WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD

2011 Events:

----------------------June 22, 2011 @ Southern Exposure----------

Radical Teaching Artists:

Fresh Ideas and New Perspectives

A Salon Discussion

Featuring:

JD Beltran
Amanda Eicher
Tara Foley
Jerome Reyes
Malik Seneferu
Wendy Testu

Wednesday, June 22, 2011
7:00 – 9:00 pm 
FREE

Southern Exposure,

3030 20th St. @ Alabama

San Francisco, Ca 94110

(Ride your bike, parking is impossible!)

www.soex.org

http://soex.org/Event/312.html

The arts may be struggling from the lack of funding and support, but teaching artists are still generating inventive and inspiring projects that often get over looked.

Questions that will be considered include: How can political and social issues be addressed and integrated into art curriculums? In what ways can experiences with art open up new possibilities for curiosity, learning and community engagement? How can we give students the space to explore and question while also meeting the demands of the current educational climate? How do teaching artists integrate their own practices into their teaching? How are artist educators modeling, or remodeling, healthy and vibrant teaching methodologies?

Join Southern Exposure for a salon discussion featuring local teaching artists as they discuss these questions, share their projects and we ask you to share your projects with us, come join in the conversation.

--------------------Ongoing Through September 1, 2011----------------

Literacy for Environmental Justice

Presents

Welcome To The NeighborHOOD

@The EcoCenter in Heron's Head Park

April 9, 2011 - September 1, 2011

Bayview/Hunters Point, San Francisco

(Where Cargo Way ends @ Jennings St).

Opening event was: Saturday April 9, 2011

12-2 pm

Monthly rotation of the individual artwork through: September 1, 2011

THE WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROJECT:

The collaboration with youth from Literacy for Environmental Justice and several local artists has culminated in the creation of an interactive installation in the newly opened EcoCenter, San Francisco’s first off the grid public building and environmental education center. Literacy for Environmental Justice has been working on making the EcoCenter a reality for over 10 years and recently opened it's doors to the general public.

During the opening event visitors:

• Viewed the full installation of all the artwork
• Partook in youth lead docent tours of the artwork and the Ecocenter. 
• Purchases the artwork and Volume #3 of the photo documentary book about the project: 
  •  All proceeds went to Literacy for Environmental Justice and the EcoCenter.

Please check the Ecocenter Blog for general hours of operation: 

http://ecocenterheronshead.blogspot.com/

The event was both free and open to the public.

----------------------------ABOUT THE PROJECT----------------------------

THE WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD PROJECT:

2008-2011

Youth In Residency With Artists Over A Period Of Two Years Have Created A Body Of Art Work Exploring Environmental And Social Justice Issues Facing The Community Of Bayview Hunters Point In San Francisco. 

A collaboration with artists Wendy Testu, Robert Larson, Keba Armand Konte, Taylor Neaman-Goudey, Eve S. Mosher, Monica Jensen and Sam Slater with youth from Literacy For Environmental Justice

http://welcometotheneighborhood.us/

Before any work began, all of the artists and the youth interns went on walking ‘Tours’ of the Bayview/ Hunters Point area to learn more about the environmental history of the neighborhood. These walking investigations, along with in-depth discussions, and journal writings led the participants to create work about their personal experiences, gentrification and displacement, the opposing forces of man vs. nature, art as activism, and the positive people and influences in their community. The youth provided focused geographical and activist contexts, and have allowed their insights to guide the creative process. The varied artistic forms of the project highlight the diversity and intensely personal quality of these topics, which have allowed the youth interns a range of ways to consider their experiences and to communicate them to the Bayview Hunters Point communities and beyond. They have created public artwork that goes beyond stating the facts, to engage, give back to and empower the community.

Various mediums were used, including: video, sculpture, photography, painting, graphic arts, screen-printing and assemblage. As paid interns, the youth are collaborators with the artists and the creative force for the entire project from conception and creation to installation and maintenance of the artwork. The title: Welcome to the NeighborHOOD speaks to the future of this rapidly changing neighborhood and references the newcomers who will be moving into the neighborhood, with 10,000 new housing units currently planned to be built over the redeveloped Shipyard / SuperFund site.

All of the individual pieces of artwork come together to create interactive shelters and forts constructed out of scavenged materials from the neighborhood, which references the history of Hunters Point as a former military site. Throughout the exhibit there are also areas where documentary film clips showing 'the making of' each piece will be shown and a documentary photo book accompanies the exhibit. Visitors are encouraged to spend time in these installations discussing the ideas of community, family, environment and social justice. Through this work the youth and artists hope to bring these issues to a greater audience and encourage involvement in their communities and the EcoCenter.

The project has been exhibited over the past year at:

The African American Arts and Culture Complex’s Sargent Johnson Gallery, Zeum: San Francisco’s Children’s Museum and at Art 94124. The final installation of the work will be at the Ecocenter, with all sells going to benefit LEJ and The Ecocenter.

-------------------------------------Community Support--------------------------------------

This project has been made possible with generous funding from:

The San Francisco Arts Commission -  Cultural Equity Grants Program  / Innovative Partnerships

The LEF Foundation

The Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation

The San Francisco Foundations-Koshland Mini Grant Program

And generous support from:

T-Mobile & Motorola

Literacy For Environmental Justice

The EcoCenter

The Port of San Francisco

The African American Arts And Culture Complex; Sargent Johnson Gallery

Zeum/ San Francisco's Children's Museum

ART 94124 Gallery

The EcoCenter

And Many many volunteers

Thank you to everyone that came out and participated during the installations and opening events over the last year!

------------------------------------------Want More Info.------------------------------------------

For more information, please visit:

The Project website:www.welcometotheneighborhood.us

Literacy For Environmental Justice (Community Partner): http://www.lejyouth.org/

------------------------Book and Video links------------------------

Volume #3

The Welcome ToThe NeighborHOOD

Documentary Book :

Now available for purchase at Blurb.com.

Over 120 full color photos and photo collages including;

• A behind the scenes look at the creation of the work with each lead artist.
• The Installations at:
  • The African American Arts and Culture Complex
  • Zeum; San Francicsco's Children's Museum 
  • Art 94124
  • The EcoCenter
• The youths' journal entries
• Artist reflections
• News articles
• Visitor comments and portraits have also been added

Preview a few of the pages at the link below.

All proceeds go directly to support the EcoCenter and Literacy for Environmental Justice.

Photographer: Monica Jensen

$30 @

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2064191?ce=blurb_ew&utm_source=widget

Welcome To The NeighborHOOD Volume#3 by Wendy Testu and Monica Jensen

Volume#3 Welcome To The NeighborHOOD by Wendy Testu & Monica Jensen | Make Your Own Book

The Welcome ToThe NeighborHOOD

documentary film previews:

These video segments are being shown in the galleries next to the actual art pieces created by the youth. Soon the segments will be reworked into a full length documentary film stayed tuned for the release in 2012...

http://vimeo.com/7290121

-------------------------------------PRESS--------------------------------------------------------

Interview for the Neighborhood Empowerment Network in collaboration with the San Francisco Art Institute:

http://vimeo.com/18836080

San Francisco BayView National Black Newspaper Article written by a participating youth:

http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/welcome-to-the-neighborhood/

The Arts Political - Spring 2010 issue:

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-arts-politic-bias-%28issue-2-spring-2010%29/10262868

Identity Theory:

http://identitytheory.com/visual/tetsu_index.php

Art Business News:

http://artbusinessnews.com/2009/08/12/neighborhood-project-%20helps-inner-city-youth/

SF Public Press:

http://sfpublicpress.org/news/2010-01/welcome-to-the-neighborhood-bayview-hunters-point-india-basin-and-mission-bay

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