|
I believe that bringing diverse groups of people together to listen to each other’s stories is an end in itself. Life stories have the power to dispel fear, challenge one’s values and inspire compassion. There is urgency in the impulse to tell these particular stories, considering that one out of every 30 Santa Monicans is homeless on any given day, and that many more are food-insecure. “Food insecurity” is defined as existing “whenever the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or the ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways is limited or uncertain.” |
|
“My collaborators and I want our work to be judged as much for its artistic achievement as for its social impact.”
Courtesy of Who’s Hungry, 2011.
Art & Urgency
Dan Froot
I believe that bringing diverse groups of people together to listen to each other’s stories is an end in itself. Life stories have the power to dispel fear, challenge one’s values and inspire compassion. There is urgency in the impulse to tell these particular stories, considering that one out of every 30 Santa Monicans is homeless on any given day and that many more are food-insecure.
“Food insecurity” is defined as existing “whenever the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or the ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways is limited or uncertain.” Even at its most local, food insecurity is the nexus of so many systematic social predicaments: health-care, education, the economy, trade policies, and more. I want to stop seeing hunger as an issue, and begin understanding, from the perspective of the street, forces that come between the world’s abundance and so many of the people around me.
I also believe that the way a story is told is as important as the story itself. My collaborators and I want our work to be judged as much for its artistic achievement as for its social impact. Our intent is to bear witness to our neighbors’ otherwise untold stories, rather than to compose broad statements about “hunger in America.”
Everything about this project is small: these are local narratives, embodied in small-scale handcrafted worlds. Skilled puppeteers animate handheld objects; a band of three musicians sets the tone for each play. Our audiences too will be small: each performance will accommodate a maximum of 90 people. This intimate gathering of economically diverse audiences from neighborhoods surrounding the shows’ venues is
one of the project’s main purposes. Foregoing the anonymity of larger groups, our audiences will huddle together for optimal viewing of the miniature objects.
Immediately afterward they will be invited to participate in facilitated discussions between the artists and community narrators, as well as representatives from local social service agencies and fellow audience members.
* National Research Council: Food Insecurity and Hunger in the United States: An Assessment of the Measure; 2006, The National Academies Press.
This article was published by NY Arts Magazine, 2011. NY Arts Magazine is published by Abraham Lubelski. Sponsored by Broadway Gallery, NYC and World Art Media.
