The project will bring people together for reflection on each project, art work and festival done last year and continue the co-creation process for year two and beyond. Participating artists, community members and staff will ask What did the festival, meetings or the art work mean to them and their community? What significance did it have and how could that significance be broadened or focused? What was the process like for them and how could it be better? How do they want to go forward in Year Two and beyond? We will record those gatherings on audio or videotape. It will be a deep evaluation process creating a greater sense of involvement, agency, accountability and satisfaction, as well as potentially building something new, creating new ideas on how to go forward.
Works of art created through the project may seem finished and static. Through this process of gathering, reflection and documentation, the artworks will gather new meanings around them; people will communicate these in the sessions. We hope to find ways that art works can change continuously, and live again in new ways. We may be able to add those communications to the art works as text labels, tags, audio, video, or drawings that the sessions evoke. This is possible now that in-person gatherings are happening again.
About Partner
Friends of Peralta Hacienda Historical Park is a museum and community hub in a public park in the diverse district of Fruitvale, in Oakland CA. The nonprofit brings the historic site to life through programming in arts, culture and environmental education corresponding to its three core themes of ethnic identity and transitions, ecological transformations and global interconnectedness. The museum, in a house on the National Register of Historic Places, explores the contested legacy of the Peralta family, who came to California on a colonizing expedition in 1776, as well as amplifying contemporary voices of all of Fruitvale’s dazzlingly diverse cultures. A creek nature area, picnic areas, a playground, and outdoor exhibit elements and signage and community stage grace the outdoor areas. The organization won the National Museum Medal in 2017 for its “outstanding service to the community,” especially its exhibits and festivals put on with, by and for community cultural groups.
Team
Lead Researchers: Holly Alonso, Miguel Lopez
Lead Artist: Linda Yamane, Walter Hood, Susanne Takehara, and Leslie Lopez
