NYFA's Immigrant Artist Project

Presents

ART, SOCIAL CHANGE &
ENGAGING IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES

Moderator

Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson is a senior research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Center at the Urban Institute (UI) and director of UI’s Culture, Creativity and Communities Program. Her research focuses on urban policy, neighborhood revitalization and comprehensive community planning, the politics of race, ethnicity and gender in urban settings, and the role of arts and culture in communities. Dr. Jackson’s work has appeared in academic and professional journals as well as edited volumes in the fields of urban planning, sociology, community development and the arts. She has been a speaker at numerous national and international conferences focusing on quality of life, changing demographics, communities and cities of the future, and arts and society. Dr. Jackson is also a consultant and has provided technical assistance in planning and program implementation to numerous organizations including various community development corporations, service organizations, advocacy groups as well as a range of cultural organizations. Dr. Jackson earned an MPA from the University of Southern California and a doctorate on Urban Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Panelists and their Organizational and Case Study Summaries

Heidi Boisvert is Multi-Media Manager at the international human rights organization Breakthrough as well as a new media artist, experimental filmmaker, writer and educator whose work excavates issues of mental colonization and the variegated ways in which organized power threatens independent action and thought. At Breakthrough, she oversees the production of new media projects that address pressing social issues. Most recently, Heidi designed ICED: I Can End Deportation, a 3D downloadable video game about unfair immigration policies. Previously, she taught Digital Media & Media Studies at Hunter College, and launched a free digital media program for low-income youth and adults in the Bronx with Time Warner and NOAA funds. Her experience includes teaching game design, documentary production, photography, and exhibition design. Her film, theatre and interactive projects inhabit various cultures, human psyches and alternate time periods to cultivate deeper understanding of socio-political forces that underlie cultural practices and social development.

Breakthrough
Breakthrough is an innovative, international human rights organization using the power of popular culture, media, and community mobilization to transform public attitudes and advance equality, justice, and dignity in India and the United States.
Breakthrough builds human rights culture with cutting-edge, multi-media and education campaigns that reach millions. We create positive social change by: enabling public dialogue about complex issues; giving a voice to those who are often left out of the conversation; transforming attitudes and celebrating diversity; and empowering youth to create change. We amplify our reach and impact through our partners, which consist of community-based organizations, human rights networks, youth groups, government agencies, online communities and corporations, including the advertising and entertainment industries. 

In the United States, Breakthrough is now working on the following campaigns:

ICED: I Can End Deportation: A free, downloadable 3D videogame that teaches players about the effect of U.S. immigration detention and deportation laws on human rights.  The game puts players in the shoes of an immigrant youth struggling to live, study and work in the U.S. in an attempt to reframe the debate around immigration by demonstrating the importance of due process and fairness for all. 

Homeland Guantanamo: An interactive web experience that explores the inhumane conditions faced by nearly 300,000 people in immigrant detention. Players assume the role of an undercover reporter who must find out what happened to Boubacar Bah, a real man who died in detention. 

Restore Fairness: A powerful campaign site and documentary produced in partnership with 26 leading organizations, featuring interviews with Members of Congress, immigration judges, civil society leaders, and ordinary families affected by harsh immigration laws.  The site includes additional immigration stories, an action hub with take actions, a blog for voicing opinions, and tools for contributing content.

It is also looking forward to some upcoming campaigns: 

ReMIX US:  A video-remix competition to raise awareness about diversity in America by calling on participants to remix the song "this land is your land" and create a music video.  This will be launched in October 2010.

ANOMIE: An alternate reality game built on the Facebook platform that celebrates pluralism in the U.S. by taking players on a 3 month journey through a dystopic universe.  This will be launched in February 2011.

For this panel, Breakthrough will focus on the case study of ICED. This campaign addresses the following problems: 2 million documented and undocumented immigrants have been detained and deported without due process since 1996; 90 people have lost their lives while in immigrant detention since 2004; 1.6 million families -- including parents and children -- have been separated by deportation.

ICED is a single-player online game that teaches players about current immigration laws on detention and deportation that violate human rights and deny due process.  Game players live out the day-to-day life of an immigrant youth by choosing one of five characters based on real-life case studies:

Marc (Haiti, asylum-seeker)
Javier (Mexico, undocumented)
Anna (Poland, thinks she's a citizen)
Suki (Japan, student visa holder)
Ayesha (India, green card holder)

Throughout the game, players make moral decisions, answer myth and fact questions about current immigration policy, and avoid being picked up by the ICE agents.  Incorrect choices increase chances that players will be thrown into immigrant detention.  Once in detention, players experience physical separation from family and unjust conditions as they wait -- often for unknown amounts of time -- for the random outcome of their case: deportation, indefinite detention or citizenship.

Christine Gaspar is Executive Director of the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP). She has worked in the fields of architecture, planning, and community design for more than a decade, on projects that range from architectural design to mapping and spatial analysis to disaster recovery planning. Most recently, Christine was Assistant Director of the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio, a nonprofit organization that provides architectural design and community planning services to low-income communities recovering from Hurricane Katrina along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. She holds Masters degrees in Architecture and City Planning from MIT and a Bachelor in Environmental Studies from Brown University.

Sean Basinski is the director of the Street Vendor Project (SVP) at the Urban Justice Center. The Street Vendor Project is a membership-based organization of more than 1,100 people who sell food and merchandise on the streets and sidewalks of New York City. Sean founded SVP in 2001 after working as a vendor himself on the corner of 52nd Street and Park Avenue. SVP provides individual legal training and representation to its members while organizing vendors to provide an advocacy voice for the entire vending community, which seeks more licenses, more public space for vending, and more respect. Sean received his BS from the University of Pennsylvania and his JD from Georgetown Law Center. In 2009, Sean served as a Fulbright Scholar, conducting research on street vendors and the informal economy in Lagos, Nigeria.

The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) is a non-profit organization that uses the power of design and art to improve the quality of public participation in shaping the city. CUP collaborates with designers, educators, advocates, and community residents on educational projects to improve community life in New York City and beyond. CUP projects begin with questions about how cities work: Who built public housing? Why are neighborhoods declared blighted? What are street vendors’ rights? Collaborators use a research-based, design-driven process to create inventive tools for community participation and change.

Carlos Martinez is a Colombian-born emerging mixed-media artist based in Jackson Heights, Queens who uses photography to document stories. As an environmentalist, social advocate and teaching artist, he has supported art initiatives at the International Center of Photography’s community programs with The Point, National Geographic, and Friends of Island Academy. In 2009, he participated in The Laundromat Project’s Create Change Residency program where he photographed and recorded the personal journeys of community residents using a portable photo booth-meets-confessional stationed at his local laundromats. The collective stories capture the experience and challenges of living in the most diverse neighborhood in the United States. Subsequently, he was invited to be part of The Laundromat Project’s 2010 Artist & Community Council, serving as advisor to the artists in residence and as an outreach partner to increase the impact of their programs. This year, he participated in the Individual Artist Initiative and the Space for Art Residency program sponsored by the Queens Council on the Arts.

In addition to his socially concerned artwork, Carlos’ commitment to environmental advocacy extends to his professional career. For more than 5 years he was Director of Programs and Liaison to Latin America at Green Map System (GreenMap.org). Currently, he is a coordinator of the Catalyst Program “Reclaiming Our Waterfront Parks,” where he supports park stewardship initiatives in historically underserved communities. www.carlosmartinez.me.

Summary
Carlos Martinez has been connected to underrepresented communities through his professional career and his development as an emerging artist. While studying Environmental Administration in his hometown Pereira, Colombia, Carlos began to incorporate social issues into his work that are now part of his artistic vision. His community engagement began with his work as an undergraduate student conducting fieldwork with different ethnic groups from displaced communities, low-income urban families, and farmers in Colombia. This community-centered vision is also present in his academic thesis where he presented an urban ecotourism proposal towards the revitalization of public spaces for New York’s Chinatown. Carlos’ work on community-based projects broadened when he joined Green Map System’s global movement as Director of Programs and Liaison to Latin America where he promoted self-sustaining group leadership and community development around environmental vitality, economic integrity and social equity.

As a new immigrant with an eagerness to further explore his interests in visual art, Carlos enrolled in Project Luz, a program tailored for Spanish-speaking immigrants based at Local Project art space in Long Island City, Queens. This program offers tools to connect everyday life experiences through photography and digital storytelling. Carlos then embarked on the discovery of black-and-white photography at the International Center of Photography (ICP) at The Point, a collaborative community program based in Hunts Point, The Bronx, designed to make photography more accessible to people of every age and background. His engagement went beyond being a student at ICP at The Point. He served as an after-school youth instructor and as a mentor of young participants from underserved communities for the National Geographic’s Photo Camp, which focused on environmental justice issues in the South Bronx. Afterwards, he teamed up with ICP’s community partnership with Friends of Island Academy by empowering young adults transitioning out of the criminal justice system through digital photography, writing and public speaking to envision a brighter future.

In 2009, he was part of The Laundromat Project’s Create Change Public Artist Residency Program, which invites local artists of color to create public art projects in and/or around their neighborhood coin-ops or laundromats. This program also offered him professional development; mentorship and support along the life cycle of the project from a wide range of artists and art professionals; and networking opportunities among other resources. His public art installation, “The Photo Booth Without Borders” invited Jackson Heights newcomers, long-term residents and visitors to share their personal journeys through a portable photo booth-meets-confessional. This booth was mostly built from repurposed materials and stopped at different laundromats in the most diverse neighborhood in the United States. He recorded participants' personal stories and collected photographs of them interacting inside the booth, which featured backdrops of a world map and a calling card mosaic, among other elements. Participants received an instant Polaroid photograph in exchange for sharing their story. Carlos’ previous experiences with local communities set the stage for him to design The Photo Booth Without Borders as a space for people of all ages and backgrounds to share personal stories, explore their sense of community and incite ideas for change through storytelling. Currently, he is part of The Laundromat Project’s 2010 Artist & Community Council, serving as advisor to the artists in residence and as an outreach partner to increase the impact of their programs.

Iris Morales is the Executive Director of the Union Square Awards. Since its inception in 1998, she has worked closely with the donor’s family, the Union Square Fund, and a dedicated staff to help shape its vision and programs distributing over $10 million in Awards to more than 200 community-based organizations. During her tenure, the foundation launched the Union Square Arts Award, several regrant programs and a broad range of technical assistance activities to support and sustain grassroots activism in New York City. Ms. Morales holds an MFA in Integrated Media Arts, a Juris Doctor from New York University Law School and a BA in Political Science. She founded several organizations working with low-income youth, has served on the boards of many arts and community-based organizations and received numerous awards and recognitions for her work.

Union Square Awards
The Union Square Awards are named for the park on 14th Street, a historic gathering place, where since the nineteenth century New Yorkers have organized and spoken out about major social issues. Known as a forum for the poor and disenfranchised, Union Square is identified with strong commitments and highlights the essential qualities embodied in the Award.

Established by an anonymous donor in 1998, the Union Square Award supports grassroots activism in New York City. He believed that local efforts to mobilize New Yorkers for social justice help build neighborhoods, contribute to the City’s vitality, and serve as an inspiration to others. The Union Square Award signifies exceptional work and demonstrated commitment and brings attention to those who, despite limited financial resources, step forward to organize communities. Motivated by a passion for human rights, Award recipients address pressing social issues and bring diverse communities into public discourse. They have distinguished themselves locally and nationally, changed public policies, litigated landmark cases, created innovative models of service and built important community institutions. More than 170 organizations have received the prestigious Award.

In 2006, the Union Square Arts Award was launched in recognition of the central leadership role of arts and culture in providing educational opportunities for young people, building collaboration, and promoting social change. Energized by a passion for both the arts and social justice, the Union Square Arts Award recipients work in all artistic disciplines with youth and families in low-income communities across New York City. They are innovators, less than fifteen years old, with annual operating budgets under $1 million. Thirty-eight organizations have received the Arts Award. It provides a $35,000 grant, comprehensive technical assistance, and the opportunity to apply for regrants toward long-term sustainability.
Award candidates are identified through a nominations process and are reviewed throughout the year. Nominations may be submitted by anyone familiar with the organization’s work and describe why it should be considered for an Award. The Union Square Awards program has been critical to covering operating expenses, seeding new projects, expanding existing programs and leveraging additional funding. The Award is significant not only for the extremely important general operating support it provides but also for the vote of confidence it represents and related resources that it brings. 

For more detailed information, visit www.unionsquareawards.org.

Presenter

Judith Sloan is an actress, writer, radio producer, human rights activist, and educator. She is the Co-Founder of EarSay, Inc, an artist-driven non-profit arts organization dedicated to uncovering and portraying stories of the uncelebrated. EarSay projects bridge the divide between documentary and expressive forms in books, exhibitions, on stage, in sound & electronic media. It is committed to fostering understanding across cultures, generations, gender and class, through artistic productions and education. EarSay's Crossing the BLVD: strangers, neighbors, aliens in a new America (co-created with Warren Lehrer) is a multimedia project about new immigrants and refugees, which won the Brendan Gill Prize among others. Sloan's solo performances have won multiple awards. Her work has been featured on National Public Radio, in the New York Times, Washington Post and has received support from the Ford Foundation, The National Endowment for the Humanities, and arts in-education awards from various foundations and schools. She is an Adjunct Professor at Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU and director of EarSay’s Youth Arts and Activism workshops.

go back