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MICA Archives - ChangingMedia

Apr 24
0
Community art

Meaning & Merit in Community Arts

By | Art & Social Change, Art That Counts | No Comments

So much of establishing metrics and evaluations for an organization or program is about asking the right questions and sometimes those questions take you unexpected places. For Rebecca Yenawine and Zoë Reznick Gewanter, their questions have led them on a multi-year research project encompassing not only the outcomes of community art projects, but also illuminating the meaning and merit of the field itself.

Yenawine and Reznick Gewanter are both involved in MICA’s Community Arts program (Yenawine is an adjunct faculty member and community art evaluation consultant and Reznick Gewanter is a graduate of the Masters of Art in Community Art and research assistant for studies through the Office of Community Engagement) and collaborators in the Reservoir Hill-based youth media nonprofit New Lens. In pursuit of useful evaluations for New Lens, the pair realized more contextual research was needed in the area of community art. They’ve designed and are in the process of completing the following three-phase research project:

  • Phase I (2010): Conducted 14 national interviews with community arts practitioners with ten or more years experience.
Chart describing the outcomes of community art

Outcomes of community art cited by current practitioners in the study. Source.

  • Phase II (2012): Interviewed more than 80 youth participants of Baltimore community arts programs.
  • Phase III (ongoing): Studied the impact of community arts programs in five Baltimore neighborhoods (four with active community arts programs, plus four control neighborhoods), collecting 1,000 surveys.

As a whole, this research looks to document the impacts of community art in order to help other practitioners, organizations, communities and funders. This sort of broad multidisciplinary research is rare and provides a benefit to the entire field. In its first two phases, the study provides a common language with which to discuss outcomes in community art, and the final phase includes the development of an assessment tool that can be adapted across organizations and communities. In addition to better describing the outcomes of community arts programs, the research of Yenawine and Reznick Gewanter also challenges practitioners and organizations to invest in evaluations that are specific to the impact and influence of the field and not simply generic metrics. On the Americans for the Arts web site, Yenawine writes:

If art is in fact offering a space for developing social understanding, for connecting and building relationships, and for developing greater cohesion, part of the story that needs to be told is about how and why this is a valuable counterbalance to a society whose bureaucracies emphasize productivity, economic success, and competition without fostering the larger social fabric of communities.

This is really the value of outcomes and metrics. Data is more than numbers in a spreadsheet, charts submitted with reports; at its best, it empowers our descriptions and understanding of our communities, our work and their merit.

IMAGE CREDIT. Photograph courtesy of New Lens.
Feb 21
0

Classic Concrete: Why Art?

By | Art & Social Change, Of Love and Concrete | No Comments

Editor’s Note: Our resident bard of Love & Concrete is recovering from his all-consuming labors in birthing the latest incarnation of CreateBaltimore. So in the style of vintage summer re-runs, we present a classic installment of his column.

A typical conversation:

“What do you do?”
“I promote art in Baltimore.”
“That’s interesting. Did you go to MICA?”
“No I went to Johns Hopkins.”
“Did you study Art History?”
“No, I studied engineering?”
“Why would you promote art?.”

Sometimes I am surprised by my transition, but I know that this is where I was destined to be.

My junior year of college I was living with several roommates in a typical Baltimore row house. One evening my housemate exclaimed that his sister had just won a prestigious poetry prize. Having no interest in poetry, I asked to read the work only reluctantly, out of politeness. I was appalled. It had no logic and made no sense. I proceeded to voice my opinion and thus begun a furious debate about the merits of art. I on the side of “what value is gibberish?” and he on the side of expression and new analogy. That was my engineering perception of the world. If it could not be explained scientifically what value did something have?

After graduating with two engineering degrees from Hopkins, and spending two years studying lung cancer, I put on an entrepreneurial hat. I began painting living rooms and bedrooms for upper- middle-class Baltimore. A painter with a degree from Hopkins became a hot commodity. The list of clients grew and I started hiring. Did you know that the most flexible, and surprisingly dependable, work force is artists? My crew had two writers, two visual artists, a musician, and an aspiring architect. Needless to say, our days were spent talking philosophy. Our clients frequently joined the banter much to their own surprise. My crew exposed me to a new type of intelligence. They didn’t know an integral from a derivative, but they knew the classics and understood the world in a different light. They started to shift my sense of value.

The painting business was going great but I had recently married and the future was becoming a reality. As only a spouse can, Jenn expressed that my talents and my personality were not being used to their full potential in my painting business. Shortly after our wedding an employee was injured on the job. The experience shook not only my business but my own outlook. I needed to move on, but to what? I had been reading a book on hope. One of the chapters focused on art. It suggested that art is one of the few places we can honestly explore the reality of the world and, more importantly, that art is a place to express the hope of the world. Could art have value beyond meaningful conversations?

A former employee had been working for a summer to launch a “small” public art project. He could not find traction. He needed a skill set beyond his own. Now, as friends, he expressed his needs and asked if I might use my entrepreneurial skills to do the business side of his art. Looking for a change, and with my growing understanding of art, I agreed to take on the role. Besides, my not-entirely-reconstructed-engineer’s-mind thought, I was now planning to attend business school, so this would also look great on my resume. We began creating a plan to paint 20 walls with the word ‘love.’ I was now commissioned to express the value of art.

Four years later, we have completed 14 Love Project murals. I have got my business education without a degree (or the debt), and I can tell you art is the most valuable thing in the world. It changes people.

I recently visited my college roommate. We certainly touched on art. This time it was I showing him this “amazing” installation that challenges the notion of place, and he wondering if I was crazy! If art can change me, I can only imagine what it can do for the world! In this space, I look forward to exploring that extraordinary power.

IMAGE CREDIT. Baltimore Love Project
Sep 19
0

The Election Connection

By | Design, Social Media | No Comments

It was over twenty years ago when Madonna wrapped herself in an American flag in the first PSA (watch it here) for the Rock the Vote campaign. I’m not sure what I was doing in 1990, but I definitely don’t remember seeing that. I do recall, though, other celebrity and musician endorsements popping up on MTV while I licked nacho-cheese Dorito dust off my fingers. Hard to believe they have been at it for so long. If you can handle the optical assault (did the RTV web designer not get the memo that white type on a black background is not a good idea?), I recommend reading the Rock The Vote history timeline on the website. RTV made huge strides in youth electoral participation by introducing the register by telephone number option and later, online registration for young voters. Today, Rock the Vote is still rocking out, now partnered with data research organization Young Voter Strategies, and is actively road tripping to universities and colleges across the U.S., as well as launching initiatives like getting Virgin America to offer in-flight voter registration and teaming with XBOX to offer easy voter registration while gaming. Clearly, they are finding alternative ways to reach their audience by making voter registration a seamless integration with what teens are already doing.

Millennials are the fastest growing, most diverse generation in our nation’s history, accounting for nearly one quarter of the electorate nationwide, outnumbering seniors this November. By 2016 this group of young people is predicted to make up nearly 33% of all actual voters. —RTV website

Rock the Vote’s method for moving the masses is straightforward: We use music, popular culture, new technologies and grassroots organizing to motivate and mobilize young people in our country to participate in every election, with the goal of seizing the power of the youth vote to create political and social change. In the golden age of music videos, these campaigns were spot on. Are these methods still the most effective when it comes to engaging the most ADHD-riddled demographic of today?

A less popular national youth voting campaign (as of this writing, I VOTE has 262 followers on Twitter) is getting the word out via “viral videos/PSAs and interactive social media.” It’s called I VOTE, and you can view the video spot directed by Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Jessica Sanders below.

It brings a lot of women’s issues to light but let’s admit, it’s a little creepy. According to their sponsor site, “I VOTE will establish this dialogue [among the younger generation] by tapping into an extensive nationwide network of A-List creatives to produce fresh, original content that resonates with younger voters. Filmmakers, actors, artists, photographers, and musicians will lend their talents to give voice to the issues facing us in 2012 and the youth will listen….and talk back.” I wonder if these additional endorsements will be in the same “scary issues” vein as the first video and what millennials will have to say about them.

Regionally, two MICA students have launched Don’t You Want To?, a youth voting campaign with the hopes of getting young people involved as citizens and participants in our democracy. “We hope to use design to go where grassroots organizing and volunteer based registration campaigns cannot,” they proclaim on their Facebook page. Not really sure how that works, but I like the sound of it! The orange and blue are fresh takes on the usual presidential color palette.

The video promises candidate cheat sheets, posters, buttons, online resources and t-shirts, the latter of which I found to be questionable in their messaging. Shirts have slogans such as “Let’s Get a Booth” and “Pull My Lever”, as well as, “Stuff My Box”, “Give Me An Election”, and “Take My Poll” (complete with silohuetted pole dancer). Say what?

I know, I sound like a grandma when I say times have changed. And they have. The web has made information on candidates and election-sensitive topics (biased or not) readily available to those who seek it. And youth-centric issues are hot buttons on the election agenda this year—student debt woes, unemployment and health insurance, even same-sex marriage debates. Once shielded viewpoints now fly freely across the transparent twittersphere. To stand out and engage millennials in this realm, register to vote campaigns do have to kick it up a notch. But that doesn’t mean we should cheapen the message and resort to low-brow, off-color humor. The right to vote is a gift and should be taken seriously. I have to agree with ‏@janekleeb:

Cross the Party Line, cute http://dontuwant2.onlineshirtstores.com/  The rest of the shirts are ridiculous. Stuff my box?! Young voters better than this.

Aug 23
0

Why Art?

By | Art & Social Change, Of Love and Concrete, Social Media | No Comments

A typical conversation:

“What do you do?”
“I promote art in Baltimore.”
“That’s interesting. Did you go to MICA?”
“No I went to Johns Hopkins.”
“Did you study Art History?”
“No, I studied engineering?”
“Why would you promote art?.”

Sometimes I am surprised by my transition, but I know that this is where I was destined to be.

My junior year of college I was living with several roommates in a typical Baltimore row house. One evening my housemate exclaimed that his sister had just won a prestigious poetry prize. Having no interest in poetry, I asked to read the work only reluctantly, out of politeness. I was appalled. It had no logic and made no sense. I proceeded to voice my opinion and thus begun a furious debate about the merits of art. I on the side of “what value is gibberish?” and he on the side of expression and new analogy. That was my engineering perception of the world. If it could not be explained scientifically what value did something have?

After graduating with two engineering degrees from Hopkins, and spending two years studying lung cancer, I put on an entrepreneurial hat. I began painting living rooms and bedrooms for upper- middle-class Baltimore. A painter with a degree from Hopkins became a hot commodity. The list of clients grew and I started hiring. Did you know that the most flexible, and surprisingly dependable, work force is artists? My crew had two writers, two visual artists, a musician, and an aspiring architect. Needless to say, our days were spent talking philosophy. Our clients frequently joined the banter much to their own surprise. My crew exposed me to a new type of intelligence. They didn’t know an integral from a derivative, but they knew the classics and understood the world in a different light. They started to shift my sense of value.

The painting business was going great but I had recently married and the future was becoming a reality. As only a spouse can, Jenn expressed that my talents and my personality were not being used to their full potential in my painting business. Shortly after our wedding an employee was injured on the job. The experience shook not only my business but my own outlook. I needed to move on, but to what? I had been reading a book on hope. One of the chapters focused on art. It suggested that art is one of the few places we can honestly explore the reality of the world and, more importantly, that art is a place to express the hope of the world. Could art have value beyond meaningful conversations?

A former employee had been working for a summer to launch a “small” public art project. He could not find traction. He needed a skill set beyond his own. Now, as friends, he expressed his needs and asked if I might use my entrepreneurial skills to do the business side of his art. Looking for a change, and with my growing understanding of art, I agreed to take on the role. Besides, my not-entirely-reconstructed-engineer’s-mind thought, I was now planning to attend business school, so this would also look great on my resume. We began creating a plan to paint 20 walls with the word ‘love.’ I was now commissioned to express the value of art.

Four years later, we have completed 14 Love Project murals. I have got my business education without a degree (or the debt), and I can tell you art is the most valuable thing in the world. It changes people.

I recently visited my college roommate. We certainly touched on art. This time it was I showing him this “amazing” installation that challenges the notion of place, and he wondering if I was crazy! If art can change me, I can only imagine what it can do for the world! In this space, I look forward to exploring that extraordinary power.

Aug 23
0

Why Art?

By | Art & Social Change, Social Media | No Comments

A typical conversation:

“What do you do?”
“I promote art in Baltimore.”
“That’s interesting. Did you go to MICA?”
“No I went to Johns Hopkins.”
“Did you study Art History?”
“No, I studied engineering?”
“Why would you promote art?.”

Sometimes I am surprised by my transition, but I know that this is where I was destined to be.

My junior year of college I was living with several roommates in a typical Baltimore row house. One evening my housemate exclaimed that his sister had just won a prestigious poetry prize. Having no interest in poetry, I asked to read the work only reluctantly, out of politeness. I was appalled. It had no logic and made no sense. I proceeded to voice my opinion and thus begun a furious debate about the merits of art. I on the side of “what value is gibberish?” and he on the side of expression and new analogy. That was my engineering perception of the world. If it could not be explained scientifically what value did something have?

After graduating with two engineering degrees from Hopkins, and spending two years studying lung cancer, I put on an entrepreneurial hat. I began painting living rooms and bedrooms for upper- middle-class Baltimore. A painter with a degree from Hopkins became a hot commodity. The list of clients grew and I started hiring. Did you know that the most flexible, and surprisingly dependable, work force is artists? My crew had two writers, two visual artists, a musician, and an aspiring architect. Needless to say, our days were spent talking philosophy. Our clients frequently joined the banter much to their own surprise. My crew exposed me to a new type of intelligence. They didn’t know an integral from a derivative, but they knew the classics and understood the world in a different light. They started to shift my sense of value.

The painting business was going great but I had recently married and the future was becoming a reality. As only a spouse can, Jenn expressed that my talents and my personality were not being used to their full potential in my painting business. Shortly after our wedding an employee was injured on the job. The experience shook not only my business but my own outlook. I needed to move on, but to what? I had been reading a book on hope. One of the chapters focused on art. It suggested that art is one of the few places we can honestly explore the reality of the world and, more importantly, that art is a place to express the hope of the world. Could art have value beyond meaningful conversations?

A former employee had been working for a summer to launch a “small” public art project. He could not find traction. He needed a skill set beyond his own. Now, as friends, he expressed his needs and asked if I might use my entrepreneurial skills to do the business side of his art. Looking for a change, and with my growing understanding of art, I agreed to take on the role. Besides, my not-entirely-reconstructed-engineer’s-mind thought, I was now planning to attend business school, so this would also look great on my resume. We began creating a plan to paint 20 walls with the word ‘love.’ I was now commissioned to express the value of art.

Four years later, we have completed 14 Love Project murals. I have got my business education without a degree (or the debt), and I can tell you art is the most valuable thing in the world. It changes people.

I recently visited my college roommate. We certainly touched on art. This time it was I showing him this “amazing” installation that challenges the notion of place, and he wondering if I was crazy! If art can change me, I can only imagine what it can do for the world! In this space, I look forward to exploring that extraordinary power.