The program Portraits, People and Places connects young people to visual art, while at the same time interacting with First Responders, the subjects of the portraits. Photo courtesy Leslie MacWeeneyOn the last day of this month, at an afternoon informational session hosted by the popular Lower Mills eatery ester’s, politicians, first responders, philanthropists, members of the press, and concerned members of the public will celebrate the success of a 2015 Dorchester visual arts initiative and brainstorm about ways to guarantee that it will expand in the future.
Last summer, “Portraits, People and Places: Opening Doors, A New Beginning” paired each of six urban teens with a first responder. The six-week project, during which the youth painted life-sized portraits of these frontline safety personnel by using donated wooden doors instead of canvases, is itself opening new portals of communication between groups that the national media have characterized as “adversarial.” The tremendously positive response to this pilot program is fueling the effort to ensure its continued growth.
On Sun., Jan. 31, from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., attendees will learn how they can support the program. State Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry will open the exhibit of the students’ work, reviewing the history and future of the initiative.
The format is the brainchild of Leslie MacWeeney, the widely admired visual arts practitioner and educator. Last summer she collaborated with Dudley Square police officers and area adolescents on the most recent edition of “Portraits, People and Places” (P,P & P), a program she developed at Dot Art (Dorchester Community Center for the Visual Arts). In spring 2016 she will be teaching P, P&P for the seventeenth year.
MacWeeney and her board have just incorporated Living Art as a non-profit and expect that by February 2016 it will receive 501 (c) (3) status. In addition to perpetuating P, P & P, Living Art, Inc. is intended “to forge connections between Dorchester/Roxbury youth and adults, to build community through visual art, to demonstrate how the visual arts impact careers of all kinds, and to provide high-quality art education.”
This spring Living Art plans to follow the lauded 2015 format with a new group of students in collaboration with the Boston Police Department. Sessions will be held in a wonderfully lit studio space at the newly renovated Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building in Dudley Square. This program needs a grant of $10,000 for art materials and minimum staffing costs, including stipends for an instructor and an assistant.
Last summer, after six weeks of painting portrait six hours a day, five days a week, P, P & P students needed more time to finish their doors. The Dudley library could only host for six weeks, so the Dudley police station, A2B, generously opened a conference room for the class’s extra week. Having spent so much time with their “model” police officers, a move into the station seemed natural. The students said it felt “calmer” in the police station. Safe.
The intimacy of painting live subjects promoted empathy and trust, encouraging students to see themselves in the roles of the First Responders. Over the summer, students developed relationships with the responders, who in turn provided mentoring and extracurricular education. One officer took students to Six Flags, and another offered a student in need a modest loan, to be paid back in small interest-free installments. An EMT did a presentation on nutrition that sparked a lengthy conversation about eating habits; some small changes began to appear in the lunches that students brought to class.
Far more than a “how to” arts class, P, P & P fosters personal growth and teaches life strategies, including values clarification, building self-esteem, work ethics and expectations. An exhibition at City Hall of work by spring 2016 participants is already booked for April.
