{"id":13720,"date":"2018-08-17T16:40:07","date_gmt":"2018-08-17T16:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/?p=13720"},"modified":"2023-07-14T15:16:36","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T22:16:36","slug":"community-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2018\/08\/17\/community-art","title":{"rendered":"The art of empathy in homeless housing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Corinne McKisson with art created by residents and UW Bothell students. \/ Marc Studer photos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Douglas Esser
\nNew artworks on the walls of Ronald Commons are especially meaningful to residents of the affordable housing complex adjacent to the Ronald United Methodist Church in Shoreline, Washington. The residents, many of whom were once homeless, created the art themselves with 糖心vlog视频 students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the 60-unit Ronald Commons<\/a> opened in February 2017, managers with the Compass Housing Alliance contacted the community engagement office<\/a> at UW Bothell. It arranged for the collaboration with Gary Carpenter, an artist and lecturer in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences<\/a>, to help fill the blank walls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was just the perfect match from my perspective,\u201d said Carpenter, who teaches Creative Activism: Inspiring Social Change through the Arts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carpenter incorporated the projects in his fall and winter courses in Discovery Core, a sequence for first-year students at the University. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, the beauty of these projects is finding the common ground,\u201d Carpenter said. \u201cI\u2019m trying to build relationships, lessen divides between groups that may initially seem different but have far more in common than either group would have initially imagined.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Finger<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Selam<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Resident Selamawite Woldemariam looks at artwork in hallway outside her door that includes photo of her and her daughter Ruhama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They used two kinds of media: poster paper to color and aluminum foil processed to look like a low-relief metal casting. Carpenter\u2019s fall class visited Ronald Commons twice to create colorful posters. His winter class visited four times to create the low-relief plaques. 糖心vlog视频 40 residents, ranging in age from children to the elderly, participated in lively interactions. A few residents and Ronald Commons staff members visited UW Bothell and participated in the class on campus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some residents and students were uncertain about what to expect, Carpenter said. They eased into the art collaborations with discussions about hobbies, languages, religion, education and the type of community where they would like to belong. Photo: Art now on the walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Framed<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can navigate a difficult conversation through artwork. It drops a lot of barriers,\u201d Carpenter said. \u201cWe can talk about a heated social issue or prejudice or privilege, and if you do it through art you gain more traction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the posters, they traced overlapping outlines of their hands and colored them to reflect their preferred community: bright, intense colors for an energized social life or cooler, more subdued colors for a peaceful existence. Photo: Detail of one poster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Detail<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For the plaques, students and residents discussed qualities they want to contribute to their community. They picked an animal totem as a representation in their design. Carpenter also took photos of the do-it-yourself artists, which became part of the art<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInitial discomfort and uncertainty from both groups melted away as the collaborations unfolded,\u201d Carpenter said. \u201cBeyond my goal of helping others realize the importance of the arts in our lives personally and socially, I believe that if I can increase students\u2019 empathy, even in the smallest way, that I\u2019ve really achieved something. I believe that empathy is the key to creating change in society, and arts are the perfect vehicle.\u201d Photo: Detail of one plaque<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Detail<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The artworks cost Ronald Commons nothing, said Corinne McKisson, program manager. Carpenter did all of the framing himself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just an amazing blend of social justice, community awareness and accessible art,\u201d McKisson said. \u201cHe\u2019s been inspiring, bringing these diverse audiences together and shepherding the project.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKisson said residents enjoy seeing their work, saying, \u201cI remember that. I did that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One student, Sana Iqbal, said engaging in the community helped her see ideas in real life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is one thing to talk about issues and people in your community and another to see them firsthand,\u201d Iqbal said. \u201cSitting down with residents was eye-opening to the kind of struggles people can face when hit by life unexpectedly.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student-resident partnerships worked surprisingly well, said Katie Lightner, case manager at Compass Housing Alliance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photo<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt first I was concerned that students might just talk to each other and not the residents, but this didn\u2019t happen. They treated the residents as equals and involved them in every phase of creating the artwork,\u201d Lightner said. \u201cMany of the students had a lot to offer during group discussions, and they were very thoughtful about the art that they were creating.\u201d Photo courtesy of Gary Carpenter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resulting artworks, Lightner said, are \u201cbeautiful to look at and a true representation of a community coming together.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New artworks on the walls of Ronald Commons are especially meaningful to residents of the 60-unit housing development, many of whom were once homeless. 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