you can check out our folklife blog here and sign up to our email newsletter. COAHSI is very lucky to have our Executive Director, Melanie Cohn, at the helm and a very talented, passionate, and professional staff that works extremely hard to keep the arts on Staten Island driving forward. If you have never been to Staten Island, I suggest coming to one of our programs and letting us introduce you to the arts and humanities that this borough has to offer.

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11/22/2011

The Weeksville Heritage Center

The Weeksville Heritage Center, July 30, 2011. Adopt-A-Farmbox's Aki Hirata-Baker and Yemi Amu demonstrate how to grow herbs in used takeout containers and milk cartons at the day-long event Seeding the City: Learn How to Live Green in the City. This workshop was 1 of 8 free workshops held by The Laundromat Project and NYFA's Immigrant Artist Project to demonstrate creative, sustainable strategies for beautifying urban space.

The Weeksville Heritage Center (WHC) documents, preserves and presents the history of the community of Weeksville, a town that flourished with a population of more than 500 free blacks, including doctors, teachers, and landowners, prior to the Civil War. As one of the first free black communities in the United States, Weeksville is a nationally historic site situated within the Bedford-Stuyvesant/Crown Heights area of Brooklyn. WHC, an institution rooted within the traditions of African American history, charges itself with engaging audiences through innovative programming that both references the past and offers modern and relevant learning experiences. The qualities of independence, entrepreneurship, and community activism embodied by the residents of historic Weeksville inform and inspire WHC’s programs today.

The grass-roots cultural center runs a seasonal farmers market and offers urban gardening, visual and performing arts, and other traditions of the past community. Partnerships with other cultural centers in the area provide WHC’s staff and constituents opportunities for experimentation and new learning. One example is the event Seeding the City: Learn How to Live Green in the City, a collaboration held in July 2011 between WHC, The Laundromat Project, and NYFA's Immigrant Artist Project. This event was a day full of workshops and demonstrations focused on environmental awareness, food cultivation, and urban beautification, which offered artists, farmers, and food activists opportunities to teach and learn from each other.

In October 2009, the center began the construction of a new, 19,000-square-foot education and cultural arts building, which is expected to receive LEED certification, an internationally-recognized credential that declares the building environmentally efficient. It’s expected to open in early 2013 and offers an exceptional opportunity for WHC to increase focus on research and expand and improve its existing programs. NYFA Program Associate Michon Ashmore interviewed Elissa Blount-Moorhead, WHC’s Vice Director/Director of Design, Programming, and Exhibitions, about the organization’s roots, its place in the contemporary local community, and its plans for the future.

IAP: Weeksville was a free black community whose residents owned property, ran their own businesses, and established churches, schools, and a hospital during a time when slavery was still a prominent practice. How do you use this story to inspire and empower the local residents today?

WHC: Essentially, we try to use these powerful examples of intellectual and creative freedom to reference past ways of being and also “activate” history for modern audiences. It is important to WHC that our narrative is relevant to current audiences and current concerns. For example, we use our kitchen garden to illustrate examples of self determination in the 19th century, while simultaneously discussing modern food sovereignty, botany, and local nutrition to school children through our Green Weeksville program.

IAP: In addition to focusing on history and preservation, WHC also incorporates visual arts, performance and cultural events into its programming. Why do you consider it important to do this and how do these types of events develop a greater understanding of historic Weeksville?

WHC: We consider the visual arts one of our most important vehicles to work with our community on civic engagement and social change. Self crafting and creativity is part of the spiritual bedrock upon which 19th-century Weeksville was built (as well as the recent 40-year preservation effort that created the current Weeksville organization). We often talk about the fact that Weeksville’s unique history represents an “erasure” in black history curriculum taught in schools, which usually focuses on struggles such as slavery and the civil rights movement of the mid-century. Many lessons focus on heroes of these struggles rather than the everyday lives and beauty of people living in post emancipation NY. We think that visual art is an effective tool to bring to life the idea that black people aren’t always living in “opposition” to the world around them but are often contributing to their own communities while also serving their specific need to create beauty and harmony through the arts.

Much of our photographic collection has enabled us to help visitors imagine a slice of 19th-century free black lifestyles for the first time. Needless to say, visual arts are a powerful way for contemporary visitors to document their perspective on their lives and understand that Weeksville residents also did the same thing in their lives, as evidenced in work from Richmond Barthé located in the nearby Kingsborough Housing Development. It’s a window into history, art making/practice, and aesthetic sensibilities of this community. We are using our media and literary arts programs to lend a similar voice to teens today. Our contemporary gallery for the built environment, artists live-in residency, and public art programs (for more details on these programs, please click here) are also being designed to provide platforms for professional visual artists to continue to interrogate the landscape in which WHC exists today and make a commentary visual through publication, exhibition, and public installations.

IAP: Innovation, the vanguard, and the subversive are often featured characteristics in the work of the artists and performers you choose to present at WHC. How do these themes demonstrate the organization’s core values and mission?

WHC: These themes ARE the core values of WHC. Some of our thematic threads and core values, such as irreverence, subversive, beauty, luminosity, humor, and transformation are what help define what we do and how we do it. We extract these themes from what we know about the people who created this place. We learn from their written and oral histories, primary documents, and domestic objects that these were values that they shared. We, as staff of WHC, feel that we are simply stewards and interpreters of their vision of a life well-lived. They are the vital underpinnings of our program development criteria. Nothing would gel here or make any sense in terms of mission relevancy if we didn’t honor these historic findings and match them to our modern audience needs and desires.

IAP: WHC runs an urban gardening program and seasonal farmers market. Can you tell us about this program, including its origins and goals? What factors made you want to focus on sustainability at WHC?

WHC: Our farmers market was started in 2005 by one of our researchers with a food sovereignty view. Our kitchen garden and farmers market are directly linked to the narrative that Weeksville uses to teach students and adult audiences about Brooklyn’s agricultural past and its African American foodways and traditions.

WHC is located squarely in what is now referred to as a food desert, and access to fresh produce and healthy food options is at the core of many of the nutritional issues that our local community faces here. In an attempt to provide openings to discuss and bring to life modern connections to 19th-century traditions (such as canning, heirloom seeds, medicinal herbs and urban agriculture), we also provide demonstrations and workshops along with our market.

IAP: How does this program reach out to immigrant communities?

WHC: We are planning (when we open our new center) for bilingual materials and instruction. We now cater quite a bit to our closest (geographically) immigrant audience, which is from the Caribbean, through recipe exchanges, food related events, concerts in the garden, and other family-related activities. Our farmer’s market manager Ola Akinmowo has worked closely with our teen training programs, which we are planning to expand this year.

IAP: What impact has this particular program had on your constituents so far?

WHC: The impact has been tremendous for both us and our local communities. We accept health bucks, FMNP, and WIC at our market, so we are able to serve our constituents who receive public assistance but want to have healthy choices for their families, especially mothers of small children and senior citizens. Also our ancillary programs such as recipe exchanges give us an opportunity to really “fellowship” with our community and share good food, which is always a connector across all cultures.

IAP: WHC partners with other organizations from time to time to exchange ideas and present new events and programs. How does this type of collaboration enrich the local community and the experience of WHC visitors?

WHC: It is immeasurable. Collaborations such as Seeding the City: Learn How to Live Green in the City, with The Laundromat Project and NYFA's Immigrant Artist Project, open us up to new ideas but also new teaching artists and their fresh modalities. Collaboration allows us to experiment and let go of any rigidity or “know it all–ness” that may creep into our process. We always learn new and interesting ways of doing things and partners always bring new eyes to our site! In the future we are expanding our partnerships immensely to include some “surprising/unlikely” partners as well as ones that we have been dying to work with for years.

IAP: You’re in the middle of constructing a $30 million extension for the Heritage Center. What are your plans for the new building?

WHC: This is probably the most exciting and intimidating part of our lives right now! The 19,000-square-foot LEED Gold building will add 2 media lab/classrooms; a 200-square-foot performance space; a contemporary gallery; retail and eating space; an oral history studio; workshop space; and a new resource center. We will be unveiling some of the specific plans this year (we open in the first quarter of 2013). Most of what we will do is expand and improve existing programs such as our popular school tours, which will now include digital elements; our kitchen/botany learning garden will be expanded to include livestock and more demo gardens; our arts preservation program will add an international component; and our performance slate will now include dance, film and theater in addition to concerts!

Clearly the building allows us to do new and exciting projects as well, the most important of which is the launch of our Resource Center, which serves as the intellectual heart of the entire campus and provides the content underpinnings for all that we do in programming. It is being headed by Jennifer A. Scott, who has plans that include extensive symposia, oral history projects, resident scholar programs, a jazz research project, and visual storage. We are also expanding our green and visual arts offerings. Our new gallery will house a contemporary visual arts program, a public art project, and a live-in artist residency.

IAP: How can artists, activists and anyone else who is interested become involved in your programs?

WHC: The best thing to do is to sign up to become members and/or join our mailing and volunteer lists, letting us know what your interests may be. As we put out calls for work, advisory boards, presenting opportunities and other news we will be able to send information to you based on your interests. Call Esther Alix at (718) 756-5250, ext. 314 if you want to become involved.

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09/19/2011

El Museo del Barrio

Dia de los Muertos Celebration with El Museo. Manhattan, October 16, 2010. Photo courtesy of Carucha L. Meuse (clmvisuals.com).

El Museo del Barrio was founded in 1969 by artist and educator Raphael Montañez Ortiz and a coalition of parents, educators, artists, and activists who noted that mainstream museums largely ignored Latino artists. More than 40 years later, the museum has grown to be New York's leading Latino cultural institution. El Museo's current exhibition, "The (S) Files 2011," is the museum's sixth biennial of the most innovative, cutting-edge art created by Latino, Caribbean, and Latin American artists in the greater New York area. This biennial spreads all over the city, featuring a record 75 emerging artists in seven different venues.

Beyond showcasing art and artifacts in their exhibitions and collection, El Museo promotes an appreciation and understanding of Caribbean and Latin American culture with programs such as Super Sabado, Nuevo Cine movie night, the Speak Up! / Speak Out! spoken word series, and El Barrio Today Walking Tours. To continue its tradition of empowering individuals to shape their community, El Museo will be the venue host for the first Social Justice Artists' Convening on September 21st. IAP Program Officer Karen Demavivas interviewed Gonzalo Casals, El Museo's Director of Education & Public Programs, about the museum's vision and programs.

IAP: In 1969, El Museo del Barrio was introduced as "a neighborhood museum of Puerto Rican culture." While its conception and location framed it as a museum aligned with a specific community, how has El Museo expanded its programming and partnerships to promote not just Puerto Ricans, but a more diversified community in El Barrio today?

GC: The museum started as a response to a need. In the late 1960s during the social justice movement, the Puerto Rican community was very big in New York and mostly in El Barrio. The majority of kids in the public school system in El Barrio were Puerto Rican and African American and there were a lot of parents putting pressure on the Department of Education because the curriculum didn't represent their culture. There was a need for the public school system to acknowledge the culture. There's a really nice section of the book Bodega Dreams by Ernesto Quiñonez where he talks about how he would go to school and they were told 'Your culture doesn't exist; it's not worthwhile' and how that impacted second generation Puerto Ricans' behavior and attitude towards their culture. Finally, the Department of Education, which back then was the Board of Education, appointed Rafael Montanez Ortiz, a Puerto Rican artist-educator, to write a curriculum. He went the extra mile and founded a museum in a classroom. If you look at the history of many museums, this is very unusual. Usually they originate from a group of very wealthy people who have a collection or an endowment, so this was really created by the Puerto Rican community in response to a need.

Throughout the history of the museum, the Puerto Rican community, our founding community, has had a lot of impact on not only the museum but the neighborhood. They opened the door for all of us, like myself, an Argentinean. However, the demographics in the neighborhood - in El Barrio, in the city, in the country - changed. It called for the museum to expand its mission and open up to other cultures beyond our Puerto Rican founding community. Our mission is to celebrate Puerto Rican, Latino and Caribbean American culture in New York. With that said, we stay away from "nationalisms." If I invite you to go see an Argentinean film, you're going to ask me what the film's about. "Argentinean film" doesn't define anything to anyone. We present issues and themes that are interesting to audiences that we serve: Latinos and non-Latinos. It would be a disservice to any artist to say, for example, "Come see the work of this Cuban artist." Again, it doesn't speak much about the artist.

We always recognize, in many ways, the Puerto Rican community as the community that opened the doors for all of us. We expanded to other groups and other communities but we always make sure we understand the individuality of each person within those communities.

Working with Latino communities, a lot of people think about language. A lot of people in my generation who grew up here, grew up with their parents saying "Don't speak Spanish; learn English because that's the future" and they still consider themselves Latinos. Or you have recently arrived immigrants from Mexico who speak Nahuatl and they move into English. So 'Latino' or 'Latino American' is this weird construct that we try to avoid because it wipes out the individuality of each of us and how we understand ourselves.

IAP: How does El Museo, then, use its programming to help a community beyond nationality come together around a social issue?

GC: One example that shows every aspect of the work that we do is the celebration of El Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead). There's nothing more 'Mexican' than that. Mexicans have been celebrating that for 3,000 years, since the Aztecs. But if you look at the universal value that lies within the celebration, which is honoring the loved ones who passed away, you will somehow connect with that no matter who you are or where you come from. So if I am able to bring you to this museum and show you how this specific group of people relates to that universal value and let you reflect on the connections between the way, in this case, Mexicans do it and the way you do it, that's what bridges cultural understanding, which is one of the objectives that we have. You go from a very universal theme to a very individual theme by doing that exercise. That reflection is what makes you feel like part of a larger community.

Super Sabado showcases the spirit of El Museo in a variety of programs when there is free admission every third Saturday of the month. There are concerts, film screenings, spoken word, activities in the galleries and storytelling. Each Super Sabado is presented around a theme. Sometimes the theme is a cultural celebration like Three Kings Day and Day of the Dead. Sometimes it's based around an exhibition that we do, like "The (S) Files" block party in July. "The (S) Files" is all about art that takes inspiration from the street, so we complemented that in a different medium like break-dancing at the block party. Sometimes the theme is "Art and Activism." One month, we addressed healthy eating habits. Access to healthy food options is a big issue in this neighborhood. For many years, the neighborhood defined what the museum means. We want to use art to bring awareness to different things.

IAP: What are some of the neighborhood's current needs?

GC: We are starting to work more with teens and youth. There's a huge problem in the neighborhood with youth violence. Every year we hire several artists to create a Day of the Dead altar within the tradition but with a contemporary take. The altar is always in honor of someone. This year, we're going to talk about the victims of everyday violence that we all suffer from. Every time you suffer from an act of violence, a little bit of you is lost because of fear. We're going to reflect on what we lose because of this subtle everyday violence. We ask youth, 'Where is this violence coming from? Why is it happening? How can we protect ourselves?' There's a huge need for after school programs in the neighborhood.

One of the things that makes El Museo interesting is our location on Fifth Avenue. We're the smaller museum next to the Guggenheim and the Met. We're on the Museum Mile, but at the same time, we're in El Barrio. This is a dual personality in many ways. To many people, we're the entrance to El Barrio. A lot of people come to El Barrio to see El Museo and decide maybe to have lunch here. We're very conscious of that; that's why we created our walking tour around the block of El Museo. The idea is not to present a comprehensive history of the neighborhood, but to bring people into El Barrio to reflect on how a group impacted and made changes here. We want them to reflect on how people, in this case Puerto Ricans, impacted the area they live in and, at the same time, on gentrification that is happening all over New York and more and more in El Barrio. New people who come into the neighborhood, who aren't aware of its history or dynamics, may have the best intentions to make the neighborhood better, but their projects can create displacement and aren't aligned with the values of their neighbors who have lived here for years. The El Barrio Today Walking Tours create a space for reflection to look at the neighborhood from that lens.

IAP: How do you create that space for reflection?

GC: We repeat the same strategy over and over again. We use art to start these conversations. El Barrio's rich in murals. There are the more traditional murals, but also there is the Graffiti Wall of Fame. There are also the community gardens, a perfect example of civic engagement. And we go back to the need. The murals are there because all these artists in this neighborhood never had a platform or an outlet for their art in a museum or a gallery. The community gardens are there because people needed a space for communal recreation. Then you have Central Park; the community didn't feel welcome in this park. To me, the Puerto Rican community is a really good example of how you act upon your needs and create your own solutions. Again, El Museo is a response to a need. So, we go through the neighborhood in these El Barrio Today Walking Tours looking at all these strategies in which a specific community shapes a neighborhood. We use the art as a way to start these conversations.

IAP: I just went to a mural unveiling at Modesto Flores community garden near East Harlem Cafe. It's a mural of Frida Kahlo and Julia de Burgos and it's meant to reinforce a solidarity between the Mexican and the Puerto Rican communities. It was an Art for Change sponsored event.

GC: It's a beautiful mural. The artist who did that, Yasmin Hernandez, was an "(S) Files" artist, so it was a very nice synergy. I was glad she did that. To the outside, a lot of people see the Latino community as one group, but there are many groups and waves. Puerto Ricans have been here for the longest, there's an influx in the neighborhood of Mexicans, there's Ecuadorians - the situations are very different and very unique. That use of art to start a dialogue interests me; what I found very interesting was not just that the mural subjects were a Mexican and a Puerto Rican, but that they were two women who were activists. That was very powerful to do.

IAP: Your support of the Social Justice Artists' Convening fits with El Museo's history of social engagement through the arts. Could you comment on El Museo's participation in the dialogue?

GC: For every program that we present, we pay as much attention to the content as we do to how it's delivered. In a guided tour of the galleries, we try to remove ourselves from the position of the educator or the lecturer; we want to make it a conversation that incorporates the knowledge and experiences of every person on the tour. Each tour is different because there are different individuals. We start each tour asking a question to gauge who are the people we are working with and to start a conversation. Our Speak Up / Speak Out! spoken word series works the same way. We'll pick a poet once a month, give them resources, and let them choose the lineup or theme. We're the platform. We open the door and you use the space.

In the case of the Convening, we're providing a platform for it to happen - not just with the physicality of the space but enabling it to happen in a museum with a history like ours. Opening the door and framing the conversation, for us, is just as important as what each of us has to say or contribute to the conversation. The Convening is going to start with a tour of the neighborhood, using the neighborhood as the perfect frame for the conversation.

IAP: At this point, how do you see El Museo as a museum with an international reach? There is the Latino diaspora that is in New York City but the museum also deals with a lot of international artists residing in South America and other countries, alongside immigrant artists who live here.

GC: Jokingly, we say internally here at El Museo: El Barrio is a state of mind. There are barrios in Brooklyn, in Queens, in the Bronx, and everywhere in the country and the world. New York City's Latino community is not the largest in the country, but it is the most diverse so that's why we focus more on the Latino experience in the city. However, in the same way we like to bridge cultures, we find it interesting to create connections with artists in Latin American countries. We're working on a Caribbean project with Latino artists living in Europe. We all need to create code words and labels to understand each other and make sense of the world, but the art always connects immigrants and everyone else living in and visiting the city.

Our galleries offer a space where people feel safe talking about things they usually don't feel comfortable talking about. Anybody can come to New York and experience that, and it's very powerful. We try as much as we can- and it's very difficult because everybody comes with an expectation of what a museum is- not to tell you one absolute truth but to provide a space for reflection. Every two weeks I sit with our security guards and we just look at art. We talk about art and come to our own conclusions so when you go to the galleries, you're going to be approached by our security guards who say 'If you want, I can tell you which one is my favorite piece.' We've gotten a lot of positive feedback because people feel engaged in a very respected way, a very horizontal way. 'Let me just share with you what I like.'

IAP: I actually just had a nice exchange with one of the guards when I was in the galleries downstairs looking at "The (S) Files 2011" show. I was looking at Hatuey Ramos-Fermin's installation about taxi drivers in the city. When I asked him a specific question about the piece, he responded with knowledge and enthusiasm. He seemed happy to be in that space and looking at the art while the rest of us were in the space.

GC: Even the tone with which they tell you 'Don't do that' is different.

IAP: You've been talking about a more horizontal and empowering educational engagement than other museums on the Museum Mile, which tend to cultivate a more elitist, expert sphere in which curators dictate which artists get represented. As a museum, you are still accountable for who you show and you are perceived as experts of Latin American art. How do you deal with the politics of that?

GC: I don't think we're trained to stay away from that. Everybody's doing Latino now, and we're happy. The Museum of Modern Art is having a whole exhibition on Diego Rivera in the fall and it's great. We strive to go a little deeper since we know the subject matter from within, in a more specific way. Our curatorial department is developing new scholarship, creating new opportunities and going into the most obscure situations to bring in new themes. In the next five years, growth at El Museo will be about deepening: doing more research about our collections, giving more access to scholars and promoting new scholarship around our art. If anything, because of our history and being a smaller museum, we're more flexible. We can still present that level of scholarship and have an impact on the cultural production in the city, in the country. At the end of the day, it's all about human worth. Because we are a smaller size and don't deal with as much of a bureaucratic infrastructure, we can preserve the worth of the individual.

IAP: How do you see the future of public programming at El Museo? What are some themes you'll be developing across the board?

GC: Next year's going to be very big for us. In the second week of June, we're opening a show that's been in the works for at least 8 years. It's called "Caribbean: Crossroads of the World." It's a collaboration with The Studio Museum in Harlem and The Queens Museum of Art and it's going to be a three-venue exhibition. The exhibition is the tip of the iceberg; we're going to do a lot of programming to celebrate Caribbean culture and look at the crossroads of culture and religion that, in many ways, relates to what we're experiencing in New York.

The third iteration of our permanent collection next year is going to center on Caribbean artists who went through a personal crossroads. We're using the exhibition to explore cultural crossroads and we'll use our permanent collection to talk about crossroads in a very personal, individualized way.

We want to continue our current programs but, at the same time, we're looking for different models to accomplish our objectives. Like any other cultural institution in the country, we went through a lot of budget cuts so we have to rethink models. We want to maintain our relationship with our audience. Right now, we're featuring 8 to 10 "(S) Files" artists in a video series and it's going well. We figured if we want to put new scholarship and new resources into our collection, maybe once a month we can feature an object in the collection with the voice of the artist through video. Is it educational? Is it promotion? It's a hybrid. We could have an artist talk and have 100 people here and there's a cost to that. What if we used those resources to do a series of 10 videos? I'll put it online where it'll reach more people than that over a longer duration. We're looking at new ways of accomplishing our objectives. At the end of the day, you want to reach the audience and you need a platform. Maybe the platform isn't about all of us getting together in this space. Maybe we need to use another medium.

IAP: Thank you, Gonzalo, and we are thrilled to collaborate with El Museo del Barrio in engaging our diverse communities.

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07/21/2011

Pratt Center for Community Development

Cypress Hills Energy Block Party launching a 250 tree give away in partnership with MillionTreesNYC and the Pratt Center. June 4th, 2011. Photo courtesy of the Pratt Center for Community Development.

The Pratt Center for Community Development works with community organizations in all five boroughs to shape the local built environment and develop strategies for preserving and creating affordable housing, decent schools, desirable retail, accessible open space, and authentic neighborhood character. In the 1960s, the Pratt Center and Senator Robert Kennedy's staff jointly developed a model for capital investment and urban renewal services in Bedford-Stuyvesant; that model would later influence Kennedy's creation of the Community Development Corporation and a new federal program to fund CDCs. Since then, the Pratt Center's projects have included a planning study emphasizing housing stabilization and community revitalization for East Flatbush; a design and funding strategy for rowhouses in Longwood; and design and restoration work for the historic homes of Weeksville Heritage Center. Jack Newfield wrote in The Village Voice that the Pratt Center was "the conscience of the city in all public policy questions involving zoning, housing, and land use."

In recent years, the Pratt Center has developed an additional focus on promoting environmental justice. Its Sustainable Neighborhoods Program makes buildings in New York City more energy efficient with projects like Sustainable Houses of Worship and Solar Power in NYC. Having secured a Rockefeller Foundation NYC Cultural Innovation Fund award, the center will team up with community development groups in New York City to develop innovative cultural, arts, media and organizing strategies to engage neighborhoods in making healthy consumer choices and taking environmental action. As part of its ongoing effort to support artists and arts organizations to develop activities -- such as performances, installations and workshops -- that promote a civic dialogue about community sustainability, the Pratt Center will be participating in the event "Seeding the City: Learn How to Live Green in the City" co-presented by IAP and The Laundromat Project at the end of this month. IAP Program Officer Karen Demavivas and Intern Emily Chen interviewed Rasu Jilani, the Pratt Center's Art, Culture and Sustainability Projects Consulting Manager, about its activities beyond "Seeding the City."

IAP: When and how was the Art, Culture and Sustainability Initiative started?

RJ: The Art, Culture and Sustainability Initiative began January 2011 with the premise that the arts can be a powerful catalyst for social change and are part of Pratt Center's greater vision for equitable, sustainable, and culturally vital communities. The goal of our project is to fully integrate art and sustainable development.

This initiative has allowed Pratt Center to create a special "Arts Implementation Fund" to support the execution of visual and performance art works with sustainability themes created by artists and art groups in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Cypress Hills and East New York.

In April 2011, I was brought in as a consultant to manage the community engagement projects sponsored by the "Arts Implementation Fund" currently being piloted in partnership with the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation (BSRC), the Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation (CHLDC) and ARTs East New York.

IAP: What were the outcomes of the initiative's two completed projects: After School Environmental Literacy & the Arts with Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation (BSRC) and Energy Block Party and Tree Give-away with Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation (CHLDC) and ARTs East New York?

RJ: Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation's (BSRC) The Youth Arts Academy was a twelve week multidisciplinary program for thirty 2nd grade students from C.S. 21 & P.S. 93 that met twice a week. The program is designed as an introduction to environmental literacy with a focus on food, agriculture, ecology, economy and energy efficiency. The arts served as a tool to encourage children to "go green" recognizing that at an early age they can impact their own future. The program explored the environment and perspectives, reflecting attitudes and awareness in their own community beginning in their homes.

BSRC used the arts as a bridge to environmental consciousness by engaging students in dance, creative writing, and visual workshops. Performance opportunities connected with the "DanceAfrica" project and school showcases helped add to their learning experience. By developing the students' awareness in different topics of sustainability and environmental responsibility through this program, BSRC hopes they will become leaders in their community and encourage others to follow their example.

Cypress Hills Energy Block Party (CHLDC) launched a 250 tree give away in partnership with MillionTreesNYC and the Pratt Center on June 4th, 2011. The event welcomed hundreds of residents of both Cypress Hills and neighboring communities. They were entertained by live music by Ola Fresca and a drummers circle and informed about sustainable living by a variety of green advocacy organizations. The youth participated in the making of a live community mural that represented a neighborhood pledge to action toward sustainable living in Cypress Hills, thanks to ARTs East New York.

ARTs East New York kicked off their first week of Summer Saturdaze on Saturday, July 9th 2011. The event theme was "SANKOFA" - African music, dance, poetry and art - and there was a community discussion on recycling and energy efficiency. Summer Saturdaze will continue every Saturday until August 27th, 2011 at the East New York Farmers Market located at 613 New Lots Ave, Brooklyn, NY. For more information about Summer Saturdaze, visit http://www.artseastny.com or http://www.eastnewyorkfarms.org.

IAP: The Pratt Center has partnerships and a community development record in Jackson Heights, East New York, South Bronx, the Lower East Side, Downtown Brooklyn and Bedford-Stuyvesant. What are some factors it considers for allocating resources and implementing programs into these and other prospective neighborhoods?

RJ: Pratt Center works with community-based organizations in low and moderate income communities throughout NYC, providing technical assistance in planning, policy, architecture and organizing to advance a social agenda informed by and defined in large part by those communities. We do this work in partnership so it's not about allocating resources, but rather developing programs and campaigns collaboratively, where oftentimes the community-based organization is the client for which we work.

Factors that we consider include: whether the community and project fit our mission; fit of the task at hand with the skill-set and expertise that we have; uniqueness of the value that we can add; and whether we are being invited to partner with certain community groups to assist in their planning and development.

IAP: Art may be viewed as the transformation of content and material. In the context of urban planning and community development, how does creativity come into play in transformative strategies to revitalize the city?

RJ: Community development, urban planning, and revitalization of a city is an art in itself. There are many factors to consider when initiating these processes and it takes creativity to craft the right team, efficiently gather data, identify the needs of a community and develop the most effective strategy to resolve issues identified.

However, art is expressive and utilizing artists in urban planning can assist in creatively identifying the interests and needs of the community at large. Art can also be used as a tool for engaging communities to gather important data. For example, we use design charettes, community workshops, festivals, farmers markets and murals as creative methods to gather information and survey the community we are servicing. Using the arts in the planning process and taking a creative approach has also helped us to identify neighborhoods where a creative energy has organically taken hold and then nurture that development with modest interventions and incentives. Pratt Center will continue to engage its projects with this creative planning model as an essential element of community development.

IAP: The immigrant population in New York City influences the diversification of all sectors, including culture and the economy. In a New York Times report on food business development,

[Pratt Center Director] Mr. Friedman said the mix of cultures and steady flow of immigrants in the city created "new ideas for food," some of which could become popular enough to be exported regionally or nationally.

RJ: Immigrants and immigrant communities are at the heart of what makes this city great but they also experience some of the most acute consequences of the ways in which we have not yet succeeded in making this a just and equitable city. As such, we are intentional in our efforts to partner with organizations that are housed in and serve immigrant communities, and that do so in ways that are appropriate to the linguistic and cultural contexts within those communities. Specifically, through our work with Retrofit Block by Block NYC, Queens for Affordable Housing and our involvement in the New York Immigration Coalition's Housing Collaborative, we have provided analysis and organizing assistance in the immigrant struggles to increase the availability of affordable housing overall, to ensure equal access for immigrants to the affordable housing that exists and to ensure that the housing stock where immigrants currently live is decent and safe.

In our transportation equity work we also work with partners serving immigrant communities to advocate and organize around transportation policy and planning that will best serve them. Our work on economic development policy and supporting NYC's manufacturing sector, where 63% of the workforce is immigrant, is centered around fulfilling the promise of opportunity that brought many immigrants here.

Rather than thinking about the ways that we include immigrants in our work, we'd be hard-pressed to identify an area of work that doesn't touch upon strengthening immigrant communities, in partnership with the entities that directly serve them.

The general diversity of arts and culture in NYC is directly related to the city's rich immigrant population. The 1st and 2nd generation immigrants bring with them their traditions, which are exhibited in their artistic and cultural expression. At Pratt Center it is our endeavor to capture this diversity in our Arts and Cultural Initiative in order to give an accurate representation of the communities at large.

IAP: How can artists and activists get involved in the Arts, Culture and Sustainability Initiative?

RJ: The projects related to the Arts, Culture and Sustainability Initiative are designed to rely on the creative talents of artists to promote sustainability and environmental awareness through artistic measures. There are several ways artists and activists can participate in our up and coming projects:

1. Staying abreast with our upcoming events by visiting http://prattcenter.net
2. We are always looking for artists and volunteers for our projects and community engagements. Interested participants should contact me directly, rjilani@prattcenter.net
3. Pratt Center, The Pratt Initiative for Arts, Community and Social Change (IACSC) and Bedford Stuyvesant will be partnering on the "Amplify Action: Sustainability Through The Arts" group exhibit in 2012. The artist call was released Friday, July 15th, so we are accepting submissions for the exhibit from interested artists.

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05/25/2011

New New Yorkers

New New Yorkers students review their work at teaching artist Sol Aramendi's studio in LIC.
Photo courtesy of Julissa Jara.

This month, the IAP features the New New Yorkers (NNY) Program, a partnership between the Queens Museum of Art (QMA) and the Queens Library (QL) to design and implement cost-free courses for immigrant adults in Queens. Art and literacy education for immigrants has no shortage of beneficiaries in Queens, the most diverse county in the United States. With more than 45% of its residents foreign-born, the borough is home to thriving Irish, Korean, Chinese, Greek, Indian and Argentinian communities, among many others. Amidst this cultural mix, the QMA uses its resources as a major art museum and educational center to focus on access for a wide range of audiences, curating art exhibitions that reflect the diversity of the borough and spearheading audience-driven programming to meet the needs of adult immigrants. As part of QMA's educational initiatives, NNY focuses on providing arts, technology and English language acquisition training, giving all participants a chance to explore the role of the arts in education and daily life. Courses that have been offered include Korean Bookmaking, Digital Storytelling, Photoshop and Bengali Dance, and are taught by New York-based artists in a variety of languages. IAP Program Officer Karen Demavivas interviews NNY Programs Manager José E. Rodríguez to learn how NNY continues to develop as a vehicle for cross-cultural exchange.

IAP: How has the Queens Museum of Art's past community outreach shaped the conception of the New New Yorkers (NNY) Program?

JR: Under Tom Finkelpearl's direction, the Queens Museum of Art (QMA) has made a decisive commitment to become "the most community engaged museum" in the nation. In Queens, our surrounding communities are mostly foreign-born and we believe that the museum's programming should reflect that. A lot of our programming can be seen as a series of experiments in trying to become such a place. From that background arose a very courageous approach to Curatorial endeavors, backed by a strong Education Department, and a very receptive Events Department. (Early on, we separated our Events and Education Departments so that the Events Department can pursue community partnerships more aggressively, and the Education Department can take on longer lasting relationships with our surrounding populations.) The New New Yorkers Program comes out of the Education Department at QMA, and it is meant to provide quality programming to our surrounding adult immigrant populations.

IAP: How does this program reach out to immigrant communities now?

JR: We reach out by inviting local-international artists to share their work with these communities through free classes, exhibits and lectures. The most meaningful relationships have been forged through the courses. These occur in the languages of the participants (Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, Tibetan, Portuguese, Farsi, Croatian and Bengali to name a few), and they are meant to serve two purposes: to familiarize immigrant adults with the dynamics and themes behind contemporary art, and to reinforce skills in Arts, Digital and English Literacy. But I should point out that even our English courses are centered on art, and use our collections—or those of other museums—as a starting point.

A lot of outreach is done through our community partner, the Queens Library. The QL is the busiest public library system in the nation (largest in circulation; second largest in number of volumes), and they are very much in touch with the various communities of Queens.

IAP: How did your partnership with the Queens Library form and how did your organizations jointly develop the NNY Program?

JR: The partnership came about when the two directors at each institution decided to work together. We both shared similar goals but in different ways: the QL wanted to provide better quality arts programming to their immigrant audiences, and the QMA wanted to do outreach and audience development within the same community. QMA has the collections, educators and access to artists to implement the type of programming that the library wanted, and at the same time, such programming would be easier to do through the mechanisms that the QL already counted with for community outreach.

It took about two or three iterations to find our working model. At first, we both thought that Artist Lectures in native languages at the QL and ESOL classes at the museum were the way to go, but what we found out was that the participants in these activities wanted more hands-on practice in the disciplines that they were hearing about. They were learning about why contemporary art looks the way it does, and now they wanted to experience making some of it by themselves. At their behest we started offering longer educational experiences in the form of weekly classes lasting 2 months—mostly in the arts—along with gallery discussions at the museum. All classes were taught by immigrant artists in their native tongue. Our students had taught us a very important lesson: that there are many aspects to being an immigrant other than status. They have many areas of interest and skills, and this type of quality-of-life programming can be very instrumental to them having a fuller life in our city, because they are not deferring their dreams and aspirations to some distant future when they will have fulfilled all their language and civic requirements. Sure, we are aware that status and citizenship are important matters, and that's where the QL comes in. They provide a wide range of services in those areas that we cannot cover, and we refer our students to them for that. They do the bread and we do the roses!

IAP: Can you tell us about the NNY Student Council: how it came to be, its goals and the people involved?

JR: The New New Yorkers Student Council came after meeting some colleagues at the Hammer Museum in UCLA. They have a student association, with a budget, where students from various disciplines organize around museum exhibits and projects and put to practice their various skills writing museum materials and taking part in various curatorial efforts. We thought about how some of our students had built up some of the same skills and would probably jump at the chance to pursue some of their own projects with our support. We put a modest budget in place and asked them to elect a board and form a council with the larger student body. We had a very particular situation because most of the students are more comfortable in their own language—with Spanish and Mandarin having the strongest representation—so we decided to make 'viumvirates' out of the positions that require leadership and communication. Hence we have a 6-member board with 2 coordinators (one Spanish speaking and one Mandarin speaking), a Treasurer, a Secretary, and 2 public relations officers (again, in Spanish and Mandarin speaking). During the course of the next year they will be doing open calls, events, and maybe even small exhibitions at our Partnership Gallery to put to practice some of what they have been learning. It is a completely new thing for us, and at the moment we don't know what to expect from it, but since they have fiscal authority we hope to find out where some of their interests and priorities truly lie.

IAP: How do you recruit multilingual artists who can teach a relevant but varied skill set?

JR: By networking with other departments within QMA, and with other arts institutions, artists are approached about teaching opportunities and asked to design courses centered on their work, or the skills involved in their practice. To me the most important standards are that the artist feels passionate about their work, and equally passionate about sharing their work and skills with the community. We are open to all disciplines, but we do have a special interest in interactive and studio art.

IAP: What has been the impact of the NNY Program on your constituents thus far?

JR: In 2010 we served 780 participants directly through courses, and about 5,000 indirectly through exhibits, family events and cultural festivals. During that year we also started implementing Collaborative Action Research on many of our classes to get more details on the impact and efficacy of our programs. Some of the findings were expected; like participants demonstrating increased confidence in everyday activities at work or at home, and feeling more confident when speaking English and discussing a variety of subjects. Some students have also ventured into different enterprises through skills gained at some of our more technical courses like photography or web design. Many of them are reporting increased attendance to other artistic venues around the city.

But there were some unexpected results as well. For example, students associate our program with stress-relief. Others say that now they feel more at ease knowing what their children are doing online now that they can handle computers. This one is particularly interesting because we were aiming at bridging cultural divides, but we had never thought of the generational divides that occur within the family nucleus because of immigration. Also many students asked to join classes whose language they did not speak, and many of those completed the course with the help of the other students. Stepping out from your comfort zone can be a very courageous act in this context. Many students made study groups around the subjects they were learning, and sought further instruction on the subjects learned through us. I view this as a success, because now they have additional motivations to learn the language.

We are just starting to gauge through surveys and observation exactly how our students are interacting with the cultural life of New York City, and whether we are enhancing that experience.

IAP: How can artists, activists and culture workers get involved in your activities?

JR: International artists are encouraged to contact me to learn about opportunities at NNY. Sometimes we don't have something for them right away, but we keep a list of contacts, and artists are contacted about opportunities as they arise within the program, or within QMA at large. If we meet someone who we feel can make a good contribution to our museum, we always look for ways to work with them. Sometimes I have even contacted people one year after meeting them because a colleague asked something along the lines of "Do you know anybody who does this…?"

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03/24/2011

Bronx Council on the Arts

Guests from the Bronx Culture Trolley Saturdays proceed to visit to scheduled events at the Huntington Free Library. One of the venues that participated in the Westchester Square's annual Fair at The Square event on May 15, 2010. Photo courtesy of Phil Cardone.

This month’s featured organization is the Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA), which is a non-profit arts organization founded in 1962. As the official cultural agency of Bronx County, the BCA provides residents from multicultural backgrounds with diverse cultural services and arts programs. Basically, the BCA not only provides financial support to individual artists and non-profit organizations through fellowships, awards, grants and employment, but also cutting edge programs in arts education and cultural strategies to revitalize local communities. The BCA also actively cooperates with other educational institutions and social service agencies as a way to build partnerships to promote their services. About 5,000 artists and more than 250 arts and community-based organizations have benefited from the BCA. Below, please find an interview with Leenda Bonilla, BCA’s Program Manager of Special Events, by IAP Program Officer Karen Demavivas.

IAP: Can you talk about the cultural diversity that thrives in your Bronx community and how the BCA reaches out to the people who live there?

LB: The Bronx is home to 1.4 million people from all parts of the world, rich in cultural heritage and history. For decades, the Bronx has been considered a stepping stone for immigrants and we try to capitalize on this valuable asset by expanding efforts to incorporate immigrants into community revitalization efforts. Half of Bronx residents identify themselves as Latino/Hispanic and one-third as African-American. The Bronx currently has the youngest population in New York State, with 30 percent of residents under the age of 18! We actively promote policies that support community development, and we intentionally use art to enliven neighborhoods and raise the profile of the Bronx as a good place to live and do business.

IAP: Can you briefly share some of the BCA’s major programs and significant milestones in serving the community?

LB: The mission of the Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA) is to encourage and increase public awareness of and participation in the arts and to nurture the development of artists and cultural organizations. For the past 49 years, BCA has been and continues to be a catalyst for creativity, community, advocacy, cultural development, funding support, and presenting opportunities. We are very proud of all our programs and highlight a few of our most visible ones below:

Longwood Art Project is celebrating 30 years as the contemporary arts center of BCA and has supported works of emerging and under-recognized artists, especially women and artists of color, through the Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos, The Project Space @ Longwood, Longwood Cyber Residencies, Digital Matrix Commissions and free public programs.

BCA’s Bronx Recognizes Its Own (BRIO) program provides direct financial support to 25 Bronx-based artists in the areas of literary, performing, media and visual arts. BRIO is a competitive awards program and this year it celebrates twenty two years of creative excellence!

A new and noteworthy program is our Bronx Indie Artists Series (BxIndie), a platform for artists of all disciplines to showcase their work in alternative and community spaces throughout the Bronx. Started in 2009, BxIndie seeks to break new ground in various disciplines and to bring artists closer to their audience, thus increasing community participation and fostering an environment for the arts to thrive.

IAP: Can you tell us why and how the BCA developed the Artisans Collective? Since the BCA established this program in 2004, how has it impacted native, immigrant, and Diaspora artisans in their professional and economic development?

LB: BCA’s Artisans Collective was founded in 2004 to recognize and promote craft-based works of artisans, designers and outsider artists currently living and creating in the Bronx, in an effort to illuminate craft – an integral part of the diverse cultural and artistic landscape of this borough. Dedicated to improving the quality of life of its participants who are mainly immigrants and refugees, the program focuses on cultivating a practical cultural and economic community within the Bronx by training these artists in marketing and other small business skills. The bronxArtworksSM product brand emerged from this group of local artisans and items have been available for sale at the Bronx Museum of the Arts gift shop. Through private commissions and during every First Wednesday Bronx Culture Trolley night at Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos, BCA makes sales and professional development skills available to artisans by providing technical support, entrepreneurial activities and collective exhibition opportunities. Future plans include the creation of an online folio of the works and wares of artists, artisans, outsider artists and other artistic communities living and creating original works in the Bronx.

IAP: Can you share some exciting BCA events and initiatives coming up in your neighborhood?

LB:

Visit www.bronxarts.org for more information on these and other events and activities of the Bronx Council on the Arts.

IAP: How can immigrant artists get involved in your activities?

LB: They can call 718-931-9500 or visit the Bronx Council on the Arts’ website and click the link for the Artisans Collective. Our activities are open to everyone. Our website is constantly updated with the latest programs and opportunities. Check out www.bronxarts.org to learn more about the Bronx Writers Center, our home for writers, readers and the programs that support and encourage them, our Arts Information Services, Professional Development opportunities, Grants, Art Handler Training Program, Calendar of Events and more!

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01/19/2011

Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance

NoMAA Grantees 2009-2010. Photo courtesy of Sirin Samman.

This month’s featured organization is the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA), which is a non-profit arts service organization launched in 2007 under the incubation of the Hispanic Federation and with the financial support of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone. Since then, NoMAA has been nurturing the works of artists in these communities as well as developing partnerships with businesses and other organizations to increase the area’s visibility. It strives to foster the diverse artistic expressions of artists and cultural organizations throughout Washington Heights and Inwood by increasing the visibility of their works. NoMAA’s promotion of the arts enables the success of low-income artists from underserved communities, and stimulates economic development in the neighborhoods they serve. The NoMAA interview conducted by IAP Program Officer Karen Demavivas can be viewed below.

IAP: NoMAA currently offers the NoMAA Regrant Program, Technical Assistance Workshops, Artists’ Salons & Community Forums, and First Thursdays Arts & Business Stroll. Can you describe these initiatives in more detail?

NoMAA: The following are the details of these core programs:

NoMAA Regrant Program: This program supports new works by individual artists and capacity-building projects for arts organizations in Washington Heights and Inwood. This program is possible thanks to the support of JPMorgan Chase Foundation and the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone (UMEZ).

NoMAA Technical Assistance Institute & Workshops: The NoMAA Technical Assistance Institute is a day-long training conference for artists and arts organizations from Washington Heights and Inwood. The overall goal of the Institute is to provide information and assistance to help artists and arts groups to sustain themselves through their art and to be part of the arts marketplace in New York City and beyond. It responds to the developmental needs of the artistic and cultural community. There are hundreds of individual artists living and working in the Washington Heights/Inwood area as well as dozens of small primarily artist-run groups, actively engaged in arts and cultural programming. NoMAA recognizes the important role that local artists and arts groups serve in the socio-economic well-being of the community and their potential of contributing significantly to the overall arts movement in New York City. The organization is also part of the Upper Manhattan Arts Services Team, which is a collaboration between NoMAA and the Harlem Arts Alliance to provide technical assistance throughout upper Manhattan.

Uptown Arts Stroll: An annual arts festival that promotes the works of artists in all disciplines as well as the many community attractions in Washington Heights and Inwood during the month of June.

The First Thursdays Arts and Business Stroll: Monthly guided tours of local businesses, arts studios and galleries, organized by local artists and business partners.

NoMAA Artists’ Salon: The Artists’ Salon serves as a space in which artists of all disciplines can exhibit their work, perform, network and create partnerships with each other.

IAP: Since it began in 2007, can you highlight the prominent impact that NoMAA’s presence has had in Washington Heights and Inwood?

NoMAA: Here are some highlights of our 2010 accomplishments:

· 100 sponsored arts activities reaching thousands of people in underserved Northern Manhattan neighborhoods;
· Over 500 artists served through our Technical Assistance Workshops, Gallery Program, and Artists’ Salon series;
· $68,000 awarded in regrant monies to 48 local artists and six arts organizations (almost a quarter of a million dollars total in regrants have been distributed since the program launched in 2007);
· Developed and enhanced core partnerships with a variety of prestigious community organizations and institutions including the Hispanic Society, Columbia University, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Audubon Partnership for Economic Development, Dwyer Cultural Center, Harlem Arts Alliance, Isabella Geriatric Center, the Manhattan Times, NY Restoration Project, NYC Parks & Recreation Arts, Culture and Fun Series, Workspace Offices & Studios and many others.

IAP: Can you share the ways in which NoMAA’s promotion of the arts sparks the economic development of the neighborhoods you serve?

NoMAA: In the three years that NoMAA has been active, we have contributed greatly to the economic development in the neighborhoods of Washington Heights and Inwood. Through our promotional efforts, we highlight all the wonderful local artists, arts groups, and happenings. We partner with local businesses and institutions that support the artistic community and our initiatives bring attention to our cultural destinations uptown. Our programs, especially the technical assistance workshops, provide our constituents with the tools to sustain themselves in the art world and the opportunity to contribute to the local community. We are also able to provide our artists and arts organizations funding to support new works of art and capacity building projects. Artists and arts groups that have received our support have gone on to many great successes such as Gina Crusco of Underworld Productions, an opera ensemble, that receives support from a wide variety of funders and produces distinctive contemporary operatic works. Another example is Rashaad Ernesto Green, a filmmaker who will debut his first full-length feature film at the Sundance Festival this year!

IAP: How can artists, activists, and culture workers get involved in your work?

NoMAA: The first thing interested individuals can do is sign up for the NoMAA E-Newsletter and visit our website regularly to stay informed about our programs and services. Our E-Newsletter is a biweekly, bilingual (English and Spanish) e-newsletter featuring all the arts activities going on in Washington Heights and Inwood. NoMAA also sends emails periodically with news that relates specifically to artists including upcoming grants opportunities and free workshops. Our website provides information about NoMAA’s programs and services, resources for artists, news, links to other arts organizations and resources, and a calendar of all things and events related to the arts scene in Northern Manhattan. You can sign up for our mailing list via our website: www.nomaanyc.org. Don’t forget to become a NoMAA fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter! Also, NoMAA will soon launch an inaugural membership program that will provide access to our programs and other great benefits!

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11/23/2010

City Lore

Third grade students from PS 11 in Woodside, Queens, visit the home of Samantha Mukhavilli, an Indian immigrant who draws rangoli designs in rice flour in front of her home every day. Photo courtesy of City Lore

This month, the IAP features City Lore and IAP Program Officer Karen Demavivas interviewed Amanda Dargan, City Lore’s Education Director.

IAP: Can you tell us more about City Lore programs and activities that engage immigrant artists and audiences?

AD: City Lore engages immigrant artists and audiences through a variety of programs, such as our City of Memory ethnic neighborhood tours, where we work with community residents to create and host online tours of immigrant neighborhoods, such as our Indo-Caribbean tour of Richmond Hill, Queens, led by Pritha Singh, Executive Director of the Rajkumari Cultural Center, and a Russian tour of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, led by Rita Kagan. For these and other City Lore programs, our staff works closely with local residents to identify and interpret places that are important to these immigrant communities.

Our methodology for working with communities is to identify a community spokesperson to pre-identify and videotape two or more spots for a prospective web-based tour of places significant to the community. The spokesperson working with us then invites 12-15 key members of the community to each workshop. At the workshop, the community spokesperson and the Place Matters team use the online “draft” of the City of Memory virtual tour as a starting-off point for the discussion that focuses on identifying places that matter to the community and the reasons for their importance. For communities who are new to the concept of preservation, identifying sites for the web exhibit and documenting them leads naturally into a discussion of other potential preservation and commemoration initiatives. Links to some of the tours and stories are:

• www.cityofmemory.org/map/#/tour/40/ (Russian New Immigrant Tour, led by Rita Kagan).
• www.cityofmemory.org/map/#/tour/36/ (South Asian Tour, led by Madhulika Khandelwal).
• www.cityofmemory.org/map/index.php#/tour/75/ (Indo-Caribbean Tour, led by Pritha Singh.

In addition, City Lore has and is developing a series of programs with ethnic and new immigrant poetry communities in New York. With recent funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Two Boots Corporation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, we are working on a series of poetry presentations in local NYC neighborhoods. We are working with the Garifuna, Indo-Caribbean, Pakistani, West African, Dominican, and other communities on a program that will host live poetry presentations in multiple languages. We are also designing and implementing a “poemobile” that will project poems on the sides of buildings in ethnic neighborhoods. The poems will be in multiple languages, and we will work with a “poetry ambassador” from each community. Finally, the project will result in a directory of ethnic poetry communities for the web, highlighting not only information but also poems from each group.

City Lore’s school programs bring immigrant artists and community residents to teach or share their traditional arts and cultural history with children. Most of our partner schools have large new immigrant populations, and we seek out new artists to add to our roster each year in order to address the changing demographics of the schools and their local neighborhoods. We provide professional development and a mentoring program for artists new to teaching in public school settings, and we also bring artists who may not be interested in teaching in our long term residency programs to share their artistry and experiences with students as classroom guests.

Our artist residency programs often engage students in exploring their own immigrant experiences or family history. Students interview family or community members about their immigrant experiences and explore immigrant neighborhoods in the city, led by community artists. They work with their teaching artists to create artwork inspired by their research. City Lore also designs residencies that engage students in researching the immigrant history of different ethnic groups in this country. In these residencies, students work with artists to retell a group’s history through theater and traditional music and dance. Immigrant guests visit the classroom to be interviewed and to demonstrate their artistic process. Students also visit artists in their homes or studios. In a recent artist residency, for example, students learning about the traditional arts of India visited the home of Samantha Mukhavilli in Flushing, Queens, and watched as she drew rangoli designs with rice flour in front of her house. Another group of students learning about the Brazilian martial art of capoeira, visited the Capoeira Angola Studio of Mestre João Grande in Manhattan where they met and interviewed older masters of the art form and their younger students. These experiences often inspire students to make connections to their own immigrant experiences and communities.

IAP: Can you tell us a bit about the impact of these initiatives? What were the challenges and successes to outreach and engagement?

AD: City Lore’s professional development program for teaching artists has brought many new immigrant artists to teach in K-12 school settings. As an organization, we have made changes in our own program design to address the unique challenges and gifts that traditional artists from diverse cultural backgrounds bring to their work with public school students. Increasingly, these artists seek to collaborate with our teaching artists who may have formal arts education experience to design artist residencies that provide opportunities for students to learn both in and through traditional art forms. The artists report learning new ways of teaching from each other and making connections between their art forms and artistic processes. Students in these residencies begin to value their own traditional arts and culture as forms of expressing identity and as a resource for original creative expression. Parents of these immigrant students, many of whom struggle to integrate their families into American society and, at the same time, maintain their children’s connection to their home countries, often tell us that these arts experiences inspire rich conversations about their family’s history and traditions.

IAP: How can people get involved and support your work with immigrant communities?

AD: City Lore continues to document new immigrant communities through its City of Memory tours. We welcome community members interested in hosting a tour to contact us. City Lore will video tape the tour, edit it, and post it on the City Of Memory site.

City Lore works with new artists every year and provides training for those who are interested in working as educators in public schools. Artists interested in working as guests or as teaching artists in public schools should contact City Lore for more information. City Lore also designs field trips to ethnic neighborhoods and community sites for students, and we welcome suggestions and advice on places and people that are important to new immigrant communities in New York.

IAP: Moving forward, how does City Lore envision these programs evolving?

AD: With the reduction in both government and private funding for arts education programs, City Lore is working to develop models for arts education programs that are less costly to schools. On our website, currently being redesigned, we will feature our teaching artists and guest artists, resources for designing community-based research with students, and our neighborhood tour sites. Our goal is to encourage schools and other arts organizations to work with new immigrant artists as guests in their classrooms and to take advantage of the rich resources these new immigrant communities offer.

With each ongoing year, our contact with NYC’s diverse and new immigrant communities grows more extensive. We look forward to partnering with these communities to continually develop innovative ways to present their cultural heritages to both local and city-wide audiences in New York City.

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09/21/2010

Art for Change

The Border Project installation as part of the Art for Change exhibition “Gateway: An Artistic Response to the Immigration Crisis.” Photo courtesy of Harry Jean-Pierre.

This month, the IAP features Art for Change (AfC), an organization that encourages the advancement of progressive social change by using art as a catalyst for disseminating information to people. They provide space to discuss and explore that information, stimulating individual and collective reflection, which leads to action and change. The IAP is among AfC’s collaborators in their current exhibition “Gateway: An Artistic Response to the Immigration Crisis,” which runs through September 30th. Please view the exhibition’s details in the "Headlines" section of this newsletter.

IAP Program Officer Karen Demavivas interviews one of AfC’s founders Eliana Godoy.

IAP: Art for Change was founded in 1997 and your were among its founders; can you share your perspective on how it got started?

EG: I moved to East Harlem at a point in my life when I was reflecting on my role on this earth. I wasn’t happy working for a for profit company that did not connect me to a community and did not contribute towards the improvement of anything or anyone else other than other for profit companies. But, discovering the neighborhood of East Harlem and New York City made me realize that after migrating to the United States, I had never been comfortable here. I started to ponder on issues of structural violence, poverty and racism. It was evident that issues of poverty affected the US just as much as it affected my country, Bolivia. The community of East Harlem was experiencing its own transition engendered by “economic development” and gentrification. Though some people felt things were improving, I often wondered “for whom.” It seemed to me that the majority was marginalized by the effects of so-called economic development. East Harlem was also welcoming a high influx of immigrants from Central and South America, who were clearly helping to build the community yet were affected by poverty, prejudice and exploitation. I became obsessed with these issues as for me, it was all personal. As an immigrant and as a woman of color, I experienced all sorts of oppressive structures here in the US. I also experienced family violence and structural violence back home in Bolivia. Through it all, poetry, theater and dance were always my powerful tools of resistance. These artistic disciplines educated me and allowed me to digest my environment, to dissect my experiences, but most importantly to have a voice and to give voice to my people. Art became my method for coping with life’s hardships and for enjoying life’s beauty. Art gave me hope. It was this that I wanted to share with others in my new community of East Harlem. The result of this reflective period of my life is Art for Change.

IAP: Can you talk about the cultural diversity that thrives in your neighborhood of El Barrio, East Harlem and how AfC reaches out to the people who live there?

EG: East Harlem is a diverse community, home to African Americans, Puerto Ricans and immigrants from Central and South America. There is also the presence of immigrants from China and Africa. Art for Change interacts with the community through it diverse programming such as youth theater (CALLE), family workshops, and exhibits (Art Belongs to Everyone). It also interacts with artists and volunteers living in East Harlem. Artists can not only promote their work, but they can also interact with their community. Much of our work has focused on providing a platform where people can congregate in a safe environment to engage in the exploration of social and political issues. Though we strive to build bridges among the many diverse identities of our neighborhood, a few of our programs target the immigrant population. As a collaborative of immigrants and children of immigrants, we at Art for Change are devoted to providing support to the immigrants of East Harlem and to assist in the analysis of the complexities of immigration.

IAP: AfC has also carried out an international exchange project in Bolivia. Can you share what it was about, how it came about and the reactions of the Bolivian community the project engaged?

EG: The project ExplorArte was in many ways a natural evolution for Art for Change. First, it activated many of our core volunteer educators, youth workers and artist educators by providing a collaborative and participatory program where leadership development and youth empowerment played key roles. Second, it allowed us to deepen our understanding of our collective model. Third, it provided us with the opportunity to connect our local community to an international community. Fourth, it allowed us to develop a more sophisticated structure and programmatic design. The program’s objectives were to facilitate youth empowerment workshops where young people would have the opportunity to 1) engage in analysis of their current environment; 2) engage in active civic engagement; 3) develop leadership skills, 4) strengthen collaborative work through cultural exchange and 5) create art work to voice their social, cultural and political experiences.

ExplorArte was a transformative experience for everyone involved both in the US and in Bolivia. The young people in Bolivia thought Art for Change would bring Euro-American “experts” to tell them what to do and how to do it (top-down strategies often used in international development). They were amazed to meet a diverse group of young artists and facilitators interested in a non-hierarchical and participatory approach. Young people in Bolivia were so empowered that they actually started their own art collectives.

IAP: AfC is now presenting “Gateway: An Artistic Response to the Immigration Crisis,” a group exhibition showcasing works by international and national artists. Can you discuss its theme in more detail, why it was chosen and why now?

EG: “Gateway: An Artistic Response to the Immigration Crisis” is a group exhibition installed over 14,500 square feet, showcasing artworks by international and national artists Patricia Cazorla, Esperanza Cortes, Aissa H. Deebi, Roberto De Jesus, Laura F. Gibellini, Marissa A. Gutiérrez-Vicario, Alejandro Endoke Makuendo Guzman, Gabriel Pacheco, Tara Parsons, Michael Pribich, Elisa Pritzker, Gabriel Reese, Christina Stahr, The Border Project and Nancy Saleme, with a special installation by Michael Sherman. Through drawings, sculptures, and site-specific installations, artists explore historical and contemporary narratives within immigration, including: acculturation; gentrification; economic inequality; discrimination and racism; the “culture of exile” and plight of refugees; immigration policies, regulations and reform; and the controversial roles played by politicians, activist groups, and privatized media.

Art for Change decided to launch an immigration campaign at its third annual public arts festival. The goal of the campaign is to increase awareness of the plight of immigrants while redirecting the current rhetoric of criminalization. As a collective, we are very much concerned with the recent escalation of hate and anti-immigrant sentiment. We are also worried about the messages we are sending to new generations and to the negative effect criminalization and deportation have on children, who are often ignored from the conversations on immigration. We are interested in shifting the paradigm so that people gain an understanding of the complexities behind the immigration crisis and thus engage in a more critical political analysis of the situation. Today, we are faced with a nation where a majority of the people are passive spectators of some of the most racist policies of our times.

Artists trace the path of immigrants beginning with Deebi’s “Don't You Forget About Me (Hope/Amal)” an installation of 1000 paper nightingales that embodies the inspirational journey of global migration. The relationships, dreams, hopes, and cultural values that support the voyage are given a voice within Parsons’ bed installation, “Up All Night Sleeping,” which invites viewers to express their own intimate stories. Gutiérrez-Vicario’s reconstructed container unit, “Storage” focuses on the plight of refugees and the issues of forced displacement and survival that they endure. Pritzker’s cardboard “Immigrant Suitcases” underscore the profound loss immigrants experience in leaving behind personal relationships and memory-laden objects. De Jesus’ “Main Course Cargo, [Vamos Allá]” sculpture of disposable, detergent bottle-caps highlights the commoditization in human trafficking that treats people as import / export merchandise. Pacheco’s “Shadows: Immigration, Migration and Transportation” drawings open a dialogue on the reasons that drive people to migrate and the current public policies and human rights issues that they confront globally. Pribich’s installation, “Ladder of Success,” utilizes stepladders, brass tubing and chains to honor the contributions of blue-collar street laborers as well as acknowledge the idealized and often unattainable promise within the “American Dream” and the harsh reality of immigrant workers in the US.

Collaborating artists, Cazorla and Saleme specifically address the consequences of the recent immigration laws in Arizona on migrant workers in their site-specific mixed media mural, “DeFence.” Gibellini’s site specific mural, "(In)Habitation I" explores the politics of “space” and “place” negotiating the physical and psychological aspects of acculturation built into immigrants’ daily lives through adaptation and integration. In “El Guaraguao en El Barrio,” Guzman takes on a shamanistic role, encompassing himself in a mountain of locally found objects while holding a taxidermy red tail hawk indigenous to both New York and Puerto Rico for a performance that celebrates cultural differences while underscoring our shared history and humanity. Cortes and Reese document and memorialize the priceless legacies of immigrants, specifically in East Harlem. During Hacia Afuera, Cortes interviewed and photographed elder immigrants about their experiences in “Esperanzas en el Jardin de las Esperanzas,” while Reese’s painting “American Rose” pays homage to the cyclical, cross-cultural nature and dynamic beauty of the American Barrio as a haven for immigrants, offering hope and opportunity amid alienation. Stahr welcomes visitors to walk along her “Red Tape Labyrinth” in order to reflect upon the concept of “passage,” the process of migration and states of transience. Students from The Border Project share their perspective of living in the present-day cultural and political borders of Arizona, Mexico, and the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation.

IAP: Are the artists in the exhibition coming from an immigrant experience themselves or involved in activism among immigrant communities?

EG: There are more than fifteen local and international artists participating in the exhibit and the program itself. Each of them is exploring the issue of immigration from a different lens, a different process, and a different experience. Most of the artists are coming from an immigrant experience themselves and/or are engaged in solidarity work with immigrant communities. I will highlight one example from the exhibit and two from the Gateway as a larger program of the campaign. For instance, the high school participants of “The Border Project” share their perspective of living in “the present day” of the cultural and political borders of Arizona, Mexico and the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation. This is an interesting project started by artists Morgana Wallace and Jewel Fraser Clearwater. For more information, visit http://www.theborderproject.org/index.html.

The other example is Favianna Rodriguez who is part of the program Gateway in the capacity of facilitator of a workshop “How to Design to fight Anti-Immigrant Hate.” Favianna Rodriguez is an artist-entrepreneur who has helped foster resurgence in political arts both locally and internationally. Rodriguez is renowned for her cultural media projects dealing with social issues such as war, immigration, and globalization, as well as for her leadership in establishing innovative institutions that promote and engage new audiences in the arts. In 2009, she co-founded Presente.org, a US-based, nationwide organization dedicated to the political empowerment of Latinos via the internet and mobile messaging.

The last example of an artist participating in the Gateway program is filmmaker Dr. Ray Romano who will present his film “The Other Side of Immigration.” This is an award-winning documentary based on interviews with men and women in the Mexican countryside. The film explores why so many people leave small Mexican towns to work in the United States and what happens to the families and communities they leave behind. Dr. Germano has conducted extensive research in the Mexican countryside with support from the National Science Foundation. His dissertation advances a unique theory about the billions of dollars Mexican immigrants send home every year.

IAP: AfC is also carrying out a community organizing campaign called The Ugly Side of US: Direct Action for Immigration Reform. What interventions have artists and activists in the campaign conducted so far?

EG: “The Ugly Side of US” was Art for Change’s first attempt at mobilizing artists to work on issues of immigration. In many ways, this was the first installation of the Immigration Campaign. “Hacia Afuera” and “Gateway: An Artistic Response to the Immigration Crisis” are only the continuation of this work. We envision a long-term campaign, informed by undocumented immigrants and driven by the collaborative work of the collective. The campaign is still in its early stages. The next program will take the form of a town hall meeting where undocumented residents will communicate their current experiences, struggles and hopes. We hope to mold our priorities based on this meeting, while enlisting the support of undocumented immigrants and other artists from inside and outside our community. Through the campaign, we hope to engage in a meaningful and on-going dialogue that engenders the participation of many more artists. We also hope to produce programs that provide a safe space for children affected by immigration and to voice their experiences to the larger audience.

IAP: The organization depends on the talents of its volunteers; how many volunteers are active now and what are the myriad skills they contribute to AfC? How can people get involved as volunteers?

EG:There are about 25 active volunteers who come from different ethnic, educational, social and professional backgrounds. Art for Change provides ample opportunities for citizens (at various stages in their social justice trajectory and with no prior knowledge of arts programming) to become actively involved in the affairs of their community, while also facilitating learning and leadership development. Our horizontal leadership development model prepares people to take an active role in social justice even after their involvement with AFC. One of our goals is to inspire and develop life-long changemakers. All the programs of AFC are created and executed by a body of volunteers from different fields and representing diverse identities. This helps to create an environment of peer led stimulation, learning, challenging and sharing. It also serves as a demonstration that people can transcend the borders of "isms" by working towards a common goal.

The meetings resemble something of a town meeting, following a democratic process where everyone voices their opinions and participates in decision-making. The volunteers are managed by a Founders' Circle comprised of 15 of the most dedicated volunteers. The Founders' Circle is accessible to all. Any volunteer can be nominated to become part of the Founders' Circle, which works in collaboration with the Board. The Board provides fiduciary responsibility and governance while the Founders' Circle and volunteers manage and execute the programs of the organization. The Founders' Circle members are divided among four committees: programs, administration, finance, and development. Each committee recruits its own volunteers through our many programs.

Anyone can be a part of Art for Change. People who are interested in volunteering with Art for Change can email Alyssa Fridgen and those who are interested in working on the immigration campaign should email Junior Manon.

IAP: What is AfC's vision for the future?

EG:Our vision is to develop sustainable models for citizen led organizations to thrive in an environment that makes it difficult for grass roots organizations to exist. We want to continue to provide a stimulating space for artists, activists and citizens to create.

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07/20/2010

Cidadão Global

The capoeira group Batuque holding a workshop in partnership with the Brazilian community-based organization Cidadão Global at the US Social Forum in June 2010. Photo courtesy of Cidadão Global.

This month the IAP is thrilled to feature Cidadão Global (CG), a community-based, social justice organization doing groundbreaking work with low-income Brazilian immigrants based primarily in the New York City area. CG is dedicated to promoting and defending the human rights of immigrants and strengthening citizen participation and collaboration within the Brazilian community. Among its member are artists and culture workers who benefit from its programs, which include ESL classes, public service and healthcare referrals, legal services, job search assistance, social venture development, and leadership training. The following piece is taken from an interview with Ramona Ortega, CG ’s Executive Director, conducted by IAP Program Officer Karen Demavivas.

How did CG begin?
In 2007, Ortega and some Brazilian friends addressed the fact that the Brazilian community lacked a leading political voice on immigration and social justice issues as well as a proper community resource to help people navigate the system. For instance, Ortega would often receive requests from capoeiristas on how to find immigrant services. In addition, there was a lack of experience on community organizing among Brazilians, which is a new concept for a population that has only engaged in segmented forms of business associations, church groups, and cultural organizations. Cidadão Global was then born as the only Brazilian community-based organization to address these concerns. Ortega came on board as CG’s Executive Director with her knowledge of non-profits and experience as the former director of the Human Rights Project at the Urban Justice Center. Since then, CG has received critical support and was awarded a prestigious Union Square Award for Social Justice in 2009.

How does CG perceive the connection between art and social justice?
CG’s mission and discussions around social justice come out of Afro-Brazilian cultural traditions such as samba, capoeira, and maracatu, which provided expressive force to the Afro-Brazilian political movement for liberation in Brazil. Grounded in this history, CG values the power of creativity in mobilizing social change.

How do artists versus activists approach activism?
The gap is in the follow-up. Afro-Brazilian artists have the socio-political consciousness, but often do not pursue concrete action beyond an event or performance. For a social justice organization like CG, awareness raising is not enough; there needs to be a focus on active participation and long-term impact. CG can provide artists with this follow-up. For example, when CG attended a screening on a documentary entitled Rhythmic Uprising about artist-activists in Bahia, it ended with a Q & A with the director. CG took it a step further by partnering with the director and subsequently providing more visibility for the film with a screening at the US Social Forum.

How does CG engage with artists and culture workers in its work?
CG connects many artists and culture workers in its membership base with resources and services across its programmatic areas. The organization also highlights cultural events and performances on its website and other online social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. In addition, CG provides artists with space to do classes and workshops on samba, capoeira and other types of creative expressions.

CG is open to more specific opportunities for cultural collaboration. For International Workers’ Day this past May, the organization worked with a Brazilian photographer to present dignified portraits of Brazilian domestic workers in an exhibition at Art House Astoria. At the US Social Forum last month, CG collaborated with a capoeira group to deliver a workshop on capoeira as a means for community organizing. The organization also taps into the creative skills of its membership base such as a filmmaker who helped CG produce an online video to encourage the Brazilian community to participate in the 2010 Census. Furthermore, musicians have been called upon for events such as CG’s fundraising party where a DJ played Afro-Brazilian funk music. As part of the Union Square Awards grantee network, CG has also engaged with cultural organizations that were recipients of the Union Square Arts Awards.

How has CG’s social entrepreneurship program engaged in the creative economies?
CG has supported an Afro-Brazilian women’s cooperative in an impoverished settlement (favela) in Rio de Janeiro. This group called Cooperativa Bordadeiras da Coroa makes handbags and clothing to sell in order to fund their political work. The organization buys what they make and sells them to supporters in NYC. CG thereby enables the cooperative’s economic mobility, which paves the way for their political participation.

What are CG’s next steps?
CG is focused on building its Brazilian membership and community base. Its door-to-door outreach to the Brazilian community for the 2010 Census brought more attention to CG’s work and, in turn, CG learned more about the community’s concerns. However, the results of the census data will not come out until next year and CG is now focused on a more detailed community survey to identify the needs of Brazilian immigrants in NYC.

In the coming year, CG will carry out more workshops on education (such as how to apply for community college), entrepreneurship, leadership development, holistic health (especially for domestic workers), and knowing one’s rights. Moreover, it is launching a cooperative to empower Brazilian domestic workers. CG will also continue to be a hub for artists and culture workers for referrals to grants and resources.

How can artists and culture workers get involved?
Signing up for a membership online with CG is free and so are the services it offers. In addition, people can get involved by participating in community and public events, attending monthly membership meetings, collaborating on a cultural project, and volunteering. Many of CG’s members are based in Queens, New Jersey and Mount Vernon, while some who were New York-based, have since moved back to Brazil. The organization encourages the engagement of its members rather than depending on administrative staff to run its programs. This is reflective of CG’s goal to build and empower a Brazilian community base.

What is CG’s take on the immigration reform debate?
The lack of immigration reform means that people need to keep the pressure on. What is happening with the Arizona law that calls for the more stringent enforcement of deportation is not just about the Mexican community; it is a threat to any immigrant population. Among CG’s constituents, there are personal stories of talented young people who fall under the need to pass the Dream Act, which would provide citizenship to children of illegal immigrants so that they can pursue higher levels of education in the United States. People need to have a political voice to address injustice. CG encourages this as an active part of the New York Immigration Coalition and Domestic Workers Congress. It has provided institutional muscle to get people out to lobby and march in the streets.

To learn more, visit Cidadão Global's website.

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5/28/2010

Asian American Arts Alliance

Kaoru Watanabe performs at the opening of a recent Asian American Arts Alliance Brainstorm! Workshop. Photo by George Hirose.

This month we profile our Brooklyn neighbors and collaborators the Asian American Arts Alliance, who just announced their new online platform for artists.

A lot has changed since 1983, when the Alliance was first founded. The Alliance continues in its dedication to strengthening Asian American artists and arts/cultural groups in New York City through funding, promotion and community building, but they are also moving into brand new territory with a4Hub, their new interactive online platform for New York City's Asian American artistic community.

What is a4hub?

The Alliance's entire website - www.aaartsalliance.org - has been redesigned as an interactive social network for artists and arts organization serving the NYC area Asian-American community. Members can join for free, upload multimedia content like music and videos and photos, message other members through the internal email system, write on each other's walls, share upcoming events, and participate in discussion forums.

Why the change?

Instead of a traditional website with mainly static content occasionally updated by program staff, an interactive hub like the Alliance's allows for a much more dynamic, democratic site with constantly updating content and much greater input from the entire community of site viewers(using user-friendly Ning technology). According to Alliance Program Director Nico Daswani, the site was created to enable greater communication among Alliance members, providing a larger-scale, virtual counterpart to physical gatherings like the monthly Town Hall. It also allows the Alliance to grow its online community, reaching out to new members and audiences - page views have tripled since the new hub was debuted at the beginning of the month.

Do you have to be Asian-American and NYC-based to join?

No - the hub, and the Alliance itself, are open to all individuals and organizations with a connection to Asian and Asian-American arts in the New York City area.

What does the Alliance offer on the ground in New York?

How can you get involved?

Come out to the next Town Hall gathering on June 1, where artists and arts workers convene for a lively forum to announce news, learn about opportunities, and meet each other. Participants are invited to bring flyers and postcards, and to contribute food to the pot-luck. See the Headlines section of this newsletter for more information.

Visit the Alliance's website and online hub: www.aaartsalliance.org

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4/30/2010

Chez Bushwick

A performance by Chez Bushwick. Photo: The Field, © Michael Hart.

NYFA Immigrant Artist Project sat down with Jonah Bokaer, Founding Director of Chez Bushwick, an artist-run organization dedicated to the advancement of interdisciplinary art and performance with a strong focus on new choreography.

Chez Bushwick is located in an industrial swath of the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, and it is best known for offering New York City's only $5 subsidized rehearsal space (first come first served through a regular online booking system). But they do much more than simply rent out their space, producing their own programs and spearheading community development efforts...

How did Chez Bushwick come to be?

Bokaer, along with fellow founding artists Laura Dempster and Jeremy Wade, responded to Manhattan's rapidly rising rehearsal space prices by crossing over to Brooklyn and opening Chez Bushwick in 2002. They decided on $5 as a fair and equitable rate to charge artists in need of the space. Renters come from all over the city, from around the corner to the far reaches of the Bronx and Queens, not to mention Manhattan.

What goes on there?

In addition to rehearsals, Chez Bushwick produces over 40 public programs a year, often filling the space to its 75 person capacity. These could be anything from Japanese knife dances and whirling dervishes to film screenings, experimental theater, youth programs, a monthly series of new works and an annual folk dance festival, coming next in fall of 2010.

What's going on in the neighborhood?

Brooklyn, and especially Bushwick, has been changing at a constant pace over the last decade, as it becomes a more desirable location for artists and, eventually, new transplants from other parts of the city. Recognizing that a community's long-term value and local economy is often forsaken in the process of neighborhood renewal, Chez Bushwick partnered with local businesses, residents, schools and arts organizations to found CAPITAL B (standing for Coalition of Art & Performance Initiatives Towards A Livable Bushwick), enlisting the coalition's members in a collective effort to build upon existing resources to catalyze a vibrant and creative local economy.

How can you get involved?

You can visit Chez Bushwick's website - www.chezbushwick.net - to find out more about rehearsal space rental, associated artists past and present, public events, an upcoming grant opportunity, and Chez Bushwick's community base. Also, make sure to check out the space during Bushwick Open Studios, coming up on June 4th through 6th.

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04/02/2010

Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture without Borders/Cultura Mexicana sin Fronteras

Traditional Mexican calaveras (sugar skulls) - with a contemporary twist - from Mano a Mano's annual Day of the Dead celebration at St. Mark's Church in 2008.

In our inaugural Featured Organization section we highlighted the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, whose Cultural Community Initiatives (CCI's) are multi-year collaborations with specific immigrant communities in New York aimed at building up a community infrastructure to support traditional artists. In 2000 the Center's Mexican CCI gave rise to this issue's Featured Organization: Mano a Mano, which is now a thriving independent organization dedicated to celebrating Mexican culture in the United States and promoting the understanding of Mexican traditions among immigrants, artists, educators and the general public.

What do they do?

Incorporated in 2005 , Mano a Mano is based in downtown Manhattan and collaborates with individuals and organizations in all five boroughs and the tri-state area. They focus on five creative disciplines - visual arts, verbal arts and ritual, music, dance, and culinary arts - through three major programs: Annual Events (like the Day of the Dead celebration pictured above), School & Community Programs (through collaborations with the Brooklyn Arts Council, public libraries and others), and Artist Development in the form of workshops and networking opportunities.

Who do they serve?

Working with Mexican traditions and Mexican artists is integral to Mano a Mano's mission, but Executive Director Emily Socolov explains that they are open to working with all artists and audiences that have a connection to Mexico and Mexican culture. Mano a Mano has an inclusive vision of what is considered traditional - for example, a past event focused on Mexican Hip Hop, which Socolov explains fits well within the definition of traditional art as a cultural practice transmitted informally in a community context.

How have recent developments in immigration patterns, as well the social and economic climate in the US, affected the population Mano a Mano serves?

According to Socolov, "There is certainly more activity in [Mano a Mano's] field, more players, and many of the smaller artists' ensembles have become more professional in how they operate. But if you add in the factors of the economic crisis and the stalemate on immigration reform, they kind of counterbalance some of the growth in the community. While the numbers [of Mexican immigrants in New York] have increased - and there are more children in schools (with parents taking a more active role) there is still a lack of political power and integration. Too many people remain undocumented and too many people have suffered in the economic downturn. These factors have hampered community empowerment."

What's new?

Mano a Mano is going through some exciting changes right now, with plans to launch a new website in May. The new, fully bilingual website will include a virtual portal where artists, organizations, and businesses can post their profiles, serving to connect artists with opportunities for training, employment, and general support. The portal will employ text message updates and other innovative technologies to reach artists who do not have regular access to a computer. This work is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

How can you get involved?

>Mano a Mano is one of the many organizations (including NYFA Immigrant Artist Project - see Headlines below) that is presenting an event as part of this year's Immigrant Heritage Week: a panel discussion titled "Language and Identity: Mixtecos in New York." Mixtecos are an indigenous group from southern Mexico with their own language and traditions, a "minority within a minority" who experience additional obstacles and prejudice as immigrants in New York. Presented on Saturday April 17, 2-3:30 pm at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, One Bowling Green, Manhattan. More info.

>For the literary-inclined, Mano a Mano hosts a weekly bilingual creative writing workshop for Mexican immigrants on Monday nights at 6:30 pm in collaboration with the New York Writers Coalition, free and open to all. See contact info below for more info.

>Mano a Mano is always looking for volunteers to help out at their cultural events, and with the launch of the new portal mentioned above, volunteers will also be needed to complete fieldwork to get more artists registered and listed. See contact info below for more info.

Get in touch:

You can visit Mano a Mano's website: www.manoamano.us (new website will go live in May), and you can reach them by phone at 212-587-3070 or by emailing info@manoamano.us.

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3/5/2010

freeDimensional

Issa Nyaphaga, Cameroonian cartoon journalist and freeDimensional artist. Photo: Angèle E. Essamba

"No matter where you are in the world," explains freeDimensional's Executive Director and Founder Todd Lester ",there are always people using creativity to challenge injustice." Recognizing this, freeDimensional (fD) supports cultural workers in distress, including many artists - writers, actors, musicians, photographers - from around the world who face censorship or direct threats to their livelihood as a result of their creative work. fD matches these artists with placements in art spaces that can offer an escape from danger, a temporary reprieve from the stresses of their daily lives, much-needed time for recovery and reflection, or an opportunity to produce uncensored work and reach new audiences - "at the very basic level ... a space to sleep."

How does it work?
freeDimensional is a network of 375 art spaces and 50 human rights and free expression organizations in over 70 countries. Often, a particular artist's case comes to fD's attention through one of their human rights partners. fD then works with art spaces to find a safe haven for that artist in the form of an artist residency, as well as connecting the artist with travel funds, pro bono legal representation and other services. fD's founder saw a lack of resources on one side (a safe space to create for cultural workers in distress) and a surplus of resources on the other (available space at artist residencies) and sought to balance these two realities.

What are some examples of recent cases?
Un Uzbek photographer who was charged with criminal defamation for the content of her work. A Pakistani actor who was kidnapped by the Taliban and is now seeking refuge in Malaysia with his family. A visual artist and cartoonist from Cameroon (see image above). A Burmese installation artist exhibiting in Brooklyn who is currently filing for political asylum (see details below). An Indonesian conflict journalist living in Queens and currently participating in the NYFA Mentoring Program for Immigrant Artists. Since its founding in 2005, fD has taken on 60 such cases.

Where is fD based?
Right here in New York City. fD makes its home, quite fittingly, in a multidisciplinary, multi-use art space: Flux Factory in Long Island City, Queens.

Why New York?
According to Todd Lester, "when people are in trouble they come to New York." New York is tapped into international currents of arts, migration and human rights activism. Given that, fD seeks to be a truly international organization, with regional hubs in Brazil, India, Germany and Egypt and partner organizations all over the world.

How can you get involved?
> Artists in Distress: Access the Creative Safe Haven and Distress Services section of fD's website, where you can be nominated (or nominate yourself) to have your case taken on by fD.
> Emerging Art Spaces: Art spaces interested in building their capacity to receive artists in distress as part of the fD network are eligible to join the Emerging Art Space Support Initiative.
> Anybody, Anywhere: Join the fD online network to contribute to discussions, learn about upcoming events and stay informed about current cases.
> On the ground in New York: Visit fD at Flux Factory, or check their website for upcoming events and initiatives.

Visit fD's website: www.freedimensional.org

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2/5/2010

Center for Traditional Music and Dance

Center for Traditional Music and Dance Touring Artists "Cheres", in traditional garments of Western Ukraine, play music from the foothills of the Carpathians.

When the Center for Traditional Music and Dance (CTMD) - known earlier as the Balkan Arts Center - was founded in the late 1960s, world music was not yet a common term, much less a movement, and a fascination with performance traditions from different parts of the world was just starting to take hold in the US. Over the next two decades CTMD evolved from a focus on connecting performers and audiences for Eastern European music and dance to a multi-faceted and multi-ethnic organization that works with different immigrant communities to strengthen their own ability to present, document and teach the arts forms of their countries of origin in a new American context.

Today, through their Cultural Community Initiatives program, CTMD works with a community - Albanians in the Bronx, Indo-Caribbeans in Queens, or Dominicans in Washington Heights, to name only a few - over multiple years to provide funding, research, and expert advice that allows those communities to coalesce around their traditional musicians and dancers, produce cultural events, establish community-based organizations, and pass those traditions on to a new generation. The goal of each Cultural Community Initiative is to lay the foundation for sustainability by the end of the CTMD's intensive assistance - for example, Mano a Mano (Mexican community) and Badenya (West African community) are two full-fledged organizations that have emerged from past CCIs. Some individual performers and groups also go on to become CTMD Touring Artists, benefiting from CTMD's continued support and international network of contacts and expertise.

How can you get involved?
CTMD's cultural communities and touring artists present numerous events each year. Check out some upcoming performances:

Next Friday, February 12 at 7:30pm CTMD Cultural Community Initiative Pachamama Peruvian Arts will presents The Gods of Sipán at PS 212, 34-25 82nd Street in Jackson Heights, Queens. Pachamama students and master instructors will perform their version of a traditional Peruvian folk narrative complete with acting, music and dance.

Also on Friday, February 12 at 7pm CTMD's Ukrainian Wave Community Cultural Initiative, the Ukrainian Museum, and New York Bandura Ensemble/Bandura Downtown present Michael Alpert and Julian Kytasty's Night songs from a Neighboring Village: Ballads, Folksongs, and Instrumental Music from the East European Jewish and Ukrainian Traditions. At the Ukrainian Museum, 222 East 6th Street, Manhattan (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues).

You can also sign up for CTMD's e-newsletter to stay informed of other upcoming events, and visit their website to learn more about their programs.

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