Washington DC & Baltimore: Art & Social Action Projects

Washington, DC 2014: “Felipe’s Story pt. 3” is Joel’s most recent in a series of murals on the art center BloomBars. The piece features a boy in Rio de Janeiro’s City of God community who Joel has known since 2009, when he began doing community-based art projects with youth. The imagery reflects the struggle that boys in many marginalized neighborhoods go through as they grow up, surrounded by negative and positive influences.

Washington DC and nearby Baltimore have been host to many of Joel’s projects, as DC was his home base for five years. In collaboration with institutions like the Latin American Youth Center, the Boys & Girls Center and Ballou High School, Joel has led many workshops and mural art projects with local youth. He also organized initiatives with vulnerable populations in the DC area who wished to tell their stories to the wider community through public art. They were interviewed by Joel and chose the imagery and content of the mural designs. The “Global Refugee Mural” gave three refugees from Iraq, Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo the opportunity to share their experiences and educate the community about the important issues in their homelands. Joel partnered with the International Refugee Committee (IRC) on the project, which was featured on the global news network Al-Jazeera English. (Funded by the Montgomery County Council on the Arts.) “Currulao y Desplazamiento: The Afro-Colombian Mural” on DC’s busy U Street was designed in collaboration with seven of Joel’s friends in the Afro-Colombian community who have asylum in the US due to the armed conflict in the Pacific Coast region of Colombia. It aimed to celebrate their vibrant culture and educate the public about an important, but mostly invisible, human tragedy. (funded by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities) “A Survivor’s Journey: The Domestic Violence Awareness Mural” featured the participation of three local survivors of domestic violence who were being assisted by the organization DASH (District Alliance for Safe Housing). The artwork explored this issue in order to bring it to the public’s attention, and highlighted the inspiring stories of women who had overcome great obstacles in order to rebuild their lives. These three projects were inaugurated by large public events that featured musical and dance performances, refreshments and speeches by members of the groups who participated in the designs, who shared their experiences with the public. (funded through a Kickstarter campaign)

Washington DC 2012: Features the Hindu deity Ganesha, the “Remover of Obstacles,” and deals with people’s life obstacles that they create themselves by failing to release their personal baggage. Corner of 1st St and U St. NW.

Washington DC 2012: detail from “Ganesha”

“The Global Refugee Mural” tells the stories of three local refugees, who worked with Joel on the design. Joel was inspired to do this project after working with refugees at a refugee resettlement center run by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), who he partnered with for this project. The mural deals with the human rights abuses in each of the three refugees’ homelands as well as celebrating the culture and traditions there. Funded by the Montgomery County Council on the Arts.

detail of the telephone pole: “Global Refugee Mural”

detail: “Global Refugee Mural”

Joel’s students at the Boys & Girls Club’s Teen Arts & Performance (TAP) Camp show off their work created in workshops.

Joel’s students at the Boys & Girls Club’s Teen Arts & Performance (TAP) Camp show off their work created in workshops.

Baltimore 2012: Painted on the outside wall of Montego Bay Jamaican Restaurant

Baltimore, Maryland, 2012: Art and poetry project with incarcerated youth. With Class Acts Art

“Currulao y Desplazamiento: The Afro-Colombian Mural” on U Street in DC, designed by local Afro-Colombians who have asylum in the US due to the armed conflict on the Pacific Coast of Colombia. Funded by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities

Due to the drug-fueled violence between right-wing paramilitaries, left-wing guerrillas and the government, many Afro-Colombians are displaced from the homelands and end up in urban slums. Colombia has one of the highest rates of displaced people in the world.

Currulao is an important music and dance form from the Pacific Coast of Colombia

Many rural Colombians are violently displaced from their land due to big business’ desire to plant the lucrative African palm, which produces palm oil.

Life on the river…

detail of Afro-Colombian Mural: The US assistance program, called Plan Colombia, sprays coca fields, destroying many other crops and harming the health and livelihoods of rural Colombians.

The Afro-Colombian Mural inaugural event in DC: this dance troupe performs currulao, the folkloric music and dance from the Pacific Coast of Colombia.

The Afro-Colombian Mural inaugural event in DC: this musician demonstrates the marimba, the central instrument to Currulao music of Colombia’s Pacific coast.

Afro-Colombian activist Marino Cordoba speaks at the inaugural event, telling of his experience being shot by right-wing paramilitary members in Colombia, after which he came to US as a political asylee.

Kids in DC stop by to participate in the mural project.

Students from the Latin American Youth Center in DC work on a public mosaic and painting project.

Mosaic and aerosol project with youth as part of the Murals DC summer youth employment project.

Mosaic and aerosol youth projectmural project

This piece, “A Survivor’s Journey,” was designed based on the life stories of survivors of domestic violence who lived in a halfway house run by the District Alliance for Safe Housing.

“A Survivor’s Journey” inaugural event: this survivor of domestic violence bravely tells her story in public for the first time.

“A Survivor’s Journey” inaugural event: the all-female percussion group Batala plays for the crowd.

“The Boat People” on canvas was created for the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants as part of a poster series.

Baltimore 2011: At three stories high and 1,400 square feet, “Love in Search of a Word” looms over the community of Greenmount, known as the Arts District and home to the historic Greenmount Cemetery. This mural, created with acrylic and spray paint, is a celebration of artists of all stripes: the singer, actor, musician, painter, filmmaker, photographer, writer, dancer and performance artist. None of the artists featured are famous; instead, the mural pays homage to the majority of artists who struggle in obscurity, facing hardships in order to express themselves creatively and achieve their dreams, who play a vital role in the fabric of all human societies. The imagery is specific to Greenmount, as the trademark row houses are prominently featured and the “North Ave/ Greenmount Ave” street signs announce a major intersection familiar to all residents. The cemetery is also highlighted, including headstones that have the names of artists buried there, right across the street from the mural. In the center of the painting the shape of a huge bird soars overhead, filled with the faces people of all ages, races, genders, and personalities, demonstrating the diversity of the Greenmount community and of Baltimore in general. One of the most unique aspects of this mural is its perspective; you observe the scene as though lying on the ground, looking up at buildings, trees and people looming over you from all sides in a distorted way, some appearing upside down or sideways. This perspective was influenced by the work of Canadian photographer Brent Townshend, who creates amazing perspectives with his series “Looking Up” (check out his work at http://www.tc.com). It is worth approaching the mural for a closer inspection, as the artwork is intensely detailed by a wild collage of ancient Aztec hieroglyphics, chaotic abstract splashes and drips, stencil art, graffiti-influenced spray paint techniques and African tribal patterns, among many other surprises. The title, “Love in Search of a Word,” is taken from a poem by Sidney Lanier, a musician and poet buried in Greenmount Cemetery. Commissioned by the Baltimore Office on Promotion and the Arts (BOPA)

Baltimore 2011: detail of “Love in Search of a Word” in Baltimore

Baltimore 2011: detail of “Love in Search of a Word” in Baltimore

Having fun with art in Ballou High School in Southeast DC. This after-school project was funded by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities

A piece created with students at Ballou High School.

The “Godfather of Go-Go,” the late local legend of DC Chuck Brown, featured in a mural created by students in Joel’s after-school program.

“The Voyage of the St. Louis” on canvas was created for the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants as part of a poster series.

Created with Joel’s students at the Boys & Girls Club

Baltimore, Maryland, 2012: Art and poetry project with incarcerated youth. With Class Acts Art

Baltimore, Maryland, 2012: Art and poetry project with incarcerated youth. With Class Acts Art

All images copyright © 2003- 2013 Joel Bergner