A Massachusetts Museum Is Taking a New Approach to Wall Text: Revealing Early American Portrait Sitters With Ties to Slavery

In 2013, Detroit filed for bankruptcy because of a poor economy. While the city’s industrial businesses have floundered, the art scene has thrived, bringing in new sources of income through art galleries and investments in contemporary art. This new art scene is one factor to measure Detroit’s recovery and prospects of growth for the future.

The Live6 area is home to a robust cultural and creative community. And with an increase in development, there's opportunity for artists and institutions to tap into that energy to spur growth.

In the face of terror and war, art and history needed protection. A group of professors, activists, archeologists, and historians created a network to preserve and protect art and history in Syria.

There is a racial disparity in science, the black population is extremely underrepresented and due to historically terrible treatment of black individuals by science they are very reluctant to engage in research. Therefore, researchers are now starting to directly target black and other underrepresented groups to try to spur involvement.

In order to address dynamics that may keep a child from talking about traumatic experiences, a Mexico City-based child psychologist developed Antennas. Antennas is an animated character controlled and voiced by the psychologist who, as an alien, can ask basic questions about people and relationships. This approach has been effective for psychologists and use of Antennas has spread to the judicial system as well.

In Portland, gentrification and development have driven out African American culture and families from a neighborhood that used to feel like home. When residents found out Dawson Park, their last gathering area, would be redeveloped, they were worried about destruction of the park. Instead, African Americans have come together to preserve the park as a safe cultural space for their community members.

Equal Voice Network looked at low voter turnout rates in El Paso and decided that just registering voters wasn’t enough. The coalition developed a creative way to increase education and engagement in local issues: a game. Votería is a play off of Lotería, a traditional Mexican pastime similar to bingo, with updated images and text explaining key current issues and political figures.

The project No estamos todas (“We are not all here”) was founded to call attention to rising rate of female homicide victims in Mexico as well as to commemorate victim’s lives. Artists are commissioned to make a woman’s portrait—often incorporating aspects of their lives—and these portraits are shared on the project’s Instagram account. Since November of 2017, over 80 portraits have been made and shared.

The diverse Frogtown neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota is filled with immigrants from all over the world. However, warning signs of gentrification are hinting at rising home prices that threaten the affordability of the area for its long-time residents. To ensure the neighborhood’s vision for the future is clear and accessible, local artists transformed the small area plan into a graphic novel that is helping residents have a voice in their community’s future.

The organization Working Artists and the Greater Economy (WAGE) works with non-profit arts organizations to establish fair payment for artists. WAGE established a fee structure for 15 categories of artistic labor with a sliding scale based on the organization’s total operating expenses. Organizations that adhere to the fee structure are WAGE ‘certified.’