PROPOSAL: Arts Mentorship in Brockton

Stephanie Arnett & Daniel Jakes

Describe your project.

This project is a small workshop teaching basic photography skills to two brothers, ages 10 and 13.
We first became involved with this family when the boys were enrolled in Brockton's Headstart program. Over the years, they've gone from being great photography subjects to expressing interest in making their own pictures and films. They've assisted Stephanie on a photo shoot, and have participated as actors and crew members in 48hr film productions with Dan. From the few images they've taken with our camera, we can see an earnestness and vision that we'd love to foster.
After 4 months, we'd have had several lessons and reviews of their images, and we'd have enough material to be putting together their images in a book. We'd love to find a local venue that might show a few of their images, and have the book be for sale with the proceeds benefitting the arts curriculum at Brockton public schools.

How will you use the grant?

We would use the grant to buy two small consumer digital camera for each of the boys to document their daily lives and complete photo assignments.

Why and to whom is your project important?

We are hoping that after a few months of assignments we could put together a book of their work and have the proceeds benefit the arts program at Brockton public schools. We'd like for this to be the pilot class for an annual course for young artists. We'd love to be able to tell you that we could teach a larger group this year, but realistically we don't have the structure for that in place. From speaking with other photographers and educators, youth programs in photography tend to have obstacles around access—the kids don't get enough hands-on time with a camera because there aren't enough to go around, and the cameras usually belong to the program and have to be collected at the end of each class—limiting the opportunity for creative play and visual storytelling as a part of the child's daily routine. I think the ideal would be for each child to have their own camera, to be shooting between lessons, and have scheduled meeting times be focused on how to develop and present their work. We felt that Jack and Derrick would be ideal candidates for this year because our past history with them has shown them to have an existing enthusiasm for photography as well as the maturity to handle having their own equipment.

PROPOSAL: Intergenerational Learning Nights

The City School

Describe your project.

Our project is a series of four intergenerational events taking place November 2012 thru February 2013:

November: Intergenerational Teach-In about Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky and the Prison Industrial Complex. This event is building toward a larger event featuring these two people taking place on December 8th.

December 20: Intergenerational ArtFest. An artfest is an event where we ask everyone to come and share art (performance, visual or otherwise) related to theme. It is similar to a talent show but different in that we believe everyone is an artist, or can share art that inspires them.

January: Intergenerational Movie Night. We will gather and watch a film together. We do this every month or two, and often include dinner and discussion. Recent movies have included Cracking The Codes about the system of racial inequality and Dear Mandela about a youth activist in South Africa.

February: Intergenerational Vagina Monologues. Our most ambitious intergenerational event – we plan to host an intergenerational performance of the Vagina Monologues.

How will you use the grant to make your idea happen?

The money will go for the following:
Food: ~ $500 – We will provide drinks and light snacks at our November teach in, our January Movie Night, and our February performance. We will provide dinner at our December Artfest.
Outreach: ~ $200 – We will create flyers and spend time outreaching for all four events, with the February Vagina Monologue event taking up the bulk of the outreach budget.
Tickets for Movie Night: ~ $200 – In January, depending on the choice of movie, we will purchase tickets for all youth attending the film.

Why and to whom is your project important?

This project is important to our community and organization, as intergenerational relationships, learning and support are needed for the holistic development of all people, especially young people. Each of our events is geared towards this in general, and then has a specific added importance. The teach in supports a deeper understanding around prisons and encourages people to attend our December 8 event with Angela Davis and Noam Chomsky. The Artfest encourages all people to nurture our creative sides. The movie night supports continues learning on the movie’s topic and discussion, which has yet to be determined. In February, Vagina Monologues build on our ongoing gender work to fight sexism and empower women and gender queer people.

PROPOSAL: Productive Collective: The Aquaponics Greenhouse Project

Nataka Crayton & Bobby Walker

The Productive Collective is a group of urban farmers, architects, artists, contractors, renewable energy consultants, and community organizers committed to urban citizenship.

Describe your project.

The Aquaponics Greenhouse Project is an installation at the Village Farm in Dorchester to support both food production and season extension capacity. It is one of a four-year series of design/build/evaluate urban agriculture/aquaponics projects and design studios.

Aquaponics—the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics—is a highly sustainable organic farming system that creates a symbiotic relationship between fish and plants, converting fish waste to plant food. Aquaponics systems are ideal for urban applications as they are scalable, easy to maintain, highly productive (year-round), and provide the opportunity for accessible, waist-height gardening.

How will you use the grant to make your idea happen?

The grant will allow us to purchase the necessary materials to complete the last phase of the project, the Greenhouse enclosure. Students will then complete the design and build a greenhouse/enclosure for the system, as well as all necessary infrastructure (wood, nails, etc.), plumbing, and climate control systems (louvres, solar PV systems, passive ventilation, etc).

Why and to whom is your project important?

Partnering with local farm initiatives such as Bobby & Nataka's Village Farm, we believe strengthens the very systems necessary to increase both local capacity and access to such food production for Boston’s typically under-served communities. The site is being used to promote educational and economic opportunity, while supporting healthy local food access in the process by supplying the Frederick Douglass Square Farmers Market in Roxbury, MA.

PROPOSAL: The Museum Passport

Luis Edgardo Cotto

Describe your project.

The project is a Passport booklet that will be given out to Greater Boston area youth. The Passport will be stamped by participating cultural entities who will receive a specially designed stamp for their organization. Passport holders will receive FREE or discounted admittance to participating entities. For now, the hope is to get more and more youth to experience the arts, but the long term hope is to spark one person’s passion in something they would have never experienced.

How will you use the grant to make your idea happen?

100% of the grant will go towards the printing of the Passport booklet. Project creator and designer, Brian Cook, is donating his time and I will volunteer to make contacts and identify participating orgs as well as facilitating distribution.

Why and to whom is your project important?

The Project will be important to three groups; 1) The Youth: Studies are showing that less and less youth (particularly students of color) go to museums or to other cultural organizations. 2) The cultural organization: Although a number of museums offer FREE admittance to students under 18, their paid marketing efforts are targeted towards more affluent donors. This project can help to supplement an organization’s marketing efforts to youth, and 3) Society: I know, mushy, but with the arts an easy cut from school curriculum and the habitual attacks at the federal level, it behooves us all to make arts access for at-risk communities a priority.

PROPOSAL: Fresh Food Generation

Jackson Renshaw & Cassandria Campbell — winner, $1,500

Describe your project.

Fresh Food Generation is a farm to plate food truck that serves low-income neighborhoods while providing employment opportunities for 17–21 year-olds in the Greater Boston Area. We provide healthy and affordable on-the-go food options in underserved neighborhoods that have limited access to high quality foods. Our produce is sourced from local urban gardens and farms. Through taste testing and community involvement, menu items are carefully selected to satisfy the palate of our ethnically diverse customer base.

Fresh Food Generation empowers youth by placing them at the forefront of the business. Youth are hired in a year-long leadership program to operate the business and become food educators in the communities we serve. In addition to preparing and selling the food, they learn to develop marketing strategies and facilitate food education workshops and events.

How will you use the grant?

We will use the grant money to create an easy-to-use and interactive website and create a video that explains who we are as an organization and as individuals. We want to continue to generate excitement about our organization and gain more community support to see this project through.

Why and to whom is your project important?

Low income neighborhoods in Greater Boston have insufficient access to healthy affordable food. In response to this problem, there is a growing grassroots movement to connect low income households to high quality food through farmers markets and urban farming. This movement has primarily focused on providing low income consumers with fresh produce. This response is based on traditional beliefs that low income households do not spend their money ‘eating out.’ However, the fast pace environment that we live in makes it unrealistic to expect households, no matter what their income, to prepare all of their meals at home. Low income households need access to prepared healthy food options and we hope to provide that.

PROPOSAL: White Walls

Ethan Kiermaier

Describe your project.

White Walls is a pop-up platform for artists in Boston to engage with an audience in a forum far outside traditional galleries using rented trucks as an autonomous exhibition space. In our first year we showed work from around fifteen local artists in a wide variety of contexts. This year we hope to continue the work we started in the summer of 2012, producing another series of three shows using the city as a canvas and rented trucks as the exhibition platform.

How will you use the grant to make your idea happen?

Based on our experience last summer, each show requires approximately $500 to produce including rental of a truck for 24 hours, installation materials, gasoline, promotion and other gear rental. This year we hope to provide the artist’s with stipends as well bringing the cost of each event to $1000.

Why and to whom is your project important?

As real estate prices in the Boston area continue to soar, local artists and independent arts institutions have been displaced. The avenues and opportunities available to emerging fine artists in our city seem to be dwindling every year. By using public space to show work in a guerilla context, we’re working to empower the community of artists in Boston to take full advantage of the resources they have available. The urban landscape is altered and enhanced through the activation of the commons to support creative work and community. The city becomes a garden of creation where a walk down the street can turn into a moment of delight and revelation.

PROPOSAL: Green Dot, On Snow

Eli Kintisch

Describe your project.

Our project is an art installation. It is a pulsing circle of green light placed in the path of people passing by on a snowy night. We hope to subtly influence their states of mind, to create an unexpected growth potential within a random moment of their lives. The goal is also to psychologically connect the participant's experience to the alarming patterns of ice growth in the Arctic.

The green projection will be displayed on the white ground after or during a snowfall this winter, from the skyscraper-like Green Building at MIT. Last winter we conducted a full scale test of the projection.

Phase one • the dot: A pulsing circle of green light, accompanied by a sound loop, as described above.
Using rhythm, light and sound the green dot creates a pulse rhythm slightly slower than the normal human breath rate, as it is much larger than any individual, has the effect of encouraging visitors to breath at its rhythm.
The sound component of the installation is something like a heartbeat, but slower, providing a mediation on positive intention.

Phase two • introduction of polar ice imagery: We will visually combine the rhythm of the polar ice with the rhythm of the green dot. We will re-frame polar ice movement in the context of breath and heartbeat.

Arctic sea ice has a rhythm, seasonally growing in winter, shrinking in summer. Normally, polar ice is quite removed from our perception, both in time and distance. The sea ice that comes and goes in the Arctic is too far away for more than a handful of people to ever experience. Even those lucky enough to experience the pole cannot experience the rhythm of the ice, coming and going through the seasons due to the slowness of its cycle. We will present the seasonality of the ice for general consumption on the MIT campus and the broader public.

We are putting the ice rhythm into the context of the rhythms of the human scale, the pulses that govern our lives. We all know that the issue confronting our generation is not lack of information, it's lack of ability to process that information that we receive. Our goal is to encourage learning and find ways that bring global cycles into a frame of reference that humans can understand.

The green dot seeks to bring the essential life rhythms of the planet into a scale that makes sense to human beings. We seek to create a connection between humans and the rhythms of our global context.

Since 2004 the green dot has been installed 24 times, including in 2007 in City Park, New Orleans and at Burning Man, in 2008 at Santa Cruz Museum of art & history and at the ATA Gallery, San Francisco, in 2009 at Sculpturefest in Woodstock, VT and in 2011 at AVA Gallery, Lebanon, NH.

How will you use the grant to make your idea happen?

We have full support of relevant MIT authorities who work in the building and the campus police/facilities. We will rent and buy projectors & projector stands that will allow us to focus several small projectors onto one spot, creating a more intense, saturated image than we could with only one projector.

Last year, because of a mild winter, we failed to have any days of snow for our project. So our art piece to explore aspects of a warming world was itself thwarted by the warming world. Or our inability to do this art piece became the art piece itself. Our plan this year is to again aim to project our images onto snow. Our backup plan if we fail in the weather is to rent a truck and pickup snow from several nearby icerinks which have agreed to the project.

We will be using a low, looped heartbeat like soundtrack with the animated image, and we have the needed sound equipment.

Why and to whom is your project important?

We seek to create a place of solace in the snow, a moment of contemplation, and warm and welcoming means of thinking about nature and ice on a cold night. What happens in the Arctic is so far from our daily experience, but this art piece relates the concept of breath, which we all know, to the natural cycle of ice growth and melting in the Arctic. Now that this cycle is being changed by human activity, making this moment of time all the more important.

PROPOSAL: Apple in Hand

Dave Madan & theMOVE

Describe your project.

Our project is a combination of event + experiment + meal. In 2013, we aim to offer tasty, fresh fruit to 800+ students across the urban communities of Metro Boston. theMOVE organizes reflective farm workdays for diverse urban groups, mostly youth. We do this to connect folks hands-on with fresh food, and with the labor and land that sustain us, to build voices for a more accountable food system. We focus primarily on engaging low income communities, people of color, and youth—the groups least likely to have access to food, nutrition, and sustainability education opportunities otherwise. Our workdays are powerful: this year, 90% of participants said it would cause them to care more about how food choices impact their health (67% said significantly so), and 79% said it would lead them to change up their lifestyle (47% cited multiple changes). To build on this impact, we've found that when we're able to offer participants a local, natural, tasty snack, it offers a key bridge for students in their relationship-building with fresh food on the farm. Likewise, in 2013 we hope to push forward our "Apple in Hand" initiative, putting a piece of fresh, tasty, local fruit into the hands of each of the 800–1000 students we engage across our 80 events. To record and share the experiences that result, we'll post throughout the year to an online album of photos and stories, to inspire our broader community towards similar connections.

How will you use the grant to make your idea happen?

We are requesting funding to purchase a piece of fresh fruit from local farmers for 800–1000 students.


Why and to whom is your project important?

The "Apple in Hand" initiative is an important means in shaping food choices among the young urban folks we work with, whose diets are often based more on circumstance than conscious connection. Eating is a cultural act, built off of surrounding behaviors, ideas, and access. We in the Feast Mass community have had our own opportunities to build relationships with healthy, hearty food, which has brought us here together in celebration. theMOVE aims to share such opportunities more broadly, encouraging participants to become conscious agents of our bodies and communities. Tasting real food—a crunchy apple, a juicy peach, a bitter blueberry—is key to that process.

PROPOSAL: The Bank Attack: Canvassing through Music & Art

Antonio Ennis

Describe your project.

“The Bank Attack” project was born in the belly of CLVU’s weekly BTA meetings in 2011 by Antonio Ennis, a professional recording artist since 1985. Empowered and inspired by City Life’s method of fighting back against social injustice and in particular the big banks, he wrote a rally-song to galvanize thousands of underwater homeowners for the biggest protest in history against Bank of America headquarters in Boston, MA on Sept. 30, 2011 for which he was a national spokesperson for over 3,500 demonstrators. The song has since become an anthem and due to the popularity, a hi-def music video with social inspiration was filmed (Directed by Antonio Ennis & John Hulsey, Executive Produced by Antonio Ennis for The BuyBack Initiative/Music Group). The full-length album (16 songs, 10 skits & 2 bonus tracks) features politically charged lyrics intensified over melodic beats w/ live action-skits and BTA family testimony from the movement.

The project is aimed at Canvassing through Music & Art to sustain grassroots base building while amplifying the City Life mission statement and providing model shares, support and entertainment to other organizations and individuals. Utilizing true-to-life audio & visuals, the project will broadcast information & resources to families, especially those whose door is too far out of reach for us to knock on. Additionally, the project is profanity-free, rendering it presentable to all ages.

Our goal is to help families stay in their homes by initiating the buyback of foreclosed properties from banks or investors then selling them back to underwater homeowners at the current real-value. The BuyBack Initiative/Music Group strives to be a non-profit loan fund/financial intermediary, essentially a homeowner-friendly alternative to Boston Community Capital (BCC).
Most of the Board Members will be comprised of affected homeowners & tenants.
The multimedia gathered will be presented through the project website, www.TheBankAttack.org, as well as collaborative organization sites, cdbaby.com, facebook, twitter, youtube, national concerts and community events featuring live performances, video projection and BTA testimonials.

This project provides a unique opportunity to implement a base building hip-hop component of social awareness that empowers the youth. Recent studies show growth in national youth organizing. The goal, publicity, distribution and culture of the project will provide a plethora of opportunities for collaborative organizations.

How will you use the grant to make your idea happen?

We would use the grant money to attain the services of a capable publicist. Publicists typically take a monthly fee for serving a client. A publicist writes press releases, organizes campaigns and performs other public relations functions. We’ll engage a publicist that will generate and manage publicity, inaugurate press coverage on behalf of the project and serve as the bridge between client, the public and media outlets for newspapers, television stations, magazines and social forums.

Why and to whom is your project important?

The target audience for the publicist is the well-over 15 million families struggling with underwater mortgages, unemployment, health-care, education, gender equality and all of the social and economic injustice in America. While a small number of non-profit organizations do help families, there's still room for more. For instance, the AG settlement with the top 5 big banks will only make 1 in 40 families struggling with underwater mortgages eligible for assistance, leaving 39 families searching for support. This project is important because housing, education and healthcare is a human right not a privilege.

PROPOSAL: Community Foodways: A Multimedia Celebration of Growing, Cooking, and Eating in the Dudley Neighborhood

Allison Daminger

Describe your project.

The current local food movement is so often associated with young, white entrepreneurs in their 20s and 30s. At the same time, media coverage of low-income communities (often communities of color) tends to focus on the “obesity crisis” of these neighborhoods, highlighting the loss of cooking skills and dependency on fast food of many neighborhood residents. The Dudley neighborhood, however, flies in the face of this misconception: countless residents find creative ways to source healthy food—traveling to Haymarket to stock up on veggies, growing their own in urban farm-gardens, or purchasing from trucks that bring beans and corn directly down from New Hampshire farms—and to share both food and culinary knowledge with their neighbors. From extra vegetables grown in gardens and freely distributed, to the overripe fruit from corner markets that is handed over to seniors on limited incomes, the sharing of food creates and helps to cement reciprocal relationships central to this community.

Our multi-media project is a collaborative effort by staff at The Food Project and the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative. With the Dudley Greenhouse as our epicenter, we aim to document and celebrate Dudley’s underground foodways by alerting folks inside and outside the community to the incredible culinary and horticultural talent of local residents. Already we have taken a number of portraits of neighborhood growers and cooks that will form the base of the project. We will supplement these photos with formal and informal interviews, time spent with residents in their gardens and kitchens, and additional photos and video footage. The final product could take any number of forms: an exhibit in a public space such as the Haley House Café, a documentary to be screened at community events, or even a community cookbook complete with photos, stories, and recipes. We aim to let the message determine the medium, so that the creativity and compassion of Dudley’s cooks, gardeners, and food entrepreneurs shines through.

How will you use the grant?

The Feast Mass grant money would be used primarily to purchase equipment. In order to record high-quality interviews and conversations (good enough to potentially include in an exhibit or film), we will need to invest in recording equipment and microphones. We have access to a camera but will need lighting equipment and a tripod. Any leftover grant money would go toward the cost of producing the final product: renting a space, printing high-quality photos, and/or publicity.

Why and to whom is your project important?

The “food movement” often gets a bad rap for its supposed elitism. Community Foodways aims to show that there’s more to the story by bringing well-deserved (positive) attention to the gardeners, cooks, canners, and entrepreneurs of the Dudley neighborhood. We hope that community elders will be recognized as incredible sources of wisdom, and that younger growers and chefs will be celebrated for the innovative work they’re doing to build on Dudley’s rich history. Finally, we hope that those currently disconnected from the land and from their food will be inspired to forge new connections—thus only enhancing this neighborhood’s vibrancy.