This is the second in a series on how the arts can build resilience in a community. If you'd like to strategize any of these, please reach out. This project, in particular, was one of the top in my career and still has lasting impact on many levels.
Between 2015 and 2017 I had the incredible privilege to serve as co-Director in one of the installations in a Bloomberg Philanthropies-funded $1 million dollar public art project, featuring the work of Erwin Redl. As co-Directors of the “Video Village” installation, my husband Tim and I had a very limited budget ($50,000) and needed to converted 52 windows in an abandoned public housing project into video displays for community-based, community-created documentary films. The project focused in the Highland neighborhood of Spartanburg, SC.
Here's an overview...
We had hoped we would gather between 5 and 25 resident interviews. By the end of the effort building community trust, and sharing powerful stories of healing -- we were able to engage over 100 residents and 40 community partners. Tim and I created over 2 hours of documentary films and led workshops so the others could learn filmmaking techniques and share their stories.
One outcome of the work was that, after deep, personal interviews with their neighbors, the Highland Community Association rejected additional high-density public housing and received funding from the City of Spartanburg to create a neighborhood planning commission. In addition, one of the documentaries created with the residents and police officers has become a required tool for new officer training in the City of Spartanburg, as part of community-based policing practices.
We use many of the documentary videos from the project in the Resilient Schools initiative across many counties where the stories of strength and resilience are shown in classrooms and are utilized as part of the 5 Minute Mindfulness curriculum which has been used as a classroom mindfulness and social-emotional tool for the last 6 years.
The equipment used to create Video Village was repurposed for a computer lab and code school training facility in the local community center. That lab is still in operation (called “Innovation Village”).
Finally, as an additional outcome of this project, we saw evidence that asking residents to serve as their own experts increases collaboration and engagement. Over 100 residents of Highland participated in the project and it inspired our Way to Wellville to engage in a “listening campaign” to learn more from residents. Our team was asked to present at several national conferences as a result of this work alongside leaders from Way to Wellville – Spartanburg.
The Bloomberg Public Art program across the US is currently being evaluated by researchers at Brookings Institution. The Video Village project was evaluated by Dr. Michelle Covington, researcher in public safety at University South Carolina Upstate.
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