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Art and Civic Engagement Projects by SMFA Students
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SMFA students have been engaging with people, communities, and the issues around them. A few examples can be found below, with their artist statements. Be a part of this conversation and e-mail Andrew Barco for your work to be included on this page.
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| Abigail Schneider
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In September I started passing out postcards (at left) to strangers. All I asked was that the participants write something important about themselves and mail the postcards back to me. I recorded the areas in which I distributed the postcards. This served as a record of which community mailed the most back, as well as which community was more likely to participate in this project. I intend to compile these cards in a project for display. I feel this project supports community engagement, a value the Museum School advocates and supports. In doing this project I am making the public aware of the artists in their community as well as reinforcing the idea that the whole community is important to the art community. More here. Photo: Abigail Schneider, Postcard, 2007.
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| Anjali Nirmalan
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LAS CONVERSACIONES: THE DOMINICAN ART EXCHANGE. "We weren't all born to be doctors and nurses, but we were all born to be healers." (Dr. Charles Dietzen). The Dominican Art Exchange acknowledges that while it is hard to fight for art when you don't have running water, that doesn't mean artists can't still be agents for social change. SMFA students will create small pieces of art for Dominican kids—who have few personal belongings of their own—while at the same time collecting much-needed medical supplies for the village clinics. More here. Photo: Anjali Nirmalan, collection bag for Las Conversaciones, 2007.
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| Daniel Phillips
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I met Jose Luis soon after I moved to New York in 2001. I wanted to do a project about immigrants in New York City, focusing on Hispanic men working in the restaurant industry. I met Jose Luis and his five cousins on the street one night near my apartment. The six of them were living in a basement and were being kicked out by the landlord. Over the next three years, I lost touch with all the men in this group except for Jose Luis. More here. Photo: Daniel Phillps, Jose Luis, 2005.
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| Eugene (Scott) Finney
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The Reach Project, during its first incarnation, was a model designed to test strategies to further engagement between the artist, their own practice, and a constant public audience. By testing this model in an art institution, the project was exposed to critical response from other artists. With this critical response, the project will then be reformatted and presented in a non-art space where it can engage a public audience. For a complete description of what happened during this durational performative installation, click here. Photo: Installation shot, The Reach Project at SMFA, February 1 to 12, 2007.
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| Lynda Michaud Cutrell
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I grew up in Salem and have lived across from a power plant for the last 15 years. I watch coal tankers make deliveries to the plant twice a week from a open pit mine located in Columbia. It is interesting to bear witness to the public's acceptance of the discharge of toxins on a daily basis, and ignorance of the fact that we are at the end of the fuel chain that results in deplorable conditions for poor villages in South America. More here. Photo: Lynda Cutrell, Coal Plant in Salem, 2007.
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| Mary Harvey
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I am a community psychologist, and for 23 years was the founding Director of the Victims of Violence (VOV) Program. In September 2006, I left this role to become a student at SMFA and approached Massachusetts Victims of Violence (MOVA) with the idea of organizing a small art exhibit to coincide with its annual victim rights conference. My goal was to thank MOVA for its many years of support. This "small" idea met with great enthusiasm and tremendous success. To learn more about this event and how you could participate in spring 2008, look here.
Photo: Robyn Reed, Installation shot for Violence Transformed, March 2007.
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| Michael Collins
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I visited New Orleans during the spring of 2006; seven of my friends and I decided to take a road trip to the city and see where we could help. I struggled with my role as an artist amidst all the devastation; photography just didn't feel right ... I knew I had to develop an audio piece that offered something back to these victims, while reflecting the reality of the life they now lead. More here. Photo: Michael Collins, gallery installation shot, 2007.
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| Samara Watkiss
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I created and distributed T-shirts with, "The words on this T-shirt are written in Arabic," silk-screened in Arabic on the front. I expected interactions around these T-shirts to involve people who felt frightened or uncertain about the presence of Arabic. The majority of interactions, however, were with people who speak Arabic and were pleased to see their language. Photo: Samara Watkiss, Dave Pappas wearing T-shirt for the Arabic T-Shirt Project, 2007.
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| Manali Sidthrope and Melissa Rose
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In September 2006, Manali Sibthorpe and I, Melissa Ellsworth, began developing a project about the environmental and social issues in the coalfields of West Virginia. We are aware that as artists, we obtain a skill set that allows us to transcend the typical forms of communication. We have been using this skill to bring awareness to issues we are passionate about. More here. Photo: Manali Sidthrope and Melissa Rose, detail of larger photo, 2007.
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| Nora Chovanec
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Over the past year and a half I have worked with the organization Groundwork Somerville to design, develop, and paint community murals with 4th–8th graders from the Somerville school district. The murals focus on community gardens, healthy eating, the process in which food reaches the table, and how the the Somerville community is involved in each. More here. Photo: Nora Chovanec, Somerville community members painting, 2007.
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| Phyllis Labanowski
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I am white. I was raised working class and I am living a middle class life. How did that happen in three generations? How have race and class privileges operated in my family? What do class and white privileges look like in my life?? If we are to move towards racial and economic justice, I believe we have to come clean and be honest with each other. Dirty Laundry is my attempt. More here. Photo: Phyllis Lapanowski, cover for Dirty Laundry brochure, 2007.
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| Sabri Reed
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The Urban Anthropology Project quickly developed over the spring of 2006 into a collaborative community project, a sort of large-scale dialogical performance in which I played the role of project director. Working individually with 16 people, our walks and conversations became the source and process for 16 site-specific pieces. More here. Photo: Sabri Reed, Kriti Sharma's (a community member) contribution to the Urban
Anthropology Project, selling poison ivy, May 2006.
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