[2003-2004 Projects]
* The True Pioneers...
* Train to Read
* Lead Safe House...
* Girls Deal, Girls Do...
* Fifth Avenue Committee...
* Art of Remembering...
* NYC AIDS Housing...
Art of Remembering
ART OF REMEMBERING: GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN-
RIP MURALS TELL THE STORIES OF LIVES LOST IN BROOKLYN
Groundswell Community Mural Project ©
www.groundswellmural.org
A Special Project of Groundswell Community Mural Project
Summer, 2004
Lead Educator: Tara Mack
Assistant: Fred Hayes
Exhibition Team (as seen in photo below standing in back from left to right): Joshua Rene, Jeriel Patrick, Ashley Stoddart, Danielle Cruz, James Bonilla, Kevin Diaz. Sitting in front: Ronald Martin, Jasmine Marquez, Luzcinda Colon
Exhibit Information: This exhibition was on display from August-November 2004 at the following Brooklyn locations: The Old Stone House (Park Slope), the Center for Tolerance Studies (DUMBO) and the Brooklyn Historic Historical Society (Brooklyn Heights).
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The mural "allowed us to really have a say in what happened," said Chris Beck, who helped paint a memorial wall in Fort Greene when he was a boy for a friend who was killed. RIP murals "are icons of the city." Mr. Beck was interviewed by James Bonilla, 14.
The walls of many of Brooklyn's neighborhoods-Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy, Sunset Park, Williamsburg, Brownsville, East New York, Bushwick-are adorned with Rest in Peace murals. These colorful memorials are painted by local artists and dedicated to local people who have died prematurely from a wide variety of causes including AIDS, drugs, accidents or street violence. As a special program in our annual Summer Leadership Institute, Groundswell hired a team of 9 teenagers from some of these neighborhoods to investigate the stories behind these murals, interviewing artists, family and friends of the people in the murals and urban art experts.
The team began by learning interviewing and photography techniques. They then went to several Brooklyn neighborhoods-Bushwick, Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy, Sunset Park, Brownsville- to speak to some of the artists who painted the murals, and the family and friends of the people memorialized. The interviews were conducted using digital audio, which allowed the group to include audio excerpts in the exhibit. With the help of photographer Lisa Kahane and assistant photographer Ka Man Tse the group learned to shoot both on film and digitally.
The team made several field trips to local galleries and museums including the Brooklyn Children's Museum, the Brooklyn Historical Society and the National Track and Field Hall of Fame to learn how exhibitions are created. Marketing consultant Amelia Torode helped them decide on a target audience for the exhibition and figure out how they could best reach that audience. They also worked with designer Doug Miller to create flyers and posters.
Once they had completed most of their research, the group began to plan the exhibit under the guidance of content planner Cory Munson. She worked with them to define objectives, develop a theme, decide what should be included and write the text. Jason Samuel, a producer from NBC Dateline, helped one of the group to edit some video he shot of a graffiti artist painting a mural. They then began working with graphic designer Effie Chou and exhibition designer Miguel Cardenas from the Lee Skolnick Architecture and Design Partnership and with assistant designer Jodie Bass to develop a visual aesthetic for the exhibition and decide how it should be organized. The New Jersey environmental graphics company Applied Image generously donated all the graphic fabrication for the exhibition.
It was a busy and exciting summer for the group, and the resulting exhibition was well received – travelling to three separate venues in Brooklyn and generating substantial press coverage. The team were interviewed by several newspapers and appeared live on WBAI radio. They participated in a video conference at Hunter College with youth from the Chicago Historical Society. They even had a chance to see the movie ‘Super Size Me’.
Special thanks to our assistant project coordinator Fred Hayes and to the FAR Fund, the Lucius and Eva Eastman Fund and the Time Warner Foundation.