As an artist and cultural activist for the city of St. Louis, I believe in using art as a creative solution for stimulating and developing communities. I have been an advocate for artists and the art community in St. Louis for the past four years. I have achieved this through my involvement as a nonprofit leader and through my personal art practice. Working with the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts and my friend, Theaster, on a project inspired by the works of Gordon Matta-Clark has been a truly amazing experience and opportunity.

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Trinity and Sheridan talk about what they want in their neighborhood; Holy Trinity students go outside to map their neighborhood; and Theaster Gates explains what “the Master Plan” is about.

In our clip on “We Demand,” Juan mentioned “the Master Plan,” which is basically the overarching project for Urban Expression. Through this “think tank,” Holy Trinity students have discussed the state of Hyde Park and what it means for a neighborhood to be healthy. In his meetings with the kids, Theaster has repeated the phrase “quality of life,” emphasizing that it’s more than just how many candy stores are available that makes for a nurturing environment. Drawing on his background in Urban Planning, he not only asked the students to think conceptually but to actually map out what their neighborhood looks like and what they hope for its future. You’ll be able to see elements of the kids’ insights on May 15, at the Transformation Project Walk.

From photography instructor, Stewart Halperin:

Towards the end of a long hike around the Hyde Park area, with the group rather exhausted, I had each of the kids in the group do unrestricted portraits of all the others in their class. No formal instructions were given and adults were included. The results give the diverse vision each student has towards those around him-, and of course, the posing or non-posing attitude of those they photograph adds to each image. Here is a small sample of the results of this exercise.

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Photographer Stewart Halperin has been working closely with the students of Holy Trinity.  Here he writes about the beginning of the project:

The project started on the 6th of February (sessions at Holy Trinity) and since then I have had six photo sessions with the kids. The initial sessions were to get them comfortable with both me and the camera.  I made a decision early on that the technical aspects were not a priority, what was important was unleashing their own vision and allowing them to open their eyes wide through the lens of the camera.  After a brief session on how to use the camera,  we were immediately off to work and within two sessions with my budding photographers I was overwhelmed with the images that they captured. Read More

[Janie Ibur is the creative writing instructor for this project.]

I’m reflecting back on my last two sessions with the kids.  Two meetings ago I collaborated with Juan who had the kids map their neighborhood.  We began with a discussion of maps, keys and legends.  Then Juan handed out an outline of Hyde Park.  Not all the kids live in Hyde Park, but all attend Holy Trinity Elementary School, which is in the neighborhood.  They mapped out their interpretations of the area and what they would like to see, including playground equipment and parks.  When it came time to write, they began with some acrostic poems on the word map.  Then we discussed personification and I used a riddle as an illustration of this, one I’ve used countless times, even with some of these kids.  Surprisingly, every one of the kids wrote personifications that were riddles, which has never happened before when I used it as an illustration.  The kids were completely focused and really enjoyed this perspective with wonderful results. Read More