Special To The Journal
Lynn Museum/Lynn Arts and Creative Collective, Raw Art Works, and artist/collaborators Tara Argaba and Estrella Diaz, and Cinda Danh and Michael Aghahowa have received grants from the The New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA). The grants are awarded to Massachusetts-based artists and collaborators to imagine and create public art that fosters more just, vibrant, and welcoming public spaces.
Lynn Museum/Lynn Arts and Creative Collective and artists Agaba and Diaz were the recipients of Collective Imagination for Spatial Justice (CISJ) grants that support teams of artists, creatives, culture bearers, cultural organizers, and community-based collaborators to do the important work of imagining public art that fosters and contributes to more just futures for our public spaces and public culture. The grants range from $2,000-$5,000.
Raw Art Works, a youth arts organizations based at 37 Central Square (“Love Letters to Lynn” and artists Danh and Aghahowa (“Food for Thought”) were the recipients of
Public Art for Spatial Justice (PASJ) grants that support artists and artistic collaborations to create public art in Massachusetts that fosters public imagination and contributes to more just futures for our public spaces and public culture. The grants range from $5,000-$10,000.
Following are the descriptions of the projects:
Grant Recipient Details
Cindy Danh and Michael Aghahowa Grant Amount $10,000
Cinda Danh and Michael Aghahowa are artists and activists, born and raised in Lynn, MA. Cinda and Michael are working in collaboration with Ernie’s Harvest Time, a mid-sized grocery in downtown Lynn and youth from The Food Project (www.thefoodproject.org) to create a wraparound mural at Ernie’s that celebrates voices from within the Lynn community who are doing the important work of imagining, dreaming and growing a more resilient food system. In a moment when rapid development and displacement is happening in Lynn, this mural aims to center the stories of the people who have been here, are still here, and hopefully will be here for the future of Lynn.
Grant Recipient Details:
RAW ARTS WORKS
LOCATION
Lynn, MA
PROJECT TITLE
Love Letters to Lynn
FISCAL YEAR AWARDED
2021
GRANT OR PROGRAM
Public Art for Spatial Justice
GRANT AMOUNT
$10,000
Tapping the Lynn Museum, Faces of Lynn Magazine and Harvard artist/researcher Raquel Jimenez, Raw Art Works’ public arts group for high school womxn, WAMX, led by art therapist Laura Smith, will create Love Letters to Lynn, an interdisciplinary public art testimonial to the voices of womxn in Lynn, Massachusetts. Following the model of participatory action research and seeking to create uplifting art “for the people, by the people,” eight high school WAMX artists will interview their adult counterparts by exchanging letters with them, then convert the knowledge gained into a public display of original art at the Lynn Museum and in Lynn shops that have closed as a result of COVID-19.
Grant Recipient Details:
LYNN MUSEUM/LYNN ARTS AND CREATIVE COLLECTIVE
Location:
Lynn, MA
PROJECT TITLE
N/A
FISCAL YEAR AWARDED
2021
GRANT OR PROGRAM
Collective Imagination for Spatial Justice
GRANT AMOUNT
$5,000
BIPOC artists in Lynn are integral to the social fabric of our city. Currently, barriers to collaboration exist between BIPOC artists and municipal and organizational leaders who are the stewards of funding, visibility and permissions. BIPOC artists, in collaboration with the Lynn Museum/Lynn Arts and Creative Collective, will examine these barriers and reimagine opportunities to foster trust and accountability with municipal and organizational leaders. By centering the voices of BIPOC artists from Lynn, this collective imagination journey aims to envision ways for diverse artistic and cultural expression to not only exist, but to truly thrive in Lynn.
Grant Recipient Details:
TARA AGABA AND ESTRELLA DIAZ
LOCATION
Lynn, MA
PROJECT TITLE
N/A
FISCAL YEAR AWARDED
2021
GRANT OR PROGRAM
Collective Imagination for Spatial Justice
GRANT AMOUNT
$5,000
Tara and Estrella are exploring concepts of rest as a communal practice of healing. How does rest intersect with public space? How are public spaces designed for rest? Who is allowed to rest in public? Who’s rest is policed in public? How might we question these social norms, and come together, reclaim our time, drink tea, rest, and heal together? Exploring radical and communal self-care could be a path to our liberation. Together we are exploring the use of art and digital media for healing and organizing for rest and world-building.
“In the midst of the global health pandemic, economic downturn, and continued racial injustice that 2020 has made more apparent, we are reminded that public spaces are not neutral and public art made in public spaces is not neutral either. As we reckon with complex histories and continued legacies of racism and white supremacy culture, we refocused our public art grantmaking towards spatial justice.” said Kim Szeto, NEFA public art program director, “Public art has the ability and responsibility to creatively engage important and timely conversations, bring healing to space and place, and foster public imagination for a more just version of what is possible.”
NEFA’s Spatial Justice grants are made possible with funding from the Barr Foundation. “This moment is crying out for artists who can help us imagine a better world,” said Giles Li, the Barr Foundation’s Senior Program Officer for Arts & Creativity. “We are proud to partner with NEFA to support these important artists and vital communities; their work forces us to confront our own assumptions about who feels welcomed in public spaces and reaffirms what the Foundation deeply believes: that all people deserve the honor of being heard, seen, and valued.”