| Making meaning, Opening dialogue |
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| Written by Adriana Cordero Calderon | |
| Monday, 02 November 2009 | |
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I want to share a short video that describes the work of the organization 100 Families Oakland. Basically, families from Oakland come to together and through guidance from professionals create art. In so doing, they share their life stories with their communities, and therefore, create a more solid relationship with their immediate community instilling values such as solidarity, understanding, cooperation, dialogue, and much more. They create meaning within their family and open a dialogue with the greater community. What I find most interesting about this project is that it starts from the smallest sub-section of society, our immediate means of socialization and where we create start creating our vision of the world: the family. The video will tell you more about the organization, their work, and the outcome.
Are you getting convinced that Art DOES make a change, and it is a viable and legitimate means to achieve this? Or not?
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  written by Adriana Cordero Calderon , November 03, 2009 Emily, I'm glad you touched the subject of graffittis. I'm planning on writing an article about that!! There are all kinds of graffittis, and unfortunately, some people have not gond beyond the stigmatization of graffitti as a coarse, irreverent demonstration (there's also the question of, is it even art?) I don't wanna go too much into depth right now, I'll be preparing that article soon. In regards of making art mainstream, what I believe is that the kind of projects similar to 100 Families Oakland what try to do is to bring people into expressing themselves, discovering their abilities, recognizing how capable they are of doing new things, and communicating with others (with or without words). In this type of cases, art is used as a therapy, kind of... many times it ends up being recognized in the public sphere (less than what I'd like to see), but I don't think that at any point those in charge of these projects would want to make it mainstream. report abuse
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 written by Emily Gardner , November 03, 2009 I love the idea of the "artistic, emotional coach" that one of the artists emphasized. So many of the families seem very happy to be interacting with other families and each other. These connections between families and the relationship established with art are particularly important and is definitely a legitimate means to achieve a change in the community. Right now, I'm taking a class on Digital art and media, and a few weeks ago we watched a film called Bomb It, regarding the history and politics behind grafitti in its many forms. It was interesting because it provided the audience with "both sides of the argument" so-to-speak; many people interviewed in the film believed that this street art was making a change, but many did not approve...I wonder if there are certain ways of promoting street art in a positive light, specifically, without making it mainstream--I also wonder if this would devalue it as a form of "rebellion." Do you think street art or a deeper artistic interaction with the city or environment could make a bigger change in the lives of people? report abuse
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