Over the past couple years, I have been thinking about leveraging art as a tool to create awareness and action on critical issues facing our communities. Homeless is a particularly sensitive issue in the Bay Area as housing costs continue to rise and the number of homeless in our community continues to grow.
Last October, I began carving a piece that I envision being the centerpiece and draw into a multimedia exhibition on homelessness. The effort was inspired by a desire to better understand “Who are the homeless in our community?”. I constantly pass individuals at street corners holding signs asking for help and continue with no real understanding of who they are or how they came into this situation. I want this exhibition to share voices and images of the homeless in Oakland in a format that is insightful, illuminating and engaging, reaching a broad audience to increase public awareness of the people and issues underlying homelessness.
I am in a very preliminary stage of developing an understanding of the issues facing the homeless community, which as one might guess is critical to undertaking this endeavor. Collaboration is key! A critical element of this effort is to partner with homeless individuals, the City of Oakland, community shelters and other programs/individuals serving this population, to assure that the photos and voice content are representative of this population and the exhibition leaves a lasting and positive impression on individuals seeing the exhibit.
I am on a steep learning curve AND just beginning the marble sculpture below. More to follow….
