Juvenile Justice and Youth Advocacy Program Initiatives

• JJYA Initiatives | 
• SPARK the Truth | 
• Directions to Wheelock | 
• Boston Youth Course | 
• May 2 | 
• Ubuntu Home

Wheelock College’s Juvenile Justice and Youth Advocacy (JJYA) Program is engaging in community collaboration on a number of projects that are inspired by the theme of ubuntu and utilize the medium of art. Wheelock faculty, Dr. Ann Tobey, and students in the program, have engaged local youth in community-based organizations to create collaborative works of art for the upcoming Youth Transforming Violence: Ubuntu in the Works gallery exhibit at Wheelock (April 22-26), the Violence Transformed exhibit and performances at the Massachusetts State House (April 28-May 2) and an exhibit in May at Cloud Place in Boston.

The projects were introduced to the various community groups by Wheelock faculty and students as part of the JJYA program. We approached the individual organizations and introduced the idea of the upcoming exhibits, the power of collaborative art making to transform violence, and the theme of ubuntu. We worked closely with the youth and their mentors to explain ubuntu, and to facilitate discussions about ubuntu and collaborative art making.

The following are some of the creative projects that are currently underway:

Youth Transforming Violence: Ubuntu in the Works
This exhibit is a sequel to last years exhibit “Life worth remembering: Images from four street memorials,” which included photographs and digital art depicting street memorials erected for youth slain in Boston in the fall of 2006. Last year’s exhibit represented a “statement of the problem” in which urban youth are losing their lives to street violence, individuals and communities are traumatized, and our society has failed to respond compassionately and effectively.   
This year we move from problem to solution. This exhibit will include works created by local teens who have been asked to use the theme of ubuntu and the medium of art to “imagine alternatives to violence.” Works will be co-curated by students and faculty in the Juvenile Justice and Youth Advocacy (JJYA) Program at Wheelock College and by the Teen Curatorial Program at the Cloud Foundation. 

Violence Transformed: An Exhibition of Visual and Performing Arts
In its second year, Violence Transformed is a collaborative effort to mark and celebrate the power of art, artists, and art-making to confront, challenge and mediate violence. The Wind Song project is just one of many projects and performances underway for Violence Transformed. Wheelock student, Tina Jordan, is working with Barbara Hamm, director of the Victims of Violence Program in Cambridge, MA. They are recruiting multiple youth groups to create individual peace flags that will be strung together to create an installation piece.

Cloud Foundation:
The Cloud Foundation, located at Cloud Place, 647 Boylston St. in Boston, is a non-profit organization devoted to teens and the arts. Ann Tobey and Wheelock student LaToya Salvant are working with the teen Visual Art Curators and their coordinator, Susannah Lawrence, to create a call for artwork. The call will consider ubuntu and the Violence Transformed theme of “art as a means of imagining alternatives.” The group will work together to consider the artwork that is received in response to the call for art, and to design shows for the Wheelock gallery exhibit, the Violence Transformed exhibit at the State House and a final exhibit at Cloud Place.

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church:
St. Stephen’s, located at 419 Shawmut Ave, in Boston’s South End neighborhood, runs thriving after school programs for elementary and middle school children and the St. Stephen’s Place of Opportunity for Teens program. Youth in the teen program, in conjunction with Wheelock students Julia MacMahon, Lucy Mock and SPARK members are collaborating to create a photo mosaic that will use photos of youth and of ubuntu happening in their communities. The group is also working on a sculpture that represents their ideas about what ubuntu means to them and it’s importance for the world.

Milton Public High School:
Art teacher Karen Hughes, in conjunction with Wheelock student Larrice Welcome, introduced the idea of ubuntu and collaborative art making to her art class at Milton High School. The students worked together to develop the theme and to decide how they would depict this theme artistically. They have completed a fantastic four-panel painting and are discussing how to share this with the rest of the school.

Hear Us Make Artistic Noise “HUMAN”:
HUMAN is a grant-funded project that brings art to girls held in local Department of Youth Services detention units. In conjunction with Ann Tobey and Wheelock student Heather Perez, HUMAN’s artist and educator, Kate Jellinghaus, introduced the theme of ubuntu into her projects with the girls. They have been very inspired by the theme and are preparing a variety of pieces for the upcoming exhibits: A letter writing project, a wall piece and installation composed of drawings and sculpture entitled “Ubuntu Building Community,” and a short film that focuses on hair braiding. Kate and the girls would eventually like to make the wall piece into a quilt—they are hoping to find someone to commission this project.