City HeArt - A Homeless Art Show & Sale

The City HeArt event is an example of the power of art, when it is used to engagement a community. The community in this case has multiple dimensions: artists, homeless, and art-lovers. In the process this event is also engaging social service agencies, students, scholars, activists, and musicians without regard to gender, race or religion. 

On Saturday, April 14, 2012 the artwork of 40 homeless artists was showcased at the 2nd annual City HeArt event, held at the old South Church in Copley Square, Boston. Organized by visual artist and educator, Heidi Lee, this event included representatives from some of Boston's organizations such as Common Art, Pine St. Inn, Cambridge Women's Center, Someville Homeless Coalition, New England Center for Homeless Veterans and several other groups.





Many artists were on hand to talk about their work, such as these artists in the photo on the left who described the meaning behind their pieces.  The event featured all types of visual art, including pen & ink, painting, fabric art, sculpture, jewelry, scarfs and various other artifacts for show and sale. There was also an abundance of baked goods free and open to the public.

Acoustic musical entertainment was provided by volunteers and attendees were invited to participate.   One female artist gave a soulful acapella version of an Al Green tune, followed by another woman artist who sang The House of the Rising Sun accompanied by the guitarist.  A native american poet recited several original poems about the challenge of being homeless.  Another young man took the mike and spoke about his faith.

This is an event to raise awareness of Honor Killings.

George Hein Lecture - Community Arts

I have been invited to give a brief lecture on community arts-making and participate in a panel discussion at this annual event in honor of Professor Emeritas George Hein, who created the doctoral program at Lesley University, Cambridge, MA.

Violinist in DC entertains...

 
A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.  This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?  (Thanks to Josh Nonnenmocher for posting this on FB)

Visual Art Appreciation Survey

The note and link below is for an arts-based research survey conducted by artist and scholar, Susan Loomis.

Please participate in this survey that I am working on for my doctoral level Quantitative Methods class. My research involves exploring the appreciation of Visual Art. Thank you for your participation!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/visualartappreciationsurvey

The link below brings you to the National Center for Teachers, Counselors and School Leaders at Lesley University, which highlights recent research conducted by 6 doctoral students in the graduate school of education.

Check out these research projects to get a sense for the issues being explored, which range from adult learning persistence, meaningful special education, and arts-based research such as Prometheus Bound: A Phenomenological Case Study of the Lived Experiences of Performing Arts Makers.

http://nationalcenter.lesley.edu/

Prometheus Bound - A Phenomenological Case Study of the Lived Experiences of Performing Arts-Makers

I defended my dissertation at Lesley in Cambridge, MA on August 18, 2011. I will post a link to it shortly when it becomes available in google. Please see abstract below.

Abstract

This phenomenological case study explored the lived experiences of performing arts-makers, who participated in the engagement practices utilized in Prometheus Bound, the rock musical produced by the American Repertory Theater in 2011.

Engagement practices are actions employed to deepen the impact of the artistic experience, which may involve the creative use of physical space, choreography, physical contact, social justice, community collaboration, and other aspects of a live performance. Engagement practices occur in the liminal zone; the neutral space between performing arts-makers and audience members that is conducive to deep empathetic reflection because the boundary between arts-maker and audience is transformed and sometimes removed.

Conceptual models developed by artist, Suzanne Lacy and artist and educator, Charles Garoian informed this study, which found that performing arts-makers demonstrated behavior that one might consider to be other-oriented and self-reported reflective learning experiences, following their participation in the engagement practices of Prometheus Bound.