Generations
2017 | San Francisco CA
PROJECT PARTNERS:
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San Francisco State University, Department of Health Education
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Health Equity Institute, Urban Strategies
Exploring the role of art as a vehicle for community building and healing in HOPE SF communities
BACKGROUND
In 2015 the HOPE SF housing initiative, the San Francisco Department of Public Health, San Francisco State University’s Department of Health Education and Health Equity Institute, and Brett Cook conducted an assessment to explore the role of art as a vehicle for community building and healing in HOPE SF communities. In this assessment, residents and program staff voiced concerns that as the HOPE SF communities underwent physical transformation there could be an erasure of their history and identity.
Community residents from Alice Griffith Apartments expressed that historical recognition was needed to solidify their sense of belonging after the rebuilding would change much of what they had known. Residents wanted their community’s history acknowledged and saw public art as a way to document and validate community identity as the physical environment was transformed.
This project aimed to celebrate the Alice Griffith community, honor the folks who lived there, and help ensure that the public housing residents were not “erased” as the new mixed income community was put in place.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Generations was a public art process at Alice Griffith that engaged and amplified the voices and stories of community members. Through the creation of public artworks, the project made visible the history of the place and the people who had lived there for decades. Over several months, Cook worked with community partners and residents to collect stories and perspectives, along with photographs, portraits, and ephemera, and co-created public artworks to be installed at the new Alice Griffith site.
