This summer, teens in the Seward area are working with Articulture to tie into an international photo project started by French photographer JR. The project is called Inside Out and it encourages groups of individuals to take action about social issues they are concerned and passionate about.
We are working with a group of teens and artist educators to do a local photo project. The title and description of the social issue they are focusing on is:
The Quiet Faces of Hunger
There is an abundance of food in America, yet so many struggle to stay fed. Both hungry adults and children go unnoticed in our affluent society, their faces masked within our culture. Though there are numerous programs to help those in need, many people fall through the cracks. Our goal, through this hunger portrait project, is to engage the Minneapolis community to take action by offering resources and take a step forward in eliminating hunger.
We are in the process of lining up connections with three area food shelves to create a relationship with, in order to take photos at and ultimately bring donations to. We are also potentially working with a community garden group.
We want our target audience to be the local south Minneapolis area to engage the community in taking action to help the hungry. This is a temporary art installation where we will be putting up large portraits of people, using wheat paste, who use food shelves or help at food shelves. We are interested in doing several smaller installations or one large one depending on options. Each portrait is 36″ x 53″ and we will be making 30 of them. Our plan it to document the process and create an event(s) to further engage the community around this issue.
If you need to get a better sense of what our local project is all about and want to know more about the international project, go to the Inside Out Project:
http://www.insideoutproject.net/en
If you want to really get a good feel for it I highly recommend watching JR’s amazing TED TALK:
https://www.ted.com/talks/jr_s_ted_prize_wish_use_art_to_turn_the_world_inside_out
Currently, the project needs interested businesses that are willing to display some or all of the portraits on the facade of their building and/or storefront. Supporting this project would shed light on the social issue hunger in affluent societies, and hopefully be a catalyst for a dialogue for solutions regarding the issue. Please get involved by contacting Elizabeth Greenbaum at egreenbaum@articulture.org.
