THE PHILOSOPHY OF CHANGE
Urbano fosters a philosophy of artistic expansiveness, supporting works that blur boundaries between art and everyday life. It is our belief that artistic creation can be a vehicle for personal transformation, community cohesion, and social change. We promote the model of the artist as citizen, actively engaged in conversations with our surrounding community through the lens of contemporary art. We support youth to become civically engaged artists as they are challenged to tackle current social issues in their community that directly affect their lives.
Urbano offers an opportunity to develop an appreciation of socially engaged art while challenging youth to express and practice through art a strengthened identity as active, powerful, and involved citizens. Through artistic collaboration, participating teens and adults are challenged to create projects that take place both within the boundaries of our exhibition space and in the community beyond the walls of the studio.
Urbano’s community is made up of artists of all ages engaged in dialogue with their audience through participatory works of art and performance. Urbano’s corps of youth artists learn to make connections between creative thinking, self discovery, and citizenship. Our goal is to promote civic engagement through works of art that address the major issues of our times.
Resources
- Fred Wilson on historical re-contextualization | http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/22/living/artist-fred-wilson/
- On beauty and ugliness| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEPTJKLSpRo
- James Luna on the objectification of the other | http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/12/12/james-luna-provokes-and-entertains-his-multimedia-performance-art-146244
- “Take a Picture with a Real Indian” | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAa69BVwPYg
- Jimmie Durham on deconstruction of Western hegemony |https://www.artsy.net/artist/jimmie-durham
- Shilpa Gupta on Transnational boundaries| http://shilpagupta.com/
- Liliana Angulo on race and Afro-Colombian identity |http://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/en/liliana-angulo-bio
- Pepón Osorio on immigrant pop culture and symbolic identity| https://americanart.si.edu/education/corazon/artistas_04.cfm
- Renée Green on Kawara| http://openspace.sfmoma.org/2010/07/75-reasons-renee-green/
- Shirin Neshat on exhile| https://www.ted.com/talks/shirin_neshat_art_in_exile?language=en
- Cindy Sherman on historical portraiture| https://www.artsy.net/artist/cindy-sherman
- Oscar Muñoz on Remains and Disappearances|http://cielvariablearchives.org/en/component/content/article/113-traces-disparitions-oeuvre-oscar-munoz.html
- Kerry James Marshall on Black Identity| http://www.jackshainman.com/artists/kerryjames-marshall/
- Bruce Nauman on the Body| http://www.artnet.com/artists/bruce-nauman/2
- The Laundromat Project | Mapping Soulville
- The Laundromat Project | Projects Page
- Faheem Majeed | http://www.faheemmajeed.com/#!projects/ck0q
- 96 Acres is a series of community-engaged, site-responsive art projects that address the impact of the Cook County Jail on Chicago’s West Side. They aim to generate alternative narratives reflecting on power, and to present creative projects that reflect the community’s vision of transformation.
- Theatrum Mundi | http://theatrum-mundi.org/activities/960/
- Matthew Mazzotta | http://matthewmazzotta.com/home.html
- Center for Urban Pedagogy | http://welcometocup.org/
- Basurama: Lima Autoparque de Atracciones | (in english: http://basurama.org/en/projects/rus-lima-autoparque-de-atracciones/ )
- Minerva Cuevas | http://www.irational.org/minerva/resume.html
- Project Row Houses
- Thomas Hirschhorn: Gramsci Monument | Art 21
- David Hammons
- Immigrant Movement International | Tania Bruguera
- El Art Cart | Edgar Reyes
Links to Lectures, Discussions and Interviews
- Magally Miranda and Kyle Lane-McKinley on Artwashing, or Between Social Practice and Social Reproduction | http://www.abladeofgrass.org/fertile-ground/artwashing-social-practice-social-reproduction/
- Jess Chang on Fight Over American Identity| http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/watch/fight-over-american-identity—culture-wars-350959683519
- Art21- Identity| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goQyCdwx-C0
- Representing identity in Art (Panel) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1k0s8eCv7Y
- Maya Astvatsaturova- Different ways of representation| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0n6Ync0nz8
- Ali Al Saloom on Cultural Identity| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxssL3yo0E4
- Jen Holladay on Multiculturalism | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5rKgDOs33U
- Race: The Power of an Illusion | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UZS8Wb4S5k
- Eduardo Bonilla Silva- Racism in Post-Racial America| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7QPlnef6zI
- Cornel West- Race Matters- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRZcfEToN-A
- Teddy Cruz: How Architectural Innovations Migrate Across Borders
- Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Theaster Gates in Conversation with Philip Bither at Walker Art Center
- Theaster Gates: How to revive a neighborhood: with imagination, beauty and art | TED Talk
- Faheem Majeed on his exhibition at MCA Chicago / failure, catalysts for change | http://www2.mcachicago.org/exhibition/chicago-works-faheem-majeed/
Links to Publications and Texts
- W.E.B. Dubois- The Souls of Black Folk| http://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/give-me-liberty4/docs/WEBDuBois-Souls_of_Black_Folk-1903.pdf
- Gloria Anzaldua- Borderland Identity| http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic750550.files/Anzaldua%20-%20Borderlands%20La%20frontera.pdf
- Erving Goffman-Social Dramaturgy and Presentation of Self|http://monoskop.org/images/1/19/Goffman_Erving_The_Presentation_of_Self_in_Everyday_Life.pdf
- Jennifer Gonzalez- Subject to display| https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/subject-display
- Art & Identity Politics| http://afteridentity.muhka.be/
- Ethnic Labels| https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/ethnic-labels-latino-lives
- Marginalization| https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/out-there
- Lucy Lippard- Art in multicultural America| http://thenewpress.com/books/mixed-blessings
- Art and Social Practice – Selection of Texts
- FIELD: A Journal of Socially Engaged Criticism
- Alternate ROOTS Arts and Activism Tools – including Principles of Community Engagement, Resources for Social Change, Building Arts and Community Partners work kit, and more
- Living Classroom and Open Field: An Interview with Marc Bamuthi Joseph
- Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011 by Nato Thompson | on Google Books
- How Do People Feel About the Gramsci Monument, One Year Later? by Whitney Kimball for Art F City | Article includes discussions and interviews with people connected with Thomas Hirschorn’s Gramsci Monument, a temporary public art project in the Bronx’s Forest Houses. Worth reading the comments as well for extensive commentary from a teaching artist involved with the project.
Other Resources
https://moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/investigating-identity/intersecting-identities
Gentrification in Mission, Kai Interview