Community Art: Stay Wild

Stay Wild is a community art project that allows children to engage with the content of my work through stencils and street art. Instead of delivering a traditional lecture on Zoom I prefer that the community explore the role arts play in creative placemaking, have the tactile experience of handling “cut paper” in the form of stencils, and engage with the topic of animals in a creative manner. Stay Wild provides an opportunity for public interaction with my work in a safe, socially distant manner.

Community art contributes to resilience during destabilizing times. These projects generate deep insight by going beyond rational-cognitive ways of knowing and providing new ways of understanding people's real lived experiences. They offer ways to "give back" and contribute to a community, potentially igniting a spark among community members to engage in further action and contribute to their community's resilience.

Stay Wild engages children and families in creating a temporal piece of community art, in learning about Anthropocene Blues’ subject matter, and in making work together as a family. Families will be invited to create images of endangered species on their sidewalk or driveway and upload a video of the creation and finished project to the Museum of Nebraska Art’s social media pages. The video component will invite younger participants to contribute what they learned about the subject matter, including exploration of their understanding through a song or poem.