In the News: Arts Making an Impact
A collection of news articles for further reading
on eight key areas of impact.
ARTS IN THE CIVIC SECTOR
“Grace for President,” a children’s play based on a picture book, teaches children about democracy, agency, and the importance of asking questions. →
Cain Center for the Arts spearheads historic preservation project with ceramics facility. →
An uplifting new library in Manhattan comes with 12 floors of subsidized apartments. It’s a clever way to find community support for housing. →
The city of Charlotte announced plans to distribute nearly $1.2 million to local artists and groups through the Opportunity Fund. The money is a mix of public and private dollars that will support the projects of 35 artists and nonprofits. →
The symphony is bringing its music to neighborhoods that make up Charlotte’s Corridors of Opportunity. →
The Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that arts and cultural economic activity accounted for 4.3 percent of the national GDP, or $1.10 trillion, in 2022. →
With her library, senior center, markets and sports complexes, Fernanda Canales is bringing a sense of community, beauty and safety to underserved towns.→
“I believe that in order to make places artful, it is essential to create an environment where people can come and truly feel something,” said Walter Hood, creative director and founder of HOOD and the lead designer for McColl Park. “Our thought process in creating these design concepts for McColl Park centered around the idea of evoking emotions and creating a sense of connection.” →
The San Diego City Council Tuesday unanimously voted to recommend the city use nearly 10% of its annual Transient Occupancy Tax revenue to fund arts and culture, nearly double the current amount.→
Nearly two decades in the making and hailed as a game changer, the program and its steady stream of funds will be transformative for the sector, which is still feeling the impacts of the pandemic. →
The City Council votes on whether to adopt the Charlotte Arts and Culture Plan presented by the city-formed Arts and Culture Advisory Board.→
Tom Stanley and Unique Patton have designed two bus shelters in the Hidden Valley neighborhood.→
The Arts & Science Council has released its second Cultural Equity Report.→
A government pilot program is giving 2,000 artists $350 a week with no strings attached, allowing them to concentrate on creative pursuits.→
The Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account (ACPSA) tracks the annual economic value of arts and cultural production from 35 industries—including both commercial and nonprofit entities. →
Charlotte aspires to be a leading arts city, and a plan to achieve that may be just a few months away.→
The city’s arts and culture steering committee met to refine and finalize Charlotte’s State of Culture Report, the findings that will inform an arts and culture plan expected to be completed this summer.→
Charlotte's Arts and Culture director and Lord Consulting presented the draft State of Culture report to a City Council committee.→
U.S. and state-level estimates of arts participation rates from the pre-pandemic period of February 2019 to February 2020. →
North Carolina has a long history of supporting art in ways that defy our relatively modest wealth, population, and urbanity.→
California schools will receive a boost of about $1 billion for music and arts education starting next year after voters approved Proposition 28 on Tuesday, early election results show.→
The new mural by Abel Jackson is in Historic West End.→
Public art is the interaction between an art form, people, and the environment, taking place within spaces that are accessible to as many as possible. →
More than 20 local, regional, and national artists respond through their work to recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings in a new Charlotte exhibition.→
Members of the creative sector are building coalitions, raising money and even running for office to press for their causes.→
Highlights from a conversation between Roberto Bedoya (Cultural Affairs Manager, Oakland, CA), Jen Hughes (NEA Design and Creative Placemaking Director) and Michael Rohd (Center for Civic Imagination at University of Montana).→
A “music city” is defined as a city that embeds music as a tool into its collective governance ethos across economic development, education, tourism, and overall quality of life. →
The Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the main vehicle for supporting arts organizations all over the city by allocating peer-reviewed, competitive grants, saw its budget increase to $3.5 million for fiscal 2023. →
It's been two years since artists transformed South Tryon Street into a vibrant "Black Lives Matter" street mural. →
In 2021, more than 1,500 children and teenagers in the United States were killed by gunfire. Activists across the country are working to shed light on that issue through a series of plays written and performed by young adults. →
HEALTH + WELLNESS
Prescriptions for social activities, exercise and the arts — first popularized in Britain — are coming to America. But some experts say the U.S. health care system may get in the way.→
Her work is a reflection of her mental health journey, and she describes describing art as “medicine.” Art has had a positive effect on her mood, and she wants others to experience the same. →
Classes for ‘silver swans’ can help you improve balance and find joy. →
Music therapy works to improve mental health through activities such as listening to or composing music, writing a song, singing, dancing, or playing an instrument.→
Educator and researcher Blaine Brownell addresses the intersection of disease, climate, and the built environment.→
Drawing, music and writing can elevate your mood. Here are some easy ways to welcome them into your life.→
The pilot, launched by UF’s Center for Arts in Medicine and the Veterans Administration, is one way researchers are laying the groundwork for social prescribing nationwide, and not just for veterans.→
The report summarizes work using cohort study data to explore the impact of the arts on population health.→
A movement is taking shape in the UK and elsewhere to make social support an official part of health care—an approach called “social prescribing.” Can it work in the US?→
The Ivey’s The Art of Brain Health, an exhibition by seniors with cognitive impairments, is on view in January at MacDowell Arts Center in Matthews.→
Local playwright Michael Garcia debuts his new play titled "Stuff Inside My Head" to encourage more men of color to get treatment for mental health issues.→
Places from Providence to Parkland, Florida, are seizing on the growing movement and turning theory into practice.→
A dance/movement workshop series, when integrated with other social services, can be effective in relieving symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and psychological distress among women who have experienced domestic violence, a new study finds. →
About half of the nation’s hospitals include arts programming, and the trend appears to be growing, Jeffrey Brown reports for the PBS News Hour.→
Street Symphony is an organization bringing professional musicians to clinics, homeless shelters and jails clustered in and around one of the most devastating concentrations of urban poverty in the United States. →
A small but growing body of research suggests that such movement may provide more mood benefits than other types of cardio exercise. →
The arts have been a source of healing during the pandemic. Sharing some stories about that is a fitting way for the North Carolina Arts Council’s Sparks of Light series to close. →
Winston-Salem is among nine sites chosen by the National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education, and Families (IYEF to participate in a pilot peer learning cohort for its newly-launched initiative, Improving Community Health and Resilience through the Arts. →
The arts and creativity are increasingly recognized as necessary infrastructure for healthy, prosperous and equitable communities regardless of community size or geography. →
Ella Stafford, owner of Village Studio and Gallery, wants her shop to be a safe space where others can learn the craft →
Following a traumatic brain injury, veteran Michael Schneider found that art and music therapy helped him manage his epilepsy and PTSD. Schneider explains that by playing music, he can prevent a seizure. →
On an early morning in July, nine youth dancers from Chicago’s DanceOn and 16 from Charlotte’s A Chance to Dance groups met outside Star Struck Dance Studio in Denver, North Carolina. They had 24 hours to rehearse a choreographed piece and film a documentary, “A Chance to DanceOn.” →
The ongoing pandemic has left hundreds of thousands of Americans grieving in isolation. A public art installation on the National Mall provides a space to mourn as a nation. →
Given the expanding research linking arts to improved physical and mental health, Sandra Galea is one of a growing number of public health professionals advocating for arts in public health. He called for bridging “the gap between art and public health” in a recent Health Promotion Practice supplemental issue. →
Her campaign will honor – and include – her daughter, honor her son’s memory and raise awareness locally, nationally and globally about an illness she said is “often invisible.” →
Meet Julio Gonzales, visual artist, designer, and mastermind behind the performative installation Public Displays of Affection (PDA) →
“This crisis affects more or less everyone, and poetry can help us process difficult feelings like loss, sadness, anger, lack of hope.” →
Music therapist Joan Kleinmann helps HopeWay residents use music to foster hope, increase self-esteem, regulate emotions and express themselves. →
Artists preparing to showcase their work on Friday at the start of Boulder Arts Week say they have always believed it can play an important role in healing for anyone experiencing trauma. Their art was a valuable resource this week for a community mourning the loss of 10 people in a shooting at a King Soopers in Boulder. →
RACIAL/CULTURAL EQUITY
Americans teaching Black history tend to focus on two things: enslavement and the Civil Rights movement. Bynoe said she wants to remind people that there is so much more to the Black American story. →
Artist Whitfield Lovell tells African American history, struggles, migrations and success stories.→
A Sign of the Times is a band as well as a music organization dedicated to improving the community through cultural productions and educational programs. →
The Charlotte Museum of History is marking Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANPI) Heritage Month with “Threaded Traditions,” an exhibit highlighting contemporary Filipino textiles. →
The documentary photographer honors those who turn their energies to a social good.→
The Charlotte Museum of History will honor the Catawba Cultural Center with its Excellence in Preservation Award, which recognize outstanding contributions to historic preservation in the Charlotte region, encouraging preservation of the area’s historic buildings and streetscapes. →
The civil-rights attorney has created a museum, a memorial, and, now, a sculpture park, indicting the city of Montgomery—a former capital of the domestic slave trade and the cradle of the Confederacy.→
Artist Faith Ringgold’s landmark career was long ignored by the art establishment. But she kept going, mixing the personal and political. Ringgold died April 13 at the age of 93.→
Jeffrey Gibson’s history-making turn at the Venice Biennale brings the gay and Native American artist center stage with works of struggle and freedom. →
Multi-faceted designer shifts the angles on Black history in "A Legacy of Elegance" at Projective Eye Gallery.→
WFAE’s Gwendolyn Glenn speaks to Charlotte Museum of History CEO Terri White about Mary Cardwell Dawson and the exhibition, which runs March 26-December 31. →
Vickie L. Evans is a Charlotte playwright, the director and founder of the African American Playwrights Group, and co-creator of the BIPOC Playwrights Festival.→
As the show reminds visitors, Black female artists historically have been marginalized and underrepresented in the art world. This exhibit aims to help correct that history by highlighting their achievements.→
North Carolina native Mary Cardwell Dawson, who grew up in the midst of Jim Crow, founded the first Black opera company in the U.S. — the National Negro Opera Company.→
A Native-run studio, the Artspace is a beacon of hope, nurturing talent amid a resurgence of Indigenous traditions.→
The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (CSO) announced today that Kwamé Ryan, a Canadian-born conductor who grew up in Trinidad, has been named music director, beginning with the 2024-25 season, becoming the first Black conductor to hold that position with the CSO. →
The Gullah Geechee fight to preserve the tiny structures, a cradle of the Black church, before they’re erased by sprawl, climate change and fading memories.→
In 1967 it seemed there was nothing that Bonds couldn’t do, no scene that the visionary educator, groundbreaking composer and accomplished pianist couldn’t break through — except America’s color and gender barriers. The fate of “Credo” illustrates this sad state of affairs. Although it was performed a handful of times, it lay unpublished until 2020.→
Hasan's work is rooted in themes of home, community, belonging, and racial and social justice.→
In downtown Chicago, 100-foot-tall dancers glide along the Chicago River. Projected onto the enormous digital installation Art on The Mart, the dancers of the Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project look like ancestral spirits keeping watch over the city.→
The International African American Museum, in a former slave port, is about more than slavery. It’s about survival and resilience →
A photo series debuting at The Light Factory features the work of seven Black female photographers. →
Lesley Lokko, the first curator of African descent, has long been immersed in issues of race, space and architecture.→
A movement to make feelings toward Black hair more inclusive has been gaining ground. One local theatre production, Three Bone Theatre’s mounting of The Glorious World of Crowns, Kinks, and Curls, will join that movement.→
Street Culture Arte's goal is to celebrate Charlotte’s diversity by increasing the visibility of Latin American artists.→
Davidson College will create a memorial recognizing the enslaved workers who helped build the campus.→
Charlotte Associate Professor Tamara Williams is preserving culture and history through dance.→
The documentary “dives into the Black community’s integral roles and impacts that weren’t detailed in the archives,” according to a town news release about the premiere.→
In her five years at the museum, Marcela Guerrero has helped broaden the scope of artists and audiences as the Hispanic population continues to grow and museums try to reflect more diverse audiences.→
The space is safe, as it bridges the gap between people’s experiences and other’s realities. One truth stands in spaces such as these: Art is a universal language.→
HOUSING +
NEIGHBORHOOD CHANGE
"Don't Lose Heart" lifts up Mecklenburg County's largest Black neighborhood. →
Local Black-led artist collective Mixed Metaphors Productions explores what it means to call Charlotte home, combining theatre, music and art to inspect the intersection of housing justice and home.→
“The goal of our work is truly to activate change and to be able to do that you have to be able to envision a world that’s not the one you’re currently living in,” →
The Oct. 11 event at the corner of Holbrooks Road and Central Avenue was another celebration of progress in the fight against gentrification in Pottstown, as the mural unveiling marked the end of a home-repair campaign that was carried out in the neighborhood over the summer.→
Second Story Collective, an arts-centered model for intergenerational co-housing is awarded $1M from the National Science Foundation to focus on affordable homeownership in West Philadelphia.→
A new project in Charlotte’s West Boulevard corridor will display a mix of art and history.→
We explore “The Commonwealth,” a Regenerative Neighborhood Development built by the Sweet Water Foundation with Chicago’s South Side communities.→
For nearly two decades, the organization QC Family Tree has been rooted in creating social change in Charlotte’s historic Enderly Park neighborhood. One endeavor tackles the displacement of residents by providing affordable housing.→
How creative projects and partnerships raise visibility and spur action around critical housing issues.→
A local creative agency, an independent artist and Mecklenburg County’s Department of Park and Recreation have teamed up to “reactivate” L.C. Coleman Park in Washington Heights.→
EDUCATION + YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
A group of CMS students in southwest Charlotte have created an art exhibit that celebrates and highlights African American resistance and joy through art forms that include poetry and quilting.→
Blumenthal Arts, one of Charlotte largest cultural, entertainment and education arts organizations, announced this month that it has already raised $225,000 for its newly launched Blumey Inspire Fund, an initiative that will increase access to high-quality arts education for underserved high school students in Charlotte. →
Through the residency, Singh will collaborate with the Mecca of Digital Arts studio (MODA) to create an experience that focuses on and fosters youth leading youth. Singh says he’s been pushing the power of “youth-to youth” mentoring and collaboration for the past 4 years.→
The arts education nonprofit will house music and visual arts programs in former Plaza Presbyterian Church.→
As funding for arts education declines worldwide, experts ponder what students — and the world at large — are losing in the process.→
Every inch of the CRTV (pronounced “Creative”) Lab is packed with innovation and intention. The expansive 8,000-square-foot space includes rooms for workshops and meetings, a maker space, and four studios equipped for podcasting, photography, video and music production.→
Charlotte Symphony President and CEO David Fisk shared that Project Harmony, Charlotte Symphony’s afterschool music program that provides free instruments and instruction to Title I schools, is another pathway to each of its youth orchestras. →
Nearly 200 students from Title I schools and high-need communities are learning to play instruments thanks to the program.→
A measure on the November ballot could boost school funding for music and arts education in California by about $1 billion.→
R&B artist, songwriter, in-demand producer and, as of January 2021, GrindHaus studio owner Jason Jett, is focused on his role as educator and mentor for Charlotte’s young musicians.→
Two projects with middle school students, undergraduates, two professors and a K-12 teacher sparked a link between literacy and music learning.→
Campers get to partner with professionals, like Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter Anthony Hamilton, who can help drive their young dreams into reality.→
Both coding and dance use repetition and combination, so using dance as a hook to attract girls to the program could lead to an interest in coding. →
The California Art and Music K-12 Education Funding Initiative has qualified for the general election; as the name states, it’s meant to bolster school arts programs. →
Margaret Maurice is an award-winning music teacher at Hidden Valley Elementary School. →
This past Wednesday saw the debut of “No Boundaries,” an exhibit that encourages the art students of West Charlotte to explore and display their creativity for the community to see. →
Photography for children among the initiatives →
The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s ambitious new home for its youth orchestra is the latest sign of the changing fortunes of Inglewood. →
Charlotte Symphony Orchestra is launching the newest addition to its youth orchestra program: the Charlotte Symphony Youth Ensemble. The program at First Baptist Church-West will allow for the symphony to have a stronger presence in the surrounding neighborhoods. Students accepted into the program will participate weekly through June. →
The music fest organizers are donating $2.2 million to CPS to create the Lollapalooza Arts Education Fund, a new partnership with Ingenuity that will help pay for arts programs in CPS schools for students who currently have the least access to such instruction. →
The Commission on the Arts, at the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, says we are at a crisis point, where access to arts education is declining steadily—and action must be taken to reverse the trend. In 2018, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences convened a Commission on the Arts to examine the state of arts education in the United States. →
According to Byron Sanders, president and CEO of the education nonprofit Big Thought, creativity is not just an important workforce skill; it’s the most important workforce skill of the 21st-century. →
With just a few months on the job, the U.S. Secretary of Education is already putting music and the arts at the forefront of his vision for American schools. →
Not everyone can step into someone else’s shoes and spark magic on stage, but the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte has given thousands of children in Charlotte the opportunity to try. →
Performing arts will be critical to help students, communities build back from lockdowns, educators say. They want to make sure programs get help. →
She is the artistic director of Inner City Shakespeare, a theater company in South L.A. working primarily with Black and Latino actors →
Charlotte artist Michelle "Bunny" Gregory stands next to the bus she's converting into a mobile studio that will travel around the city to help kids in undeserved communities learn creative skills, including art activities and music. →
A new study shows the benefits of attending live theatre. →
Art changed her life. She hopes it can change her community, too. →
Educators say that engaging students in lessons that incorporate their own culture is one way to improve educational outcomes for students of color. →
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
At a time when nonprofit theaters are still recovering from the pandemic shutdown and are looking to connect with their communities, Tarell Alvin McCraney is looking in unorthodox places: prisons, homeless shelters and the foster care system.→
The "Prison Reimagined: Presidential Portrait Project" exhibition features artwork by incarcerated artists critiquing the U.S. justice system and is on display at President Lincoln's Cottage in Washington, D.C. →
Over the next six months, inmates in prisons around the country will be able to debate and vote on the winner of a new book award — the Inside Literary Prize. →
The new album “Some Mississippi Sunday Morning” collects gospel songs recorded inside a notorious penitentiary.→
America has a long history of prison music, and its power goes beyond helping those inside: This music can transform us, changing how we think about the people who make it. →
Music has long been recognized as a potent force, with the capacity to significantly contribute to the social-emotional wellbeing of incarcerated individuals through providing opportunities for empowerment, fostering connectedness, and tackling issues of seclusion and estrangement .→
An arts program in a California state facility disproves the idea that “nobody dances in prison,” encouraging inmates to channel their lives and emotions into movement →
Buoyed by a $2.3 million grant, the archive hopes increased visibility on the first-person accounts of incarcerated people can serve as a road map for policy reforms.→
Steele's Mobile Prison Art Museum aims to deter at-risk youth.→
Former correctional officer Lorenzo Steele Jr. tours Charlotte with a traveling museum that depicts the reality of incarceration.→
For the past eight years, cellist Claire Bryant has been giving incarcerated men at South Carolina's Lee Correctional Institution the chance to become polished musicians. →
Prison Arts Collective seeks to transform the lives of incarcerated individuals through the arts →
At an exhibition hosted by Rehabilitation Through the Arts, subjects included Ta-Nehisi Coates, Nikole Hannah-Jones, global warming, and home. →
If young people and police officers create art together, what kind of understanding can they reach? Workshops led by the Arts Empowerment Project, a Charlotte program that uses art to heal vulnerable youth, took a recent step toward answering that question. →
The choreographer Jeremy McQueen’s film “Wild: Act 1” seeks to give voice to young men caught in the criminal justice system. →
Art that highlights the effects of long-term sentencing and the need to support and expand services for those who are reentering society. →
“This outreach program, led by UNC Charlotte alum, has served more than 800 incarcerated people since 2011.” →
Thirty Colorado inmates staged “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” for nearby prisons. For some, it was the first time in years they were outside 20-foot walls and razor fences. →
“James Hough— on life sentence at the State Correctional Institution-Graterford— painted sections of murals across more than 50 walls across PHL.” →
"It has expanded to 13 prisons across 8 states, offering dance as a healing medium and providing teacher training for incarcerated women.” →
“Those capable of the worst are capable of the best,” says curator Jeffrey Greene. “Anyone can be an artist.” →
IMMIGRATION
A new production of "Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles" presents a nuanced view of an immigrant family in a modern retelling of Euripides' Greek classic. →
The opera by Charlotte composer Brian Arreola recalls and reflects on the Zero Tolerance immigration policy. →
Latin band Ultima Nota shares its music across Charlotte.→
A dozen Latino and Spanish-speaking photographers will exhibit their work this month at the VAPA Center. OBRA Collective’s Hector Vaca Cruz says the show is a way to both elevate Latino creators and help them connect with the broader Charlotte community. →
Felipe Baeza’s “Unruly Forms” are coming to bus shelters in the U.S. and Mexico. Merging painting and printmaking, his images explore the displacement of migrants and antiquities.→
Charlotte Museum of History shows selections representing 23 local communities.→
Sometimes art is used to protest. Sometimes it’s a means to educate or to heal. In his new project, Charlotte photographer Juan Manuel Mejia attempts to do all three.→
A local Charlotte band will reach a national audience next month at the Official Latino Film and Arts Festival in California. UltimaNota’s film festival debut, with their music video "Mi Sueño," comes after two years of songwriting and video production.→
The 12-foot-tall Syrian refugee puppet traveled from Turkey to Britain last year. Now, she will spend nearly three weeks in the five boroughs taking part in numerous events.→
The OBRA Collective — until now, a floating group of Latinx and immigrant artists which offers membership-based studios for artists. Now has a space in the recently opened VAPA Center. →
A Honduran woman’s agonizing separation from her seven-year-old grandson as a result of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy has inspired a new opera debuting at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington this Friday. →
Mi Sueño” is the advance single off UltimaNota’s album Soñando, produced and recorded by guitarist Tony Arreaza over the past two years in his home studio. The album, the long-running Latin fusion band’s debut, features 12 original songs that spotlight local Latinx guest artists. →
A team of skilled puppeteers from the Handspring Puppet Company joined forces with the Good Chance Theater to create Little Amal — a larger-than-life 9-year-old Syrian refugee girl searching for her mother. Their aim was to focus the world's attention on the plight of asylum-seekers. →
In “The Walk,” a 12-foot tall, 9-year-old Syrian girl named Amal trekked from Turkey to Britain to find her mother. In a politically divided continent, were any minds changed? →
"Migrant X" follows the life of a student recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program who tries to help another student who has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Throughout the journey, the story profiles the experiences of other Latinos. →
Misperceptions around “immigration” in the United States — the idea that people migrating across our borders are some sort of transgressors — that Escobar aims to confront with her latest play, Migrant X, an outdoor production set to open at UNC Charlotte on Oct. 2. That goal begins with the name: Migrant X, as opposed to Immigrant X. →
One project, spearheaded by the New York-based public arts program Artolution and the global non-profit organization Serve the City, is aiming to bring visibility — and hope — to the residents of the largest migrant settlement in the Paris region. This summer, the two organizations partnered with residents to create a 40-foot mural on the back side of the building. →
Kenny Nguyen will retrace his life’s path through art as one of 10 artists featured in the Brooklyn Collective’s upcoming show, Reconstructing Deconstruction, which tells stories of cultural heritage, from breaking down to rebuilding, acting as a mirror of each individual journey. →
Rosalia Torres-Weiner spent three weeks in the dreamy, swirly world of Immersive Van Gogh in Charlotte. Torres-Weiner, 59, who uses her art and other creative endeavors to connect with Charlotte’s Latin American community, said she found inspiration at the Van Gogh exhibit. →
The Nouveau Sud Circus Project, UNC Charlotte Associate Professor Carlos Alexis Cruz’s version of a circus, takes what’s most exciting about the spectacle – the human feats of daring – and replaces the ugliness and inhumanity with unbelievable athleticism and beautiful, artistic performances. →
It is Nouveau Sud’s fifth production to date, and in a timeline that include Septem’s illustration of oppression and the seven deadly sins, La Bestia may be the troupe’s most comprehensive and hard-hitting vision. →
Davidson-based artist and 2020 ASC Emerging Creators Fellowship recipient Irisol Gonzalez is creating community murals in three different areas of Charlotte with content that reflects the diverse, vibrant and often under-represented Latinx cultures of the people who live in each location. →
"And we’re brown, and Central American, and this is what’s up,” artist Liliana Castro explains. →
A Charlotte artist finds a way to help the Latinx community amidst COVID-19 with her paintings. →
Welcoming Week 2020, held between Sept. 12-20, is a national celebration of immigrants and their contributions to the fabric of American society. →
How the Little Tokyo Service Center uses art to inspire activism, and increase awareness of the community’s cultural assets. →
Music-dance-theater-spoken word-visual art-puppetry piece titled “Heaven,” asks us to gut-check our preconceptions and anxieties about those who seem alien to us. →
“Torres-Weiner has integrated technology into her work, launching an app through her studio that allows users to go deeper into the true stories that inspire her paintings.” →
“‘Picaro,’ is a physical theatre performance about a Guatemalan child who represents all Central Americans who come to the US borders to escape drugs, gangs, and violence.” →
Like many contemporary immigrants and refugees, Nemec hoped to break through the isolation of small-town Minnesota and find a way to forge connections while also, perhaps, sharing a bit of his cultural background. →
ENVIRONMENT + SUSTAINABILITY
Museums, galleries and other art institutions are looking for measures to reduce their environmental footprints. →
Tackling textile waste with community outreach. →
The Great Elephant Migration traveling art exhibition aims to spread awareness about conservation efforts. →
“Mecklenburg County has more than 3,000 miles of streams, creeks and tributaries,” said John Wendel, a meteorologist and senior communication specialist with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services. “Flooding is the number-one natural hazard and the costliest natural hazard in the county. So, it’s important that we educate people about flood risks.” →
The artist Jordan Weber’s queenly sculpture in a Detroit park does double duty as an air quality monitor.→
Focusing on disaster hasn’t changed the planet’s trajectory. Writers and artists are hoping that optimism, however qualified or hard-won, may be what finally moves us to action. →
Using a blend of informational panels and artwork, the Climate Museum hopes to educate the public about climate change, to create community, and encourage people to take civic action. →
This sixth issue of FORWARD focuses on climate, highlighting how artists are raising awareness, engaging vulnerable communities, devising solutions, and spurring action worldwide.→
A UNC Charlotte architecture professor develops an innovative design solution to naturally - and beautifully - improve indoor air quality.→
Hasheem Halim noticed the bus stops without a place to sit. In response, the architect sprang into action with an idea to help commuters and the environment: build a bench prototype made of recycled material. →
Photos: Harvey B. Gantt Center; Mural by Sharon Dowel by Dominic Sansotta on Unsplash; UNC Charlotte Department of Dance, Dance and Community Class by Samantha Salvato; Black Lives Matter mural by John Merrick, People’s Porch by Toby Shearer; The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra/Arts+ Project Harmony; The Bechtler Museum’s Jail Arts Initiative; “One Nation for All” by MyLoan Dinh; "Salamander Crossing One and Two" by Crista Cammaroto.
Music therapy is increasingly used to help patients cope with stress and promote healing. →