Mel Chin's Fundred Project

Project Partner: Artists in Context
Other Partners: Spontaneous Celebrations

Participating Artists: Mel Chin, Rafik Neme

Fundred is a collaborative public art project started by artist Mel Chin to raise funds and awareness to restore lead-contaminated soil in New Orleans. The goal of Chin's Fundred project is to collect over 3 million of these fabulous works of art, for a cumulative total of 300,000,000 "Fundred Dollars." Fundreds were collected in the spring of 2010 from pick-up sites across the country, and will be exchanged at Congress for $300,000,000, the funds required to make safe every lead-contaminated property in New Orleans.

Urbano is proud to have been a Boston-area Fundred collection site, in collaboration with Artists in Context, MassArt, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Institute of Contemporary Art. During 2009-2010 Urbano's teen students and local friends made 800 Fundred Dollar Bills - original, hand-drawn interpretations of the US $100 bill.

During Spontaneous Celebrations' 2010 annual Wake Up The Earth Festival an estimated 12,000 community members from all over Boston joined Urbano's teens and instructors in Jamaica Plain's Stony Brook Park to make Fundreds and enjoy art, food, and performances. The Fundred Project's armored truck drove through Jamaica Plain in the Festival parade, while back in Urbano's gallery Columbian artist Rafik Neme exhibited his Money Laundering drawing and print series.

Learn more about Mel Chin's Fundred Project at www.fundred.org