art as a social force

i am writing about the humboldt park community project as part of my reflection in order to help make sense of my current community-based project in albany park.

{pamphlet}

my colleagues and i facilitated various workshops for over 200 participants to raise awareness of local art resources in humboldt park. participants ranging from pre-k through adults drew, colored, and wrote on tyvek squares to express important aspects of their identity.  my colleagues and i collected and sewed the individual squares together to create a series of community quilts to be showcased at rumble arts center in humboldt park. at the end of every workshop, we informed our participants about the opening night and encouraged them to come out and view their artwork, but only a few of the participants showed up at the gallery. through reflection, i realized that we didn't follow through with students, teachers, and parents to remind them about the event. since there were many participants involved, i now think using social media as a platform for information/reminders could have been more effective. furthermore, we were "strangers" coming into the humboldt park neighborhood and we did what was needed to do and left. basically, we focused more on the number of participants/artworks and asked them to do things that seemed more meaningful to us rather than working closely to understand their needs and develop an in-depth relationship. despite all of this, it was an invaluable experience as i learned more about my responsibilities as artist involved in socially engaged practice, and i have met some pretty amazing people along the way.

socially engaged practice can be challenging as it involves many forms of communication, patience, and hard work. every experience in the community is uniquely different and it also makes us go out of our comfort zones and discover something new about ourselves and the world around us. 

community art is by its nature dialectical. it is an expression of both individual and group identity. all creative expression, no matter how 'original,' is an expression of both individual and group life.