Learning Lab Community Artist Training Program
PROJECT OVERVIEW
http://www.courtneyadairjohnson.com
Julia Whitney Brown
http://www.juliawhitneybrown.com
Elizabeth Williams
http://www.newhatprojects.com
Xavier Payne
http://www.xpayne.com
LeXander Bryant
http://www.orgnzdvisuals.com
Robbie Lynn Hunsinger
http://wordpress.robbiehunsinger.com
In 2016, Metro Arts launched an artist development program called Learning Lab. This program, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and co-designed with the Center for Performance and Civic Practice and the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville, helped artists deepen their knowledge around equitable, community-based work and created capacity for neighborhood transformation through the arts. In addition to the training component of the program, Learning Lab served as a public art and creative placemaking incubator that resulted in dozens of artist-led community events, residencies and the creation of temporary public art projects.
The artist projects covered a wide range of community concerns such as affordable housing and displacement, the preservation of cultural traditions within immigrant communities and projects that promoted black excellence past and present. Following the training program, selected artists were awarded up to $9,500 to implement their projects and were required to work with a community partner. The partners served as ambassadors and subject matter experts throughout the projects.
The residencies funded through the Learning Lab include M-SPAR (McGruder Social Practice Artist Residency) developed by reuse artist Courtney Adair Johnson and The Pottery Studio at Old School Farm developed by ceramic artist and disability advocate Julia Whitney Brown. M-SPAR provided emerging artists and curators paid exhibition opportunities and high quality art classes for neighborhood youth led by artists of color. The Pottery Studio at Old School Farm provided job training and employment opportunities for adults with intellectual disabilities.
Temporary public art projects included Don’t Tread on Me!, an anti-gentrification billboard campaign; Nashville’s Kurdish Gardens, a planting guide and activation project featuring medicinal remedies from the Kurdish community; Guns & Butter: The Art of Public Manipulation, a guerrilla-style street art campaign promoting self-love; and Constellation, an interactive video installation that transforms participants into musical composers.