Community Mapping Project
Students organized by Jonathan Santos are involved with an experimental mapping project, Outline, that explores relationships between the artist and the city. The student participants have sought inspiration from the act of strolling and exploring urban spaces. While the project seeks to inspire through the encounters and observations of urban environments, Outline also attempts to locate a specific place through art and social engagement. The work presented in the exhibitions documents individual artist experiences and interpretations of the quotidian geography and narrative of Chinatown, a community which culturally serves not only Boston but the greater New England area. Outline was recently exhibited at the Wong/Yee Gallery, an art gallery unit of the Chinese Progressive Association. The organization is devoted to partnering artists of the Boston area and grass-root community organizing groups to develop and show art that can record and communicate people’s lives and conditions in the community, and to use art as a creative tool to envision possibilities for social advancement. “I feel as though the most rewarding aspect of the project was the ability to have my work presented in the area that came as the inspiration of my work,” remarked student Carson Halstead. “The whole experience was pretty cool, I had never been involved in such a project before and had my work displayed in such a public gallery.”